by Dave Williams | Mar 4, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Representatives of Georgia manufacturers asked state lawmakers Tuesday to pass legislation shielding them from lawsuits brought by victims of contamination from “forever chemicals” – known as PFAS – in their water.
But lawyers representing those victims told members of the House Judiciary Committee companies including carpet and textile manufacturers knew the wastewater they were dumping was polluted and should be held responsible.
House Bill 211 would shield from legal liability companies that have used PFAS chemicals, typically to make fabric stain resistant and fire retardant, while holding companies that produce the chemicals – including DuPont and 3M – responsible for polluting rivers and streams with cancer-causing pollutants.
Only companies guilty of “willful misconduct” in using PFAS chemicals would not be shielded from lawsuits.
“(PFAS manufacturers) sold them to us as safe,” said Rep. Kasey Carpenter, R-Dalton, the bill’s chief sponsor. “(This) focuses the attention of litigation on the chemical companies that willfully neglected protecting consumers.”
“Many of my members are being drawn into lawsuits over something they had no control over,” added Brittney Hull, vice president of government affairs for the Georgia Association of Manufacturers. “They used a product deemed legal and, as such, should not be held liable.”
But the bill’s opponents argued the companies that have used PFAS chemicals were aware they were unsafe and continued to use them anyway.
“This bill imposes a get-out-of-jail-free card for Mohawk, Shaw, and others,” said Andy Davis, a lawyer representing the Northwest Georgia cities of Rome, Summerville, Chatsworth, and Calhoun, which are being forced to clean up PFAS pollution and charge their taxpayers for the cost. “People responsible for putting it in the waterways, once they know about it, they’re responsible.”
Amber Fletcher, who lives in Dalton downstream from Mohawk Industries Inc. storage ponds with her husband and six children, said the creek by her house has been found to contain dangerous levels of PFAS chemicals.
“Our children play in that creek,” she said. “They need to be held accountable for what they did.”
The committee ran short of time Tuesday morning and did not vote on the bill. The Crossover Day deadline for bills to pass either the state House or Senate to remain alive for the year, falls on Thursday.
by Dave Williams | Mar 3, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Environmental activists asked Georgia House lawmakers Monday to enact a moratorium on mining adjacent to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.
But opponents of a proposed mining ban defended Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals’ plan to mine titanium dioxide along Trail Ridge as an important source of jobs in a high-poverty area of southeastern Georgia.
Two bills sponsored by state Rep. Darlene Taylor, R-Thomasville, include different versions of a ban on mining. One would place a five-year moratorium on mining, while the other would prohibit future mining altogether.
Taylor told members of a House subcommittee that the largest blackwater wetland in North America deserves and needs protection from mining, which would ruin a natural resource that draws 800,000 visitors each year and pumps more than $90 million into the region’s economy.
She has introduced legislation during the last several years to prohibit mining adjacent to the Okefenokee. Thus far, none of those measures has reached the House floor for a vote despite dozens of lawmakers signing on as cosponsors.
“I have been there,” Taylor said of the swamp at the start of a hearing on her bills. “Some of my fondest memories as a child involve visiting and enjoying the beauty. I want that for my grandchildren and your grandchildren.”
Rhett Jackson, a professor of water resources at the University of Georgia, said the planned titanium dioxide mine would lower water levels in the Okefenokee, increasing the chance of damaging wildfires.
“The largest wildfires in the state’s history have started in the swamp during drought periods,” he said
Environmental lawyer Josh Marks, president of the nonprofit Georgians for the Okefenokee, complained that the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, which is considering permit applications for the mine, has not used “sound science” in evaluating the project.
“Georgia EPD has show it is incapable of protecting the swamp,” he said.
But the mine’s supporters argued Taylor’s bills would essentially let the General Assembly decide whether to approve the project, usurping the EPD’s authority.
“The legislature lacks the expertise to make mining decisions,” said Joe Hopkins, owner of Toledo Manufacturing Co. in Folkston.
Lewis Jones, a lawyer representing Twin Pines, said the form of titanium dioxide found along Trail Ridge is both rare and critical to national security. Lighter than steel, titanium is used in the manufacture of bombers and fighter jets.
Jones also disputed arguments that the mine would harm the Okefenokee.
“We’re not going to lower the water levels,” he said. “We’re not going to pollute the swamp. If that were to happen, EPD wouldn’t approve the permit.”
Charlton County Commissioner Drew Jones said the mine would provide an economic boost in a county that can’t afford to provide adequate social services or roads.
“We are in desperate need for high-paying jobs in our community,” he said.
The bills’ opponents also said banning mining along Trail Ridge would amount to an unconstitutional taking of private property, an assertion the measures’ supporters disputed.
The subcommittee did not act on either bill. Crossover Day in the General Assembly – the deadline for bills to pass either the House or Senate to remain alive for the year – falls later this week, leaving little time for the bills to make it to the House floor for votes.
by Dave Williams | Mar 3, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The General Assembly gave final passage Monday to a record $40.5 billion mid-year budget that prioritizes hurricane relief and prisons.
The mid-year budget, which covers state spending through June 30, sailed through the Georgia House of Representatives 168-5 before passing the state Senate 55-1.
It increases state spending by $4.4 billion over the fiscal 2025 budget lawmakers adopted last spring, including a disaster relief package of $862 million for victims of Hurricane Helene, up from $615 million Gov. Brian Kemp requested in January.
“We know there’s pent-up demand for these funds,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin, told his House colleagues before Monday’s vote. “People are still hurting.”
Another big-ticket item is $345 million for additional staffing for Georgia prisons as well as safety and security improvements. Of that amount, $50.9 million will go toward hiring additional correctional officers.
After reducing Kemp’s request for four new modular units to temporarily house inmates while crumbling infrastructure inside existing prisons is replaced, the House and Senate went back to the governor’s original recommendation of $80 million. Each of the units holds 126 inmates.
The mid-year budget also includes $18 million for body cameras, tasers, and surveillance technology upgrades and $17 million for drone detection equipment. Drones smuggling cellphones and other contraband into state prisons has become a major concern for prison officials.
The various funding increases follow the release last fall of a federal audit that criticized the state’s prison system for failing to protect inmates from widespread violence.
The House and Senate supported Kemp’s request for $501 million to increase surface water supplies in Coastal Georgia to supply the Hyundai electric-vehicle manufacturing plant now being built along Interstate 16 west of Savannah. Another $266 million is earmarked for water and sewer improvement projects elsewhere in the state.
Another $500 million is earmarked for the state Department of Transportation’s Freight and Logistics program, a series of highway improvements aimed at speeding up the movement of freight.
Lawmakers also backed the governor’s recommendation for an additional $50 million in school-safety grants, enough to provide every school in Georgia with nearly $70,000.
The House and Senate added $21.5 million to expand the state’s medical residency offerings, an initiative aimed at addressing a shortage of physicians, particularly in rural South Georgia. Another $38.5 million will go toward the growing demand for foster care.
The mid-year budget now goes to Kemp’s desk for his signature.
by Dave Williams | Mar 3, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The University System of Georgia is looking to the private sector to lead Albany State University.
The system’s Board of Regents voted Monday to name business executive Robert Scott as Albany State’s next president.
Scott currently serves as president of research and development at The Kraft Heinz Co., where he has worked since 2021. Prior to joining Kraft Heinz, he was a divisional vice president at Abbott Nutrition and vice president at The Coca-Cola Co.
Before that Scott was a biology professor at Norfolk State University and an associate dean at Boston College and at Spelman College.
“Dr. Scott is an exceptional candidate, a results-driven leader whose vast research, higher education and corporate experience will help strengthen ASU’s impact in the community and across the state,” university system Chancellor Sonny Perdue said. “He has a unique blend of academic and industry acumen, traits that will nurture Albany State’s vital role as a regional workforce leader while celebrating its importance as a premier HBCU in Georgia.”
Albany State is one of three public Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Georgia. It has a $266 million annual economic impact on the Albany area, fostering economic development and a strong workforce that attracts and retains large-scale employers to the region.
The university has been led by interim President Lawrence Drake since last July. Drake replaced President Marion Ross Fedrick, who now serves as executive vice president and chief of staff to the president of Georgia State University.
Scott thanked Perdue and the Board of Regents for considering him for the post.
“As both a first-generation graduate and long-standing advocate for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, I’m deeply committed to advancing Albany State’s mission of fostering educational excellence and serving as a catalyst for economic growth in Southwest Georgia,” he said.
“Our ability to thrive as a university depends on how well we align the needs of our students, industries, government and the broader community. We will seek partnerships and prioritize programs that bring real value to our students, our faculty and the region we serve.”
The regents will hold a final vote on Scott’s appointment at a future board meeting no sooner than five days from naming him as the finalist.
by Dave Williams | Feb 28, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Supporters of legalizing gambling in Georgia don’t have long to push their cause across the finish line in the 2025 General Assembly session.
The first piece of sports betting legislation to hit the state House of Representatives this year was introduced Friday with less than a week remaining before Crossover Day – the deadline for legislation to pass either the Georgia House or Senate to remain alive for the year.
Meanwhile, a Senate committee voted down a broader measure on Thursday aimed at bringing both sports betting and casinos to the Peach State.
Rejecting bids to legalize gambling in Georgia has become standard operating procedure in the General Assembly. While 39 states have sports betting in some form, efforts to get sports betting legalized in Georgia have fizzled for years.
A long-running legal dispute over whether a constitutional amendment is required to bring sports betting here has hampered legislative efforts in recent years. Lawmakers also have disagreed over how much to tax betting proceeds and whether to spend that money on Georgia’s lottery-funded HOPE Scholarships and pre-kindergarten programs, health care, economic development, or initiatives to reduce poverty in low-income areas.
A key talking point for supporters of sports betting is that it’s so pervasive around the country – including the neighboring states of Tennessee, North Carolina, and Florida – that Georgians are going elsewhere to place bets, depriving the state treasury of a lucrative revenue source.
“Tens of thousands of people are leaving Georgia every month to gamble,” Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, who is sponsoring a constitutional amendment in the Senate aimed at legalizing both sports betting and casinos, told members of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee Thursday.
State Rep. Marcus Wiedower, R-Watkinsville, introduce constitutional amendment into the House Friday that would be limited to online sports betting. House Resolution 450 has picked up bipartisan support, with 47 Republican House members and 10 Democrats signing on as cosponsors.
“We’ve never seen this level of support before in the House for this resolution,” Wiedower said. “It gives me great confidence of its success as we head into the final month of (the) session.”
Wiedower sponsored legislation two years ago that would have legalized sports betting by statute rather than a constitutional amendment. But he said he’s going with a constitutional amendment this year.
“To avoid the legal argument, the only route to go is the constitutional amendment,” he said.
Summers said the advantage of seeking a constitutional amendment is that it would give Georgia voters a chance to decide the issue in a statewide referendum. He cited a straw poll among Republican primary voters last May that found more than 80% in favor of scheduling a statewide vote on whether to allow “gaming” in Georgia.
“This amendment does not force anyone to gamble,” Summers said. “It simply allows Georgia voters to have their say.”
Summers put a different twist on his proposal not featured in previous versions of legalized gambling: It calls for dividing the first $2 billion of the proceeds evenly among Georgia’s 159 counties. That way, the benefits from casinos wouldn’t just go to the communities where they’re located.
“This is real money that would help with infrastructure, economic development and essential services, especially in rural Georgia where they’re needed most,” he said. “Dispersing these funds evenly is the only fair way to do this.”
Wiedower’s House resolution calls for dedicating most of the proceeds to Georgia’s pre-kindergarten program.
Portions of the proceeds from gambling in both Summers’ and Wiedower’s measures would go toward programs to help problem gamblers avoid become addicted.
Problem gamblers are among the consequences of legalizing sports betting and/or casinos representatives of religious groups have cited over the years in opposing gambling legislation.
Mike Griffin, public affairs representative for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, said the “social costs” of legalized gambling outweigh the tax revenue the state would raise from bettors.
“Casinos increase human trafficking, drug trafficking, and other crimes,” added Paul Smith, executive director of the Christian public policy organization Citizen Impact.
Both Summers and Wiedower are pushing standalone constitutional amendments without the addition of separate “enabling” bills, usually longer pieces of legislation that spell out how either sports betting or casinos would operate in Georgia. They reason there’s no point in working to develop such detailed measures if voters defeat legalized gambling at the polls.
