ATLANTA – Since not every Georgia high school senior will reach out to one of the state’s universities, colleges or technical colleges, the schools are about to come to them.
Gov. Brian Kemp unveiled GEORGIA MATCH Thursday, the largest direct-to-college admission initiative in the nation.
Starting next week, more than 120,000 high school seniors in Georgia will receive a personalized letter from the governor listing the public universities, colleges and technical colleges they are academically eligible to attend. The letters will explain how students can claim a spot being held for them at the institution of their choice.
“This program will engage all learners and households, including those who don’t typically consider higher education an option,” Kemp said at the start of the inaugural Governor’s Workforce Summit near the state Capitol. “All they have to do is claim their spot.”
Georgia’s workforce development needs drove the planning for GEORGIA MATCH. an effort the Governor’s Office put together in collaboration with the Georgia Student Finance Commission, the University System of Georgia, the Technical College System of Georgia, the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, and the state Department of Education.
With 38,406 new jobs created in Georgia in just the last fiscal year and just for projects in which the state played a direct role, GEORGIA MATCH is aimed at helping to keep up with the growing demand for workers. Only one out-of-work Georgian is seeking a job for every three job postings listed, according to the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
“Our workforce needs are the biggest challenge to our state’s status as the No.-1 state to do business,” Kemp said.
All of Georgia’s high school seniors will receive a personalized letter declaring them eligible for admission to the state’s 22 technical colleges, which do not require minimum high school grade-point averages. Letters to students with higher GPAs will also list up to 23 public colleges and universities those students are eligible to attend.
Three university system institutions – the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, and Georgia College & State University – are not participating in the program because they have different, more stringent admission requirements.
All GEORGIA MATCH participating institutions will waive application fees next month for students who apply through the program’s portal. Kemp has declared November Apply to College Month in Georgia.
The program is expected to cost $1.3 million during its first year, funding that is included in the Georgia Student Finance Commission’s fiscal 2024 budget.
“Our aim is to make GEORGIA MATCH as well known as the HOPE Scholarship and HOPE Grant in the years to come,” Kemp said.
Interested high school seniors and their families can log onto GAfutures.org for more information on GEORGIA MATCH.
Hurricane Idalia felled a large chinaberry tree in western Bulloch County Aug. 30. PHOTO by Eddie Ledbetter
ATLANTA – The federal government is expanding the area of South Georgia eligible for assistance for residents affected by Hurricane Idalia.
The Georgia Department of Labor announced Wednesday that workers in two additional counties – Berrien and Brooks – may be eligible for federal Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) to compensate them for income lost directly resulting from the storm, which tore a path through South Georgia on Aug. 30.
“We appreciate the federal government providing disaster relief to hardworking Georgians affected by Hurricane Idalia,” state Commissioner of Labor Bruce Thompson said. “Federal unemployment benefits are a crucial lifeline, delivering financial stability while our communities recover and work to restore normalcy.”
Applicants may be eligible for a weekly benefit of as much as $365 dating back to the week of Sept. 3.
Individuals directly affected by Hurricane Idalia must first apply for regular unemployment insurance on the Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) website at dol.georgia.gov or in person at any of the agency’s career centers. The department will notify claimants if they are also eligible to file for DUA. The deadline for applications is Friday, Nov. 3.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service has approved a waiver request by the Georgia Department of Human Services that will make it easier for residents of 17 South Georgia counties affected by the hurricane to get food stamps.
Because of the waiver, applicants for benefits won’t have to appear at the local Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) office to sign an affidavit attesting to food loss due to power outages that occurred during the storm. Benefits will be issued to SNAP households that received benefits between Aug. 15 and Aug. 30 by means of an automated credit.
The 17 counties covered by the USDA waiver are Appling, Atkinson, Berrien, Brantley, Brooks, Charlton, Clinch, Coffee, Cook, Echols, Glynn, Irwin, Long, Lowndes, McIntosh, Pierce, and Ware.
ATLANTA – U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., introduced legislation Wednesday aimed at ensuring the nation’s 1890 land-grant universities, including Georgia’s Fort Valley State University, receive their fair share of state funding.
Under federal law, states are obligated to provide equitable funding for all land-grant universities. However, historically Black land-grant universities have often been shortchanged.
“Our 1890 land-grant institutions have been punching way above their weight for far too long,” Warnock said Wednesday. “This legislation will bring us one step closer to ensuring historically Black land-grant universities get the funding they’re due. This is a win for Georgia students, Georgia farmers, and Georgia’s economy.”
According to the Biden administration, 1890 land-grant institutions are owed more than $13 billion in federal funding they should have received during the last three decades, including more than $600 million owed to Fort Valley State.
Congress passed legislation in 1890 establishing 19 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), with a goal of boosting research and teaching in the agricultural and food sciences. While Georgia has several HBCUs, Fort Valley State is the state’s only 1890 land-grant institution.
“We have made some very good progress in a number of states over the last few years,” said Paul Jones, president of Fort Valley State and chairman of the Council of 1890 University Presidents. “I’m hopeful that this effort will help us reach equity across our 19 universities from their respective states.”
Warnock is cosponsoring the Senate bill with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. A companion bill has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Democratic Reps. Alma Adams of North Carolina and Marilyn Strickland of Washington.
ATLANTA – A bill the General Assembly passed three years ago bringing additional scrutiny to Georgia’s film tax credit is reducing the program’s impact on state tax revenues, witnesses testified at a legislative committee hearing Wednesday.
House Bill 1037 requires all film productions located in Georgia to undergo mandatory audits by the state Department of Revenue or third-party auditors selected by the state agency.
The audits have allowed the revenue department to do a better job determining which expenditures by film production companies qualify for the film tax credit and which don’t, Chester Cook, the agency’s deputy commissioner, told members of a joint House-Senate committee formed to determine whether Georgians are getting a healthy return on the revenue the state loses to tax credits and exemptions.
Georgia’s film industry tax credit of 20% goes to production companies that spend at least $500,000 on qualified productions, with an additional 10% available for qualified promotions, typically featuring the Georgia peach logo at the end of a film’s closing credits.
But in reality, the result of the added scrutiny the audits provide is that more of producers’ expenses are being deemed as unqualified, which reduces the value of the tax credits.
“The effective rate of the credit is not 30%,” said Pete Stathopoulos, a partner with Cobb County-based Bennett Thrasher, one of five accounting firms the state uses to audit the tax credits. “It’s much less.”
Stathopoulos said the 2020 legislation also forces production companies to wait until a project is completed to apply for the tax credit. With projects frequently requiring multiple years to finish, that delays the process, he said.
“It has a downward effect on the credit benefit,” he said.
Other witnesses testified Wednesday that the state’s film tax credit is largely responsible for the $4.1 billion in direct spending by the industry in Georgia during the last fiscal year, according to a recent report from the state Department of Economic Development.
Film industry executives who responded to a survey commissioned by the Georgia Screen Entertainment Coalition said 92.1% of their spending in Georgia would not have occurred without the existence of the tax credit.
“In an era of increased competition for production … in Georgia, the credit is a cornerstone piece,” said Leon Forde, managing director of Olsberg Spi Ltd., the London-based creative industries consulting firm that conducted the survey.
However, Georgia’s film tax credit is by far the most expensive tax incentive the state offers, which prompted the 2020 legislation and contributed to the creation this year of the Joint Tax Credit Review Panel.
Several witnesses who testified Wednesday said the film tax credit is more than paying for itself.
Frank Patterson, CEO of Trilith Studios in Fayetteville, said the facility, with 32 sound stages and more than 1.5 million square feet of space, has spawned 65 local businesses with more than 1,000 employees.
“These dollars would not have been invested without the tax credit,” he said.
Misti Martin, president of the Cherokee County Office of Economic Development, said the filming of the movie “American Made” a few years ago spurred the revitalization of downtown Ball Ground, which grew from just 12 businesses on Main Street to 26.
“It was the shot in the arm Ball Ground needed to start its redevelopment,” she said.
The review panel will continue meeting throughout the fall before recommending potential legislative changes for the full General Assembly to consider when lawmakers convene the 2024 session in January.
ATLANTA – The State Election Board late Tuesday unanimously rejected a proposal to let Georgians vote with hand-marked paper ballots in instances where using touch-screen voting machines cannot guarantee privacy.
Both state law and the Georgia Constitution require that voters be allowed to cast their ballots in secrecy. But that doesn’t always happen in Georgia, Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, a ballot-security advocacy group, told board members before Tuesday’s vote.
“The screens are so large and so light it’s hard not to see how other people are voting,” she said.
Marks’ organization brought a proposed amendment to state election rules requiring touch screens be positioned so that no one can get behind a voter within 30 feet of a machine while voting is taking place. Adjacent screens would have to be at least eight feet apart.
Marks said most precincts are large enough to accommodate four to six touch-screen machines and still leave room for hand-marked paper ballot stations.
“You can clearly get one in each corner,” she said.
After Marks’ presentation, board members agreed something needs to be done to make sure precincts are in compliance with the state law guaranteeing ballot privacy. But they suggested other potential solutions could be worth considering, including bigger dividers between machines or protectors that make screens harder to read from a distance.
“This is a one-size-fits-all when there are other ways to ensure ballot secrecy,” board member Edward Lindsey said.
Board member Janice Johnston said allowing two types of in-person voting during elections – touch-screen machines and hand-marked paper ballots – might be confusing.
“It doesn’t seem to add to the potential for orderliness we’re striving for,” she said.
In making the motion to defeat the proposal, Lindsey said the board will continue working to come up with a solution.
“Rejection doesn’t mean the issue is gone,” he said. “We need further study.”
