by Dave Williams | Feb 19, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate confirmed former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., Wednesday as director of the federal Small Business Administration, the Associated Press reported.
The 52-46 vote will put Loeffler in charge of an agency that oversees federal loans and grants to small businesses and provides counseling to entrepreneurs trying to start one.
Gov. Brian Kemp appointed the wealthy Atlanta businesswoman to the Senate in January 2020 to fill the unexpired term of retired Sen. Johnny Isakson, who died late the following year. Loeffler ran for a full term later in 2020 but lost to Democrat Raphael Warnock in a runoff at the beginning of 2021.
Loeffler is married to Jeff Sprecher, chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange. She also was CEO of Atlanta-based Bakkt, a Bitcoin-focused subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange, and was formerly a co-owner of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream.
A staunch loyalist to President Donald Trump, Loeffler backed his unsuccessful legal efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia that saw Trump lose his bid for a second consecutive term to Democrat Joe Biden. At the time she joined a call for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to resign amid unproven Republican claims of election fraud.
After the 2020 election cycle, Loeffler founded the organization Greater Georgia to recruit Republican candidates and register GOP voters.
Loeffler becomes the second Georgian to join Trump’s second term Cabinet. The Senate recently confirmed former U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, to head the Veterans Administration. Another Georgian, former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, is headed overseas to become U.S. ambassador to China.
by Dave Williams | Feb 19, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Legislation doubling the acreage Georgia farmers can set aside for conservation in exchange for a property tax break easily cleared the state Senate Wednesday.
Senators voted 51-1 in favor of a constitutional amendment that would let Georgia voters decide in a statewide referendum next year whether to let farmers set aside up to 4,000 acres of farmland as conservation property, up from the current limit of 2,000 acres.
Expanding Georgia’s Conservation Use Valuation Assessment (CUVA) program was among the recommendations issued last fall by a Senate study committee that held a series of hearings to consider ways to preserve farmland. Georgia has lost about 2.6 million acres of farmland during the last 50 years to residential and commercial development.
CUVA was launched way back in 1991, Sen. Sam Watson, R-Moultrie, the constitutional amendment’s chief sponsor, said Wednesday on the Senate floor.
“Agriculture has changed,” Watson said. “Our family farms are getting much larger today.”
The Senate also passed a separate “enabling” bill accompanying the constitutional amendment by the same 51-1 margin. The enabling measure sets the voter referendum to coincide with the November 2026 general election and specifies that the measure would take effect on Jan. 1, 2027, if the referendum passes.
Both the constitutional amendment and enabling bill now move to the Georgia House.
by Dave Williams | Feb 19, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – One of the world’s leading battery manufacturers will establish its new Global Headquarters for Research and Development in Atlanta, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Wednesday.
Duracell will invest $56 million in the project, which will create 110 jobs.
The company has a manufacturing facility in LaGrange that has been in operation since 1980 and a logistics and distribution plant in Fairburn that opened in 2020.
“Georgia has set itself apart as a leader in attracting innovative companies with our research institutions, world-class logistics network, and pro-business environment,” Kemp said. “We are excited to welcome Duracell’s R&D headquarters to Atlanta and continue building on this great relationship.”
“We’re excited about the opportunities the move to Atlanta will bring, and we’re confident this new chapter will strengthen our position as a global leader in the industry,” added Liben Hailu, Duracell’s chief technology officer. “This move is a significant milestone for Duracell as we continue to drive innovation in battery technology for many years to come.”
The new headquarters will be adjacent to Georgia Tech’s Midtown Atlanta campus at Science Square, an 18-acre multi-phase development centered on innovation and featuring more than 1.8 million square feet of lab and office space.
The state Department of Economic Development’s Global Commerce team worked on the project in partnership with Invest Atlanta, Select Fulton, the Metro Atlanta Chamber, Georgia Power, and the University System of Georgia.
by Dave Williams | Feb 18, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Tax relief bills targeting victims of Hurricane Helene cleared both chambers of the General Assembly Tuesday.
The Georgia House unanimously passed legislation exempting from taxation disaster relief payments, grant funds, or crop insurance proceeds provided to victims of the massive storm that struck South, Middle, and eastern Georgia last September.
“This storm was bad. It looked like a tornado hit everywhere,” House Majority Whip James Burchett, R-Waycross, chief sponsor of House Bill 223, told his legislative colleagues. “It’s going to take years to recover.”
“I have never seen the destruction this storm did to our state,” added Rep. Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin. “No one has.”
The bill, which passed 173-0 and now heads to the state Senate, also includes $200 million in income tax credits for timber producers who suffered losses from the hurricane and a sales tax exemption on purchases of building materials used to repair or replace greenhouses, poultry sheds, or livestock barns that lay in the storm’s path.
House Democrats used Tuesday’s debate to criticize the Trump administration for denying Gov. Brian Kemp’s request to extend the deadline for Helene victims to apply for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
“We still need the federal government to show up,” said Rep. Derrick Jackson, D-Tyrone. “We need FEMA to be there for Georgia.”
Hatchett, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said Tuesday’s measure is one of a series of bills to be taken up during this legislative session that will offer state assistance to Georgians affected by Helene.
“This is just a small portion of what I think we should be doing for the citizens of our state,” he said.
Along those lines, the Senate unanimously passed legislation Tuesday aimed specifically at timber producers. Senate Bill 52 would temporarily exclude from taxation timber sold or harvested from timberland in Georgia counties declared federal disaster areas after the hurricane.
Sen. Russ Goodman, R-Cogdell, the bill’s chief sponsor, said 37% of the state’s 22 million acres of timberland was damaged or destroyed during the storm.
The tax exemption would cover the fourth quarter of last year and all of this year, Goodman said.
“No one is ever going to be made whole from this,” he said. “It’s just our job to do what we can within the power we have to help our fellow Georgians.”
Senate Bill 52 now moves to the state House of Representatives.
by Dave Williams | Feb 18, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Legislation that would create a statewide music office to promote the industry in Georgia cleared a state House committee Tuesday.
The House Creative Arts & Entertainment Committee approved House Bill 353, which would establish the Georgia Music Office within the state Department of Community Affairs. The measure also would create a Music Ready Communities program to help local governments develop strategies for promoting music as an economic development tool.
The statewide music office would serve as a hub for coordinating efforts to build on Georgia’s rich musical history, Rep. Devan Seabaugh, R-Marietta, told members of the committee before Tuesday’s vote.
“While our talent is undeniable, the infrastructure to support, grow, and brand our music industry is missing a key piece,” he said. “We have an opportunity to cement Georgia’s status as a music powerhouse.”
The committee approved similar legislation two years ago, based on the work of a joint House-Senate study committee that held several hearings in 2022. But the bill never made it to the House floor for a vote.
Another effort in 2023 to renew a music industry tax credit aimed at luring music producers to Georgia also fizzled, and the credit expired at the end of that year.
House Bill 353 is modeled after a statewide music office created by lawmakers in Texas.
“We’ve seen it work in places like Austin, Texas, and Asheville, N.C.,” Seabaugh said. “Georgia has just as much musical heritage and potential if not more. (But) we lack a central office to advocate for, promote, and protect our musicians, venues, and industry professionals.”
Brian Hudson, a lobbyist representing Georgia Music Partners, the state’s leading music industry advocacy organization, said a statewide music office would work to attract studios, production facilities, and performance venues that could keep Georgia graduates with music degrees from moving to Nashville or other music hubs to pursue their careers.
“We have so many great artists from Georgia, but they leave,” he said. “We could potentially keep these students in Georgia.”
Seabaugh said the music office could be launched with about $2.5 million in state funds, including the salary of a director who would head the office.
The bill heads next to the House Rules Committee to schedule a floor vote.
