by Dave Williams | Jan 15, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia will seek federal approval to extend Medicaid coverage to some low-income parents and legal guardians of children through the age of six, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Wednesday.
Georgia Pathways, the limited Medicaid expansion the state launched in 2023, would cover families with young children in households with incomes at or below 100% of the federal poverty level, Kemp said during a news conference at the state Capitol.
“Since Pathways launched, my administration has worked with our legislative partners, subject experts, and stakeholders to evaluate its progress and identify opportunities to streamline and make the program more accessible,” he said.
“With today’s announcement, we are not only keeping families healthy … during a critical time of development, but also making an important investment in our state’s future.”
Currently, Medicaid covers medical care for pregnant women and new mothers up to 12 months after they have given birth. The new proposal would extend coverage past that one-year post-partum period and provide previously unavailable coverage to eligible new fathers upon their child’s birth.
Since its July 2023 launch, Georgia Pathways has provided Medicaid coverage to 8,385 Georgians. Critics have argued thousands more could be covered if the state fully expanded Medicaid, which Kemp, previous Republican governors, and GOP legislative leaders have consistently resisted as too expensive.
by Dave Williams | Jan 15, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A nonprofit voter registration organization founded by two-time Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has agreed to pay the largest fine ever assessed by the Georgia Ethics Commission.
The commission’s board voted Wednesday to approve a consent order calling for New Georgia Project and a separate fundraising arm to pay $300,000 for failing to disclose $4.2 million in contributions and $3.2 million in spending during the 2018 election cycle on behalf of Abrams’ unsuccessful bid for governor.
New Georgia Project’s activities included voter canvassing, campaign literature, social media engagement, and operations of field offices. Failing to disclose the contributions and spending listed in the consent order violated the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Act.
“While this fine is significant in scale, it is also appropriate given the scope of which state law was violated in this case,” David Emadi, the commission’s executive secretary, told Politico Wednesday.
“This represents the largest and most significant instance of an organization illegally influencing our statewide elections in Georgia that we have ever discovered, and I believe this sends a clear message to both the public and potential bad actors moving forward that we will hold you accountable.”
New Georgia Project also admitted failing to report nearly $650,000 in donations and almost $175,000 in expenditures related to a 2019 transit referendum in Gwinnett County. Voters defeated the referendum, which called for Gwinnett to join MARTA.
Abrams, a Democrat, lost the 2018 governor’s race to Republican Brian Kemp, and was defeated again by Kemp in 2022.
by Dave Williams | Jan 15, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Ten communities across Georgia have been selected to host a curated traveling exhibition of works from the State Art Collection during the next 18 months, the Georgia Council for the Arts announced Wednesday.
The communities earned a stop on the tour through a competitive application process that focused on small towns and rural areas. Each will receive a grant to support the exhibit and accompanying community activities.
The exhibition “Reimagine: Contemporary Georgia Artists” is designed to increase awareness of the various communities and spur tourism.
At each of the selected locations, works from local and regional artists will be exhibited along with 20 featured works from the state collection.
“This is more than just an art exhibit,” said Tina Lilly, executive director of the Georgia Council for the Arts. ” ‘Reimagine’ shows how the arts can enhance multigenerational engagement and community development. By intentionally engaging with artists, communities can find creative solutions to problems, creating more vibrant places where people want to live and visit.”
A recent study found that nonprofit arts and culture in Georgia deliver an annual economic impact of at least $1.27 billion and support nearly 20,000 jobs.
Here is the schedule for the traveling exhibition:
Euharlee, Feb. 3-March 14
Greenville, March 24-May 2
Waycross, May 12-June 20
Moultrie, June 30-Aug. 8
Cuthbert, Aug. 18-Sept. 26
Douglas, Oct. 6-Nov. 14
McRae-Helena, Jan. 12-Feb. 20, 2026
Sylvania, March 2-April 10, 2026
Buckhead (Morgan County), April 20-May 29, 2026
Dawsonville, June 8-July 17, 2026
Works in the exhibition will include paintings, photographs, and drawings, as well as crafts such as quilting and lacemaking.
by Dave Williams | Jan 14, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The University System of Georgia (USG) has reduced the financial burden of attending college significantly in recent years, the system’s chief financial officer said Tuesday.
The state’s share of the cost fell as low as 47% in the aftermath of the Great Recession more than a decade ago, Tracey Cook told members of the university system Board of Regents. Students were forced to pick up the other 53%, Cook said.
The economic recovery since then has allowed the state to increase its share of the cost to 60%, while students now are paying 40% of the tab, she said.
Besides restoring cuts to the state’s student funding formula imposed during the pandemic, the General Assembly also has eliminated the special institutional fees the system began charging students during the Great Recession and restored full funding of HOPE scholarships, Cook said.
“We know going to college costs a lot,” system Chancellor Sonny Perdue added. “But the USG has done a good job in making it as affordable as possible.”
Cook said the federal government also played a role in boosting the system’s funding by allocating $1.6 billion during the pandemic, 40% of which went directly to students.
The findings she presented Tuesday came from an audit the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts released last month.
by Dave Williams | Jan 14, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp asked business leaders from across Georgia Tuesday to help him get tort reform, his top priority for the 2025 General Assembly session, across the finish line.
“Every local or regional chamber (of commerce) in this room has a critical role to play this session to make sure we finally get tort reform done,” Kemp told an audience of Georgia business and political leaders during the Eggs and Issues breakfast at the Georgia World Congress Center, an annual event at the start of each legislative session sponsored by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
“I’m asking you to engage earlier and harder than you ever have. Talk to your members, get them involved, and give them the tools necessary to be influential with their House and Senate delegation.”
Tort reform has been a goal of Georgia Republicans and their allies in the business community for decades. But the most significant reform legislation to make it through the General Assembly came 20 years ago in a bill that imposed a $350,000 cap on non-economic damage awards in medical malpractice and product liability lawsuits.
The cap immediately came under fire in the form of lawsuits challenging its constitutionality. The Georgia Supreme Court sided with the plaintiffs and threw out the cap in 2010.
Calls for tort reform have come like clockwork virtually every year since, with Republican lawmakers and conservative policy groups warning that huge jury verdicts from frivolous lawsuits are hurting job creation by forcing companies to close their doors. Legislative Democrats and their allies in the trial lawyers’ lobby have warned tort reform threatens to rob Georgians hurt by medical malpractice or defective products of their day in court.
Lawmakers passed a bill last year aimed at laying the groundwork for significant tort reform in 2025. The measure directed the state insurance department to gather data on legal trends affecting insurance premiums and prepare a report.
“That data has now been gathered and, following multiple roundtable conversations on the impact our current legal environment is having on our economic growth and health-care needs, I will soon be unveiling a robust legislative package that will bring balance to our proceedings and parity with our neighbors,” Kemp said Tuesday.
The governor also announced at Tuesday’s breakfast a plan to pour an additional $780 million into infrastructure improvements on top of the $250 million set aside in this year’s budget. Of the new funds, $530 million would go toward road building, and $250 million would be spent on water and sewer projects.
Kemp will share more details on his spending proposals on Thursday when he delivers his annual State of the State message to a joint session of the Georgia House and Senate.
