by Dave Williams | Dec 9, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Supporters of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) plan to add about 22,000 acres to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge asked the agency Monday to consider a larger expansion to permanently prevent mining there.
The FWS unveiled the planned expansion in October, which would allow the agency to negotiate with owners of the land who are willing to either sell their property to the federal government or establish a conservation easement.
The expansion would not directly affect the Georgia Environmental Protection Division’s decision whether to grant Alabama-based Twin Pines Mineral a permit to open a titanium mine along Trail Ridge adjacent to the Okefenokee Swamp’s eastern rim.
However, the mine’s opponents have seized upon the expansion as an opportunity to stop the mine, much as the DuPont Chemical Co. abandoned plans for a mine there during the 1990s and donated 6,700 acres of its land to the refuge.
“With this FWS process, we can return to the only strategy that will guarantee the swamp’s permanent protection: land acquisition,” Josh Marks, president of Georgians for the Okefenokee, said Monday night during an online public hearing on the expansion plan.
Marks and other speakers urged the FWS to think beyond the 22,000-acre expansion and include other land adjacent to the refuge owned by Rayonier Inc. and Toledo Manufacturing.
“Thousands of acres are still vulnerable,” said Christian Hunt, senior policy analyst for the nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife. “Mining threatens to destroy all the qualities the refuge was created to protect.”
Scientific research has shown a mine would threaten water levels inside the largest blackwater swamp in North America, increase the risk of wildfires, harm wildlife, and release toxic contaminants into nearby surface and groundwater.
Twin Pines officials say the project would not harm the Okefenokee.
Opposition to the proposed mine has galvanized Georgians across the state. More than 90 members of the state House of Representatives have sponsored legislation aimed at protecting the Okefenokee from mining, and elected officials representing 20 local governments have passed resolutions opposing the mine.
Michael Lusk, who manages the refuge for the FWS, said agency officials have discussed expanding the refuge to include all of Trail Ridge but are sticking with the proposed 22,000-acre expansion for now.
Lusk said the FWS does not intend to seize any private property through the government’s power of eminent domain, something it hasn’t done since the 1970s.
“Nothing in this proposal compels anyone to sell their land,” he said. “If they’re a willing seller, we can talk to them about selling it or setting up a conservation easement.”
by Dave Williams | Dec 6, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia’s economy will continue growing next year but at a slower rate than in 2024, the dean of the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business said Friday.
The state’s economy is projected to grow by 2.4% in 2025, down from 3.1% this year, Ben Ayers told a packed ballroom of business leaders at the Georgia Aquarium in downtown Atlanta.
However, Georgia will continue to outperform the nation, which economic forecasters project to grow by 1.6% in 2025.
“Because the 2025 economic slowdown is due to a deliberate policy shift and not economic shock or a factor outside our control, we think the slowdown will be gradual and not last long,” Ayers said.
The major driver behind Georgia’s slowdown is the Federal Reserve’s move in 2022 to constrain lending to control inflation. That successfully shrank inflation from 8% in 2022 to 3% this year and a projected 3% in 2025.
As a result of lower inflation, the Fed began to cut interest rates in September.
“We expect additional rate cuts in 2025, and quantitative tightening will end.” Ayers said. “These policy moves, the resilient labor market, and recent economic success will ensure that Georgia’s economy grows throughout 2025 and accelerates in 2026.”
Ayers predicted Georgia’s unemployment rate is poised to increase slightly from 3.7% to 4%, lower than the 4.3% jobless rate expected at the national level. The increase in unemployment will be due to less hiring rather than layoffs, he said.
Charlotte, N.C.-based economist John Silvia, president of Dynamic Economic Strategy LLC, said the economic outlook for 2025 at the national level is cloudy because it remains unclear to what extent President-elect Donald Trump will seek to fulfill his campaign promises.
Republican Trump has pledged further tax cuts in addition to the reductions he steered through Congress during his first term in the White House, aggressive government deregulation, stiff tariffs on imports, and a crackdown on illegal immigrants.
But Silvia said higher tariffs threaten to increase the price of products that can’t be produced in the U.S., which flies in the face of Trump’s promise to cut inflation.
“You simply cannot grow bananas in Michigan,” he said. “You can’t produce coffee or cocoa.”
Silvia said deporting huge numbers of illegal immigrants would threaten American industries that depend on immigrant labor including agriculture – the No. 1 industry in Georgia – manufacturing, and construction.
“We’re not going to get the job done if you tell me all these immigrants are going to have to leave,” he said.
Silvia predicted U.S. inflation isn’t likely to return to the pre-pandemic level of 2%, while interest rates probably will remain at or above 4%.
by Dave Williams | Dec 6, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia elementary, middle- and high-school students showed strong improvements this year on the annual College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI), the state Department of Education (DOE) reported Friday.
The CCRPI includes five components: content mastery, progress, closing gaps, readiness, and – for high schools – the graduation rate.
Elementary-school students posted the highest score in closing gaps, which measures how well schools meet annual improvement targets for student subgroups.
Those in middle school scored highest in readiness, which includes literacy scores, student attendance, pathway completion, and other measures of college and career readiness.
High school students posted a graduation rate of 85.7% for their highest score, up 0.8% from last year.
This year’s scores clearly demonstrated academic improvements across all grade levels, State School Superintendent Richard Woods said.
“While we have seen scores increase on state and national assessments, the CCRPI also encompasses other indicators – from schools’ success at improving the performance of all students to the opportunities offered beyond core subject areas,” he said.
“These scores show advancement across the curriculum, and where there are areas for improvement, the data allow us to make a focused effort toward growth.”
Legislation the General Assembly passed this year requires the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement to calculate a single score for schools and districts and publish them online. The DOE will publish the scores as soon as they are available.
by Dave Williams | Dec 6, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Another Georgian is poised to join the second Trump administration.
President-elect Donald Trump nominated former U.S. Sen. David Perdue Thursday to serve as U.S. ambassador to China.
Before his election to the Senate in 2014, Republican Perdue had significant business experience in the Far East, including China, in his roles as CEO of Dollar General and as a top executive at Reebok and Sara Lee.
“He will be instrumental in implementing my strategy to maintain peace in the region, and a productive working relationship with China’s leaders,” Trump wrote in a social media post.
Democrats were quick to criticize the nomination, accusing Perdue of shipping U.S. jobs overseas during his business career.
“Donald Trump is rewarding yet another ultra-MAGA loyalist who built his fortune by selling out the American people,” said Alex Floyd, rapid response director for the Democratic National Committee. “David Perdue can’t be trusted to stand up for American workers.”
Perdue served one six-year term in the Senate before losing a bid for a second term to current Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga.
In 2022, Trump backed Perdue in an unsuccessful primary challenge to Gov. Brian Kemp. The governor had angered Trump for refusing to aid the latter’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia, where Joe Biden became the first Democrat to carry the state since 1992.
Perdue’s nomination is subject to confirmation by the Senate, where Republicans will be in the majority starting next month.
Trump already has chosen former U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, to head the Veterans Administration and former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., to run the Small Business Administration.
by Dave Williams | Dec 6, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A legislative study committee that has been examining how to guarantee Georgians access to the state’s navigable rivers and streams without violating private property rights is siding with the status quo.
The House Study Committee on Navigable Streams’ final report released this week recommended no changes to the current definition of “navigability” in state law.
The panel also suggested the General Assembly refrain from setting forth which rivers and streams in Georgia are considered navigable and which are not. Legislation introduced into the state House of Representatives during this year’s session that failed to make any headway listed 64 rivers and creeks “presumed to be navigable.”
A debate over a long-assumed right of passage along Georgia waterways – including the right to fish and hunt – began early last year when a property owner on the Yellow Jacket Shoals portion of the Flint River banned fishing there and sued the state to enforce it.
State lawmakers responded with legislation codifying public fishing rights into state law. But that didn’t clear up confusion over which rivers and streams across the state are navigable and, thus, open to fishing and paddling, and which are off limits.
Boating enthusiasts and representatives of the recreational boating industry complained that some property owners along Georgia rivers and streams were preventing them from exercising their right to fish, while property owners told the study committee some boaters were trespassing on their land and leaving trash in their wake.
“The prevailing view is that most landowners and outdoor enthusiasts have no problem with one another, but seek respect from one another,” the committee’s report concluded. “Respect cannot be legislated, but trespass can be legislated, confrontations can be mitigated, and the details of Georgia law can be better communicated.”
Members of the Freedom to Float Coalition, an alliance of outdoor recreation enthusiasts and environmental groups, criticized the committee for not recommending any changes in the laws governing boating rights.
“Maintaining the status quo may lead to the public being excluded from more streams across the state and will have a chilling effect on the state’s robust outdoor recreation economy,” said Rena Peck, executive director of Georgia Rivers.
“The legislature needs to protect boating on the state’s small streams in order to level the playing field with neighboring states where recreational boating in canoes and kayaks is protected on all streams capable of floating recreational watercraft.”
The study committee held several meetings across Georgia between August and November leading to its 11-page report. While the panel made six recommendations, it is unclear whether any will lead to legislation during the 2025 session starting next month.
