by Dave Williams | Dec 18, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia energy regulators have signed off on a 3.5% rate increase for customers of Georgia Power.
Members of the state Public Service Commission (PSC) unanimously approved the increase Tuesday, which will raise average residential customer bills by $5.48 per month.
The rate hike is the latest of a series of increases the PSC has granted Georgia Power during the last couple of years that have raised monthly bills by more than $40.
Two of those rate hikes were associated with the completion of two new nuclear reactors at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle. The second of those new units went into full commercial operation last spring.
Another rate increase the commission approved in May of last year was to help offset rising fuel costs.
While Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald voted for the latest rate increase, he questioned the timing of Georgia Power’s request, just as inflated food and gasoline prices are beginning to come down.
“We need (to do) everything we can to hold down rate increases … and give America a chance to breathe again,” McDonald said when the proposed rate hike came before the PSC’s Energy Committee last week.
Brandon Marzo, a lawyer representing Georgia Power, told commissioners the Atlanta-based utility sympathizes with McDonald’s position but that the rate hike is necessary.
“The investments related to this … are being made and have been made,” Marzo said.
The rate increase will take effect Jan. 1.
by Dave Williams | Dec 17, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Justice Department is suing the city of Brunswick for trying to close a homeless shelter.
The federal suit charges the city with violating the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act through its efforts to interfere with and permanently close The Well, a faith-based shelter affiliated with the United Methodist Church.
“Federal law protects the right of religious groups such as The Well to use their land to help others,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The division will continue to vindicate the rights of groups to exercise their religion and fight local laws that unlawfully restrict those rights.”
The city began working to close the shelter after city officials blamed The Well in connection with unrelated criminal activity. Although The Well adopted safety and security measures suggested by the Brunswick Police Department, the city filed suit in state court seeking to close the shelter.
“We will take the steps necessary, including filing suit, to protect religious exercise against unreasonable and improper restrictions,” said Jill Steinberg, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. “This office will steadfastly defend against unlawful local action the right of institutions like The Well to lawfully use their land to help their community as an expression of their religious beliefs.”
The suit claims the city’s efforts to close The Well have imposed a substantial burden on The Well’s religious exercise, that the city lacks a compelling interest and has not employed the least restrictive means of enforcing its purported interest.
The complaint seeks injunctive relief prohibiting the city from interfering with the shelter.
According to The Brunswick News, the city commission passed ordinances in 2022 and 2023 restricting public camping and passing heavy regulations on new homeless shelters.
The commission voted to temporarily shut down The Well from April to June of last year. The shelter reopened in July 2023 with upgraded security measures, but city commissioners and the mayor publicly asked The Well to stay closed.
by Dave Williams | Dec 17, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia’s Republican presidential electors formally cast their votes for former President Donald Trump Tuesday in a ceremony at the state Capitol.
The 16 electors, consistently largely of local GOP leaders, met on the same day electors in every state cast their votes either for Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris, depending on which candidate the majority of voters in their state supported on Election Day last month.
Trump received 312 electoral votes – well above the 270 needed to win the election – to 226 for Democrat Harris. The former president carried Georgia by more than 115,000 votes.
Democrats have complained in recent years about the Electoral College, which was incorporated into the U.S. Constitution by the nation’s founders.
Democrat Hillary Clinton won more popular votes than Trump in 2016 but lost to Trump in the Electoral College. The same thing happened to Democrat Al Gore in 2000, when he won the popular vote but lost to Republican George W. Bush.
But Georgia Republican Chairman Josh McKoon, who served as an elector and chaired Tuesday’s meeting, defended the Electoral College as a wise decision by the founders.
“They didn’t want the most populous state in the nation picking the president,” McKoon said. “That’s why every state is able to participate in the Electoral College.”
McKoon said he was gratified that Tuesday’s meeting ran “like clockwork” in contrast to four years ago, when Republicans fielded an alternate slate of electors that met at the Capitol to vote for Trump, even though Democrat Joe Biden had won the popular vote in Georgia. The real electors – all Democrats – met on the same day inside the state Senate chambers to vote for Biden.
On Tuesday, McKoon said the Republican group met on the advice of lawyers who said the alternate slate of electors was necessary to preserve Trump’s legal options to challenge the results of the 2020 election. Those challenges were later dismissed in a variety of courts.
Congress will meet on Jan. 6 to count the electoral votes from across the nation. Trump will take the oath of office Jan. 20 on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.
by Dave Williams | Dec 16, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The General Assembly should adopt licensing and regulation requirements for Georgia’s tree care industry, a legislative study committee recommended Monday.
The House Study Committee on Safety & Consumer Protection in the Tree Care Industry was formed this year to look for ways to protect tree care workers from suffering deaths or injuries in an occupation identified by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as among the most hazardous in the country.
OSHA reported in 2020 that the fatality rate for tree trimmers and pruners may be as high as one in 1,000, nearly 30 times higher than the national death rate for all workers.
A 2017 report by the Tree Care Industry Association indicated that Georgia has the third highest rate of reported incidents in the tree care industry, below only California and Florida.
The danger tree care workers face was driven home this month when a U.S. Department of Labor investigation found a Marietta tree trimming contractor could have prevented the death last May of a 38-year-old worker whose equipment came into contact with an unprotected powerline less than 10 feet from an Acworth worksite.
“Serious Tree Services failed to meet their obligation to protect workers by adhering to industry safety standards, resulting in a preventable tragedy,” OSHA Area Director Jeffery Stawowy said. “Employers must prioritize training and hazard prevention to avoid such devastating consequences.”
The House study committee approved four recommendations, including a suggestion that the tree care industry be encouraged to emphasize safety and training.
The panel also recommended that the General Assembly adopt legislation establishing licensing and regulation of the industry in Georgia.
“There is a place for state involvement from a regulatory and oversight standpoint, said Rep. Victor Anderson, R-Cornelia, the committee’s chairman.
The study committee also suggested putting the tree care industry under the oversight of the state Department of Agriculture and asked the General Assembly to appropriate adequate funding to support the program.
Municipalities and utilities that conduct tree trimming operations would be exempt from the regulations.
“The biggest thing we’re trying to capture here are the folks who put themselves out as professionals for hire,” Anderson said.
The study committee’s recommendations will be forwarded to the full House to take up during the 2025 legislative session that starts next month.
by Dave Williams | Dec 13, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Tax credits are the weapon of choice for Georgia lawmakers looking for ways to make child care more accessible and affordable.
A state Senate study committee wrapped up its work Dec. 12 by recommending a series of new and expanded tax credits aimed both at families with young children and the child-care providers who serve them.
A new Georgia Child Tax Credit would help families with the youngest children offset the costs of child care as their children reach school age.
Expanding eligibility for the state’s existing tax credit for employer-sponsored child care and increasing the amount of that credit would help companies retain their workforce.
And a refundable tax credit for early childhood educators would help child-care providers offset their costs of doing business.
“We won’t solve this problem as a state government,” Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough, chairman of the Senate Study Committee on Access to Affordable Child Care, said shortly before the panel unanimously approved a list of recommendations. “(But) there are things we can do to make child care more accessible and more affordable.”
Affordable child-care options that already were limited in Georgia became even less so during the pandemic, which forced many child-care centers to close. Many have failed to reopen or opened back up with limited staff.
Ideisha Bellamy, CEO of the Georgia Child Care Association, told members of the study committee early this month that a survey of member child-care providers found 86% were having problems finding enough employees and retaining the workers they have. Nearly 70% said they are operating at less than capacity because of staffing shortages or funding gaps.
“What this lends itself to is an instability for centers and a lack of child-care access for families,” Bellamy said.
Added to the shortage of child-care options is affordability.
Strickland said the average cost of child care in Georgia is $11,000 per year, while 35% of Georgians spend one-third or more of their incomes on child care.
Bellamy said the shortage of accessible and affordable child care is being felt throughout the state’s economy.
“(Child-care) providers are the backbone of Georgia’s economy, ensuring parents can work and businesses can thrive,” she said.
The Senate is expected to take the lead on the tax credits. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who presides over the Senate, has endorsed several of the study committee’s tax credit recommendations.
The panel also is suggesting that the state create a dedicated trust fund to support child care, a step that would require amending Georgia’s Constitution.
Ife Finch Floyd, director of economic justice at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, told committee members this month that child care trust funds are succeeding in other states. New Mexico, for example, set up a trust fund in 2020 with $300 million in seed money, Floyd said.
“This trust fund has really contributed to the increase in resources for child care in New Mexico,” she said. “It’s helping the state continue a lot of the improvements they were able to make during the pandemic.”
The study committee also recommended increased funding of Georgia’s CAPS (Childcare and Parent Services) program, which assists low-income families with the cost of child care. After operating at about the same level of state funding since 2005, the CAPS program received a $9.2 million increase this year.
“It’s the biggest increase we’ve seen in a generation,” Floyd said.
The study committee’s recommendations will be forwarded to the full Senate for consideration during the 2025 legislative session starting next month.
