ATLANTA – Legislative Democrats and social services advocates have long complained that Georgia doesn’t spend enough money to meet the educational, health-care, and public-safety needs of a growing population.
But there’s something different about the latest fiscal numbers that prompted the left-leaning Georgia Budget and Policy Institute (GBPI) to release a 15-page report Oct. 31 calling for the state to loosen its purse strings.
The state was sitting on $16 billion in unspent funds at the end of the last fiscal year in June, including $11 billion in undesignated reserves.
“It’s uncharted territory,” said Danny Kanso, the GBPI’s fiscal analyst and the report’s author. “I don’t think it serves anyone to have $11 billion sitting there in an account with no plan for it.”
While news of that much tax money not going toward any purpose is sure to stir debate during the 2024 General Assembly session beginning in January, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and GOP legislative leaders are sticking with their determination to maintain fiscal discipline.
“The governor looks forward to working closely with the General Assembly on priorities for how the state’s one-time funds will be utilized in a strategically responsible way that does not commit short-term revenue gains to long-term obligations,” Garrison Douglas, a spokesman for Kemp, said back in July as initial word of a third straight year of large budget surpluses was surfacing.
“Everyone’s foaming at the mouth over $16 billion,” state Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, said Nov. 2. “They forget that’s only six months of revenue for the state. You have a rough time and that money will burn very quickly.”
The GBPI report attributes the huge pile of unspent dollars to “repeated underestimations of annual state revenue collections” that resulted in the state bringing in far more tax money than was being spent for three consecutive years. On the other side of the equation, state spending was failing to keep pace with inflation and population growth, according to the report.
“There are several unique areas in which surplus funds present a rare opportunity to address deficits built up over time and projected needs in the future – all while strengthening Georgia’s economy, supporting job creation, and benefiting families statewide,” the report stated.
Specifically, the report suggests the state use undesignated reserves to:
create a $7.5 billion, self-sustaining Child Care Trust Fund to promote access to affordable, quality child care.
modernize Georgia’s school bus fleet by making long-deferred investments to help cash-strapped local school districts maintain and replace aging buses.
provide bonuses to state employees to help agencies providing vital services reduce turnover.
Kanso said the Child Care Trust Fund could pay for itself by being managed in the same way the state handles its teacher and employee retirement system funds. The balance of the fund would compound each year at a rate higher than the annual payout, the report said.
Kanso said one-third of the school buses plying Georgia highways are more than 15 years old because state funding for the buses has been cut significantly in recent years. His report recommends spending $850 million to $2.7 billion to modernize the school bus fleet.
“If we don’t address that, it’s going to be more and more costs for local school districts,” he said. “The state can help local school districts catch their breath.”
Kemp and the General Assembly already have provided targeted pay raises to employees of state agencies suffering high turnover rates, including $11,000 increases for state law enforcement officers during the last two years and $2,000 raises this year for other state workers, teachers, and university system employees. Altogether, teacher salaries have gone up $5,000 since Kemp took office in 2019.
Kanso’s report pointed to annual turnover rates of 25% in state agencies Georgians rely on for vital services as evidence the state still needs to do more.
The governor and legislature also have used surplus funds to provide state income tax rebates to Georgians during the last two years, while Kemp has suspended the state sales tax on gasoline to curb rising prices at the pump.
Kanso said those tax cuts are just scratching the surface of the huge pile of undesignated reserves the state could use to beef up investments in ongoing needs.
But Tillery said the General Assembly’s Republican majorities aren’t about to suddenly change course on spending.
“It’s not the state’s money. It’s taxpayers’ money,” he said. “Individuals who think the session is going to be a money-raining-from-heaven free-for-all are mistaken.”
ATLANTA – The state has awarded a $3 million grant to Chatham County to help acquire and preserve Green Island, Georgia Rep. Jesse Petrea, R-Savannah, announced Wednesday.
Petrea has been working for the last two years with the county, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Savannah lawyer and philanthropist J. Curtis Lewis III. The Lewis family owns the 450-acre island in the southern end of Chatham County.
“As a native coastal Georgian, I can think of no better environmental success than to preserve for future generations more sensitive land along our beautiful coast,” Petrea said during a news conference at the state Capitol.
“We have had multiple successes in land preservation in recent years. I am proud to add Green Island to the list of accomplishments.”
The state grant is coming through the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Act, a program funded through a state tax on purchases of sporting goods ratified by Georgia voters as a constitutional amendment in 2018.
Petrea said negotiations are underway with the county and Lewis on a final price for the property. He would not disclose what the price tag might be, citing the ongoing talks.
“We have agreement on what it’s going to take to do it,” he said. “We have a clear path forward.”
Petrea said plans call for Green Island to become a county park where families can boat, picnic, and hike. There is no road access to the island.
“We’ve got to have places for our young people to be outdoors. We learned that during the pandemic,” he said. “We see it being very actively used.”
Petrea said the park could be open before the end of this year.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Supreme Court Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling verifying the validity of a voter referendum in Camden County last March that rejected plans to build a commercial spaceport.
In the referendum, Camden voters soundly defeated the county’s plan to purchase land for the proposed Spaceport Camden. The county, which had gone to probate court before the referendum to try to block it, appealed to the state Supreme Court after the vote.
In oral arguments before the justices last October, lawyers for Camden County argued the Georgia Constitution’s Home Rule Paragraph does not allow local voters to veto a county commission’s resolution after the fact.
Lawyers for the project’s opponents, registered voters who gathered petition signatures to force the referendum, countered that the vote was valid under a plain reading of Home Rule.
In Tuesday’s unanimous ruling, the state Supreme Court agreed with Spaceport Camden’s opponents, declaring that the county had no legal authority to try to block the referendum.
“The Home Rule Paragraph makes no provision authorizing a county, or any other party, to file a caveat, or any other form of opposition, to an electors’ petition,” Justice Carla Wong McMillian wrote for the court.
“With respect to challenging an election, the statute governing contests to elections … limits the right to contest elections to ‘electors.’ Because the county is not an elector, it would not be authorized to contest the outcome of the special election.”
Camden County’s political leaders have sought to build a spaceport for years, claiming it would bring jobs and economic development to southeast Georgia. The county has spent $12 million pursuing the project.
Opponents say firing small rockets from Spaceport Camden over populated areas of Little Cumberland Island, just off the coast, would pose a major safety risk.
The National Park Service – which operates the Cumberland Island National Seashore – and environmental organizations worried about the spaceport’s impact on a fragile coastal ecosystem have also expressed reservations about the project.
Tuesday’s ruling didn’t bring to an end to the litigation surrounding Spaceport Camden. A federal lawsuit challenging the Federal Aviation Administration’s issuance of a launch permit in December 2021 remains pending.
Opponents of Spaceport Camden also have filed a lawsuit in Camden County Court seeking the release of public records concerning the project.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – A state senator and state representative-elect have joined forces to form the General Assembly’s first Hispanic caucus.
Sen. Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, who was elected Senate majority caucus chairman last week, and Rep.-elect Rey Martinez, R-Loganville, announced the creation of the Georgia Hispanic Caucus Thursday.
The caucus is open to legislators from both parties and both legislative chambers, with a goal of delivering strong representation to Georgia’s more than 1 million Hispanic residents.
Hispanics make up more than 10% of the state’s population. They are the third largest and second-fastest growing ethnic group in Georgia.
“Over the last decade, Georgia has seen immense growth within the Hispanic community,” Anavitarte said. “In the General Assembly … Georgians elected a record number of Hispanic officials to serve them in the state House and Senate this November.
“With the creation of our state’s first-ever Hispanic Caucus, my Republican colleagues and I aim not only to deliver strong representation to one of our state’s most important communities – but to send a clear message that Hispanic values will be at the front and center of conversations under the Gold Dome for years to come.”
“Hispanics are not single-issue voters who care solely about immigration,” Martinez added. “We are parents, business-owners, and hardworking Georgians who ultimately want the same freedoms and opportunities that have enabled generations of Americans to achieve prosperity and success. These are the values – and the individuals – that the Hispanic Caucus will work tirelessly to defend.”
Anavitarte was elected to the General Assembly two years ago. He represents the 31st Senate District, which includes all of Polk County and most of Paulding County.
Martinez was elected this month to an open seat in the 111th House District with more than 65% of the vote. The district includes portions of Gwinnett and Walton counties.
The presence of Hispanic lawmakers in the General Assembly goes back two decades. Rep. Pedro “Pete” Marin, D-Duluth, was elected in 2002. Other Hispanic legislators to serve under the Gold Dome include former Sen. Sam Zamarripa, D-Atlanta, and former Rep. David Casas, R-Lilburn.
The Georgia Hispanic Caucus will formally convene when the 2023 session of the General Assembly begins in January.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Democrat Jen Jordan and Republican Chris Carr. (Official Senate office and Attorney General office photos)
ATLANTA — Georgia’s three candidates for the state’s top lawyer job sparred over abortion, guns, crime and even oil pipelines during a Tuesday debate in Atlanta.
Much of the debate focused on how each would approach the state’s controversial “heartbeat” abortion law, which outlaws most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy.
Democratic state Sen. and lawyer Jen Jordan of Atlanta has been a vocal opponent of the law. She has previously indicated she would not enforce it if elected attorney general.
During Tuesday’s debate, Jordan said she believes the Georgia abortion law violates the state Constitution.
“I think specifically what we have to look to is the right of privacy under Georgia’s state Constitution, which was first identified in 1905,” she said.
“I have stood up for the women of this state, fighting to protect human trafficking victims, fighting to protect victims of gangs, fighting for those that are being taken advantage of from an elder abuse standpoint ” incumbent Republican Attorney General Chris Carr said in response.
The Georgia abortion law does not allow a pregnant woman to be prosecuted, Carr said, and Jordan’s claim is a scare tactic.
“If anyone, it’s the [medical] providers that are provided for in this law,” he said. “It would be up to the district attorneys to make that determination.”
Jordan hit back, pointing out that the Georgia abortion law specifies that an embryo is a person and this new legal definition could allow prosecution of pregnant women.
“When we think about the homicide statute, the manslaughter statute … the child abuse statute, all of that would actually apply … to a pregnant woman if she were to harm the embryo,” Jordan said. “It’s ridiculous to say that this law does not let a prosecutor go after a woman because it’s clear that it does.”
The candidates also sparred over crime. Carr pointed to his track record in prosecuting human trafficking and gang crimes. He also said Jordan missed many key votes – including on laws about crime – while she was in the state legislature.
Jordan said crime has increased over 60% in the state and that Carr had done nothing to address the issue.
She said she is a supporter of the Second Amendment but believes in gun control measures such as red-flag and safe-storage laws.
“As the next attorney general, I’m going to work with local police departments and agencies to get illegal guns off the streets and out of violent street gangs,” Jordan vowed.
Carr also decried the role of federal overreach and touted his support for free enterprise and competition in Georgia.
“Number one, I believe in the power of the free enterprise system,” he said. “I believe in the rule of law.”
Carr pointed to his decision to join other states in a lawsuit over an executive order issued by President Joe Biden to stop construction on the Keystone Pipeline.
“I’ve tried to protect lives, livelihoods and liberty over the past six years,” Carr said. “In fighting for the Constitution, I’m fighting for American jobs, lower gas prices, and less reliance on evil regimes that hate us.”
In response, Jordan accused Carr of focusing more on filing lawsuits against the federal government than prosecuting crime.
“People in this state do not feel safe,” she said. “He’s actually sued the Biden administration more than he’s gone after gangs or sex traffickers.”
Libertarian Martin Cowen also weighed in, taking Carr’s position against federal overreach but agreeing with Jordan’s stance on protecting abortion rights.
Cowen, like Jordan and Carr, graduated from the University of Georgia School of Law.
“The next attorney general for the state of Georgia shall be a graduate of the University of Georgia law school,” Cowen said. “Go Dawgs!”
Early voting in Georgia continues through Nov. 4, the last Friday before Election Day Nov. 8.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
