by Dave Williams | Mar 26, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia’s two U.S. senators and two members of the U.S. House from South Georgia Wednesday reintroduced legislation to establish the Ocmulgee Mounds as the state’s first national park.
The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources passed the bill last November, but it had to be reintroduced because a new Congress took office in January.
The area is the ancestral home of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and has been inhabited continuously by humans for more than 12,000 years.
“Ocmulgee Mounds is a living testament to our intertwined histories and a robust source of economic and cultural vitality,” said Sen. Raphael Warnock, who is sponsoring the bill along with Sen. Jon Ossoff and U.S. Reps. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, and Sanford Bishop, D-Albany. “Local leaders and everyday Georgians have been waiting for Congress to act and now is the time.”
“We made unprecedented progress last Congress toward creating Georgia’s first ever national park,” Ossoff added. “I look forward to working alongside Congressman Scott, Sen. Rev. Warnock, Congressman Bishop, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and local leaders to successfully establish Georgia’s first national park.”
The House version of the bill is being cosponsored by every other member of Georgia’s 14-member House delegation except Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Athens.
The bipartisan, bicameral push for the Ocmulgee Mounds National Park and Preserve Bill is earning broad support from local leaders in Middle Georgia.
“The opportunity to make the historic Ocmulgee Mounds a national park is so important to us because we have been included, we have been shown the respect of collaboration, and because of that we feel confident that the living history that will be told here is authentic and has the power to elevate Georgia forever,” said David Hill, principal chief of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
“Tens of millions of private dollars have been leveraged to conserve the precious cultural and ecological resources of the Ocmulgee Corridor,” added Seth Clark, mayor pro tempore of Macon and executive director of the Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve Initiative. “This bipartisan legislation allows us to continue to grow the Middle Georgia economy … and authentically preserve some of the most culturally significant sites in the country.”
by Dave Williams | Mar 26, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The state Senate committee investigating Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ role in prosecuting President Donald Trump for interfering in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election is giving her until May 10 to testify before the panel.
The Senate Special Committee on Investigations’ Republican majority voted 5-2 along party lines Wednesday to set that deadline for Willis to comply with a subpoena to appear as a witness. If she fails to appear, the committee plans to ask a judge to set a deadline for her to testify.
The committee initially subpoenaed Willis last spring, but she argued the subpoena was unlawful and went to court to block it. A Fulton Superior Court judge upheld the legality of the subpoena in December.
“This has been going on for a year now,” Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, the committee’s vice chairman, said Wednesday. “The district attorney has thumbed her nose at the committee. … We may need to escalate to the next step.”
Josh Belinfante, a lawyer hired by the panel, told committee members Willis’ lawyer – former Gov. Roy Barnes – has said she wouldn’t be available to testify until late next month or early in May, citing her travel and trial schedule. While lawyers for the two sides agreed March 10 that she would submit documents the commission requested, Belinfante said he has yet to receive them.
Barnes argued during a court hearing in December that Senate Republicans were conducting a vendetta to punish Willis for prosecuting Trump. A Fulton grand jury indicted Trump – then a former president – in August of 2023 on charges of participating in a conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia that saw Democrat Joe Biden capture Georgia’s 16 electoral votes on his way to turning then-incumbent Trump out of the White House.
Barnes further asserted that the committee lacked the authority to subpoena Willis, a power he said rests only with the full General Assembly. He also contended the subpoenas did not serve any legitimate legislative purpose.
Belinfante countered that investigating Willis’ handling of the election interference case might show existing state laws governing the hiring and compensation of district attorneys in Georgia are inadequate and need changing.
by Dave Williams | Mar 25, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Port of Savannah set a record for containerized cargo traffic last month, the Georgia Ports Authority reported Tuesday.
The port moved 479,850 twenty-foot equivalent container units in February, a 6% increase over the same month last year.
Dual container moves, with drivers delivering an export and picking up an import container, accounted for 85% of Savannah’s container business last month, adding overall efficiency.
Meanwhile, Gateway Terminals, which handles operating services for the ports authority, and the local International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) chapter have agreed to further increase efficiency by adding three new start times to work cargo vessels – at 6 a.m., 3 p.m., and 9 p.m.
“This will make a big difference in turning ships around faster,” said Griff Lynch, the ports authority’s president and CEO. “With a total of eight start times and our 24-hour vessel service, crane operators and crews form the ILA will start moving containers on and off ships more quickly, reducing vessel time at dock.”
The Port of Savannah, which currently averages 35 vessels per week, will also increase vessel capacity with a new lay berth at the Ocean Terminal coming online in May. A second lay berth is due to begin operating in the middle of next year.
The Port of Savannah wasn’t the only ports authority operation to set a record in February. The authority’s intermodal team set a new record Feb. 28 with 2,246 rail lifts in a 24-hour period.
The only down side came at the Port of Brunswick, where Roll-on/Roll-off cargo last month declined by 10% – or 6,882 units -compared to February of last year
by Dave Williams | Mar 25, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Legislation giving Georgia cities, counties and school districts until April 30 to decide whether to opt out of offering a property tax break voters approved last fall cleared the state Senate Tuesday.
Georgians passed a constitutional amendment last November prohibiting local governments and school districts from raising residential property assessments in a given year by more than the annual rate of inflation, even if a home’s market value has gone up more.
Supporters argued the constitutional change would offer homeowners more certainty in their property tax liability year to year. But the legislation prompted concerns among local government and school district officials anxious to protect a key revenue source funding their operations.
Last year’s measure gave those local governments the ability to opt out of the measure if they filed an opt-out resolution with the Georgia secretary of state’s office by March 1 and held at least three public hearings. This year’s House Bill 92, which the Senate passed 52-2 on Tuesday, extends that deadline to the end of next month.
The House passed the bill last month with just one “no” vote. But it went through a series of changes when it got to the Senate.
Offering a carrot to entice school districts to offer property owners the tax break rather than opt out, the Senate version of the bill exempts funds spent on school construction from taxation in districts that agree to provide the tax relief. It also limits the tax exemption to primary residential properties of no more than five acres.
Local governments and school systems that choose to opt out of the tax exemption this year would be given an opportunity to opt back in annually through 2029.
House Bill 92 moves back to the House next to weigh in on the changes made by the Senate.
by Dave Williams | Mar 24, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A state Senate committee advanced legislation Monday following up on a bill the General Assembly passed last year aimed at illegal squatters.
The 2024 measure, which cleared the Georgia House and Senate unanimously, created the offense of unlawful squatting when someone enters upon the land or premises of the owner without the owner or rightful occupant’s knowledge or consent.
Last year’s bill has made a difference, state Rep. Devan Seabaugh, R-Marietta, chief sponsor of the 2024 legislation, told members of the Senate Public Safety Committee.
But Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, the committee’s chairman, said illegal squatting remains a significant problem in Georgia.
“There actually are entire websites dedicated to people who want to be squatters … how to navigate the system for the longest possible time before they are evicted,” Albers said last week during an initial hearing on this year’s bill. “We do not want that.”
Seabaugh said this year’s bill, which he also is sponsoring, closes loopholes the 2024 legislation left in the eviction process.
“House Bill 61 … provides real enforcement tools, deters fraud, and restores control to property owners and law enforcement,” he told Albers’ committee Monday. “Most importantly, it balances firm action against unlawful squatting with fairness and due process for all.”
This year’s bill put Georgia’s magistrate courts in charge of adjudicating eviction cases, limits the liability law enforcement agencies face for enforcing evictions, imposes restitution on criminal squatters based on the market value of the property they are occupying, and makes forging documents related to squatting a felony punishable by one to five years in prison.
Much of Monday’s discussion focused on tenants who are evicted from extended stay motels.
Sen. Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain, who voted against the bill, said those tenants should be treated differently under the law from illegal squatters.
“We need to make a distinction between a squatter and a person who paid their rent and paid their rent, then missed a day,” she said. “To charge them with criminal trespass and to set them and their kids out, I think, is an injustice.”
“A lot of these extended stays are voluntarily allowing families to live there for years,” Lindsay Siegel, an Atlanta lawyer who represents tenants in housing rights cases, said during last week’s hearing. “It would create a humanitarian crisis to essentially say these families get no notice before they’re put out on the curb.”
After agreeing to a couple of amendments, the committee approved the bill with just two “no” votes. It heads next to the Senate Rules Committee to decide whether to bring it to the Senate floor.
