by Dave Williams | May 9, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – By the middle of the next decade, Georgians may be able to travel between Atlanta and Savannah by high-speed rail, avoiding traffic and expensive air fares.
The state Department of Transportation has launched a study of the feasibility of connecting the two urban centers with an intercity passenger rail line. The agency held the first “stakeholder” meeting online in January to begin gathering public feedback on the project, with more planned later this year.
If that first session is any indication, Georgians are enticed by the idea, said Clement Solomon, director of the DOT’s Intermodal Division. The meeting drew more than 4,000 public comments, Solomon said.
“There’s definitely interest,” he said. “It could potentially reduce the challenges we have today.”
The idea of bringing intercity passenger rail to Georgia goes back decades and takes up voluminous studies. Various projects have been held out as giving travelers an alternative to growing traffic congestion along the state’s interstate highway corridors.
Besides the Atlanta-to-Savannah proposal, the DOT also is participating in studies involving potential passenger rail lines that would run from Atlanta to Charlotte, N.C., and from Atlanta through Chattanooga, Tenn., and Nashville to Memphis.
“We need to have ways to connect our communities,” Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said. “Rail is really the way for us to be able to connect.”
The new study of an Atlanta-to-Savannah rail line is in the early stages. Planners have yet to decide which of several potential routes to use, where stations should be located, or which technology to employ.
The DOT also hasn’t identified funding sources for the project, beyond $10 million in planning money for the study – an $8 million grant from the Federal Railroad Administration secured by U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., and a $2 million state match.
Solomon said the DOT is considering three options for the routes: building it along existing rail lines, building a new line completely separate from existing lines, or going with a combination of new and existing track.
That decision will go a long way toward deciding where to build stations. Cities the study is considering as potential station locations include Augusta, Athens, Macon, Milledgeville, Statesboro, and Vidalia, in addition to the ends of the line in Atlanta and Savannah.
Solomon said the DOT likely will opt for high-speed rail as the preferred technology because that’s what the public wants. High-speed trains can travel at speeds of least 125 miles per hour, cutting travel times.
“People want to get there,” he said.
Solomon said choosing high-speed rail would have a major impact on locating stations along the route.
“(High-speed rail) reduces the number of stations,” he said. “If you have 10 stations, it defeats the purpose of high-speed rail.”
Bert Brantley, president and CEO of the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce, injected a note of caution in the planning for intercity passenger rail. He noted the potential of a high-speed rail line to disrupt freight rail traffic moving in and out of the Port of Savannah, the lifeblood of the region’s economy. Indeed, how freight rail and passenger rail would coordinate along the same tracks has served as an obstacle to previous passenger rail projects that haven’t come to fruition.
“It’s not the no-brainer people might assume,” Brantley said. “We have to be very careful. We don’t want to create a benefit that comes at the expense of jobs, growth, and new investment.”
Under the timeline set for the DOT feasibility study, initial planning will take place this year through 2027, with the agency deciding such issues as the route, station locations, and the technology that will be used. If the project is deemed feasible, an environmental impact study will begin in 2028.
by Dave Williams | May 9, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp signed a $37.7 billion fiscal 2026 state budget Friday, a spending plan that prioritizes education and prisons.
“(This) budget makes important investments to meet the needs of our growing state without growing government or adding to our long-term liabilities,” Kemp said during a signing ceremony at the Georgia Capitol.
The budget, which the General Assembly passed overwhelmingly last month, includes $300 million to fully fund the state’s Quality Basic Education K-12 student funding formula. Another $108.9 million in state grants will help local school systems pay for safety improvements on their campuses – providing each school with $47,124 – while $47.9 million is earmarked for student mental health programs.
The school safety and mental health money come in the wake of the school shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County last September that killed two students and two teachers.
The budget also includes more than $141 million to launch the state’s new private-school vouchers program, which will kick off in time for the coming school year.
Kemp and the legislature responded to a federal audit criticizing the state prison system for failing to protect inmates from violence by putting up $200 million to hire more correctional officers and raise the salaries of the current workforce.
More than $1.7 million will be used for additional positions and technology at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, more than $1 million will go toward two crime scene technical leaders and three digital forensic investigators. Another $1 million will pay for a new gang case management system and gang enforcement efforts statewide.
For the second year in a row, the state will fund building projects with cash instead of borrowing the money. The capital projects package includes $290 million for transportation improvements and $715 million for a host of building projects with an emphasis on K-12 school systems, universities, and technical colleges.
Kemp said the pay-as-you-go approach on capital projects will save Georgia taxpayers $150 million a year on debt service costs for the next 20 years.
In a separate letter to Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, Kemp identified nine spending items in the budget as “non-binding” and instructed lawmakers to disregard them.
The largest of those line items would have provided just more than $600,000 to the secretary of state’s office to cover additional operating expenses incurred by the State Election Board. Kemp ordered the agency not to spend any money on new positions for the board.
“Additional personnel should not be hired by the board until the impact of the positions added in the fiscal 2025 budget has been assessed and new funds have been appropriated specifically for such purpose,” the governor wrote.
The fiscal 2026 budget will take effect July 1.
by Dave Williams | May 8, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp signed controversial legislation Thursday denying the use of state funds for sex reassignment surgery, hormone replacement surgeries and other gender-affirming care sought by Georgia prison inmates.
Georgia House Democrats walked out of the chamber in protest when the Republican-controlled General Assembly gave final passage to Senate Bill 185 early last month on the next-to-last day of this year’s legislative session. Only two Democrats remained in their seats to vote “no” on the bill, which had cleared the state Senate in early March largely along party lines.
Republicans held out the bill as a fiscally responsible step amid widespread public opposition to spending tax dollars on such procedures for Georgians in the state’s custody. Supporters also pointed to exceptions in the bill that will allow the state Department of Corrections to pay for “medically necessary” treatments, including for those inmates born with chromosomal abnormalities resulting in ambiguity regarding their biological sex.
Democrats argued the legislation is a mean-spirited attack by the GOP affecting Georgia’s tiny transgender community at a time lawmakers should have been addressing more important priorities including education, health care, and public safety. Opponents noted that only five state inmates have asked for such health care.
Kemp signed the bill during a trip to the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth. He also signed several other measures related to public safety, including legislation granting the Georgia Bureau of Investigation subpoena power in investigating cyber crimes and doubling the indemnification benefit for public school employees killed in the line of duty from $75,000 to $150,000.
Kemp traveled to the Georgia Forestry Association offices in Forsyth later Thursday to sign legislation aimed at helping Georgia farmers and timber producers who suffered losses from Hurricane Helene.
House Bill 223 exempts federal crop loss payments and disaster payments from the state income tax, establishes a reforestation tax credit to help timber producers recover from the storm, allows local governments to temporarily suspend their collection of the harvest tax on timber producers to assist them in cleanup efforts, and provides a temporary addition to the state sales tax exemption on purchases of building materials to repair and rebuild poultry houses, livestock facilities, greenhouses, and other agricultural structures.
“Our farmers and foresters are tough people,” Kemp said. “Their commitment to moving forward after all they’ve faced is an inspiration to us all.”
by Dave Williams | May 8, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-St. Simons Island, has become the first Republican to jump into next year’s U.S. Senate race following term-limited Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision to pass on the contest.
Carter announced his candidacy Thursday with a 30-second video ad posted on YouTube declaring the sixth-term congressman’s close ties with Donald Trump.
“Trump has a warrior in Buddy Carter,” the narrator says in the ad, which goes on to call Carter a “MAGA warrior.”
Carter, 67, a former mayor of Pooler and former member of the General Assembly, was elected to Congress in 2014. He represents Georgia’s 1st Congressional District, which covers all six coastal counties and all or parts of nine inland counties in southeastern Georgia.
The ad criticizes Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff for voting against securing the nation’s borders and opposing efforts at the federal level to ban transgender athletes born male from participating in girls’ sports. Both the illegal immigration and transgender sports issues have been high on Trump’s list of priorities.
With Kemp out of the race, the Republican field is expected to grow significantly larger. Other members of Georgia’s GOP delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives reportedly considering joining the fray include Mike Collins, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Rich McCormick.
Other high-profile potential candidates include Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and state Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John King.
Kemp announced on Monday that he would not running for Ossoff’s Senate seat. The governor was widely considered as having the best shot among Republicans at turning Ossoff out of office next year after a single term.
by Dave Williams | May 7, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Construction is underway on battery energy storage systems (BESS) at four locations across the state, Georgia Power officials announced Wednesday.
The state Public Service Commission voted late last year to certify the four projects, which will add 765 megawatts of electrical generating capacity to the Atlanta-based utility’s energy supply portfolio. One megawatt is enough electricity to power 750 homes.
“As we expand our diverse energy mix to include more renewable energy, which requires careful advance planning and flexibility to accommodate times when that source is not available, these batteries will be an invaluable part of the electric system,” said Rick Anderson, senior vice president and senior production officer for Georgia Power.
Two of the new BESS facilities will be built adjacent to both Robins Air Force Base in Houston County and Moody Air Force Base in Lowndes County. They will be co-located with existing solar facilities.
A third standalone BESS will be located at the retired coal-burning Plant Hammond in Floyd County. The fourth site will double the battery-storage capacity of the McGrau Ford Battery Facility being built in Cherokee County, with the first phase of that project having begun operations last fall.
The PSC approved battery storage in April of last year as part a huge increase in generating capacity for Georgia Power.
Under an agreement Georgia Power reached with the commission’s Public Interest Advocacy Staff, the utility must submit quarterly reports while the projects are under being built updating spending and the construction schedule.
