by Dave Williams | Dec 27, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A judge has ruled that the state Senate can subpoena Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in its investigation of her role in the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump, the Associated Press reported Friday.
Fulton Superior Court Judge Shukura Ingram filed the order on Monday, giving Willis until Jan. 13 to submit arguments over whether subpoenas issued by a Senate special committee to investigate allegations of misconduct against Willis are overly broad. Willis’ office has indicated she will ask the Georgia Supreme Court to review the ruling.
Ingram heard arguments in the case early this month, when former Gov. Roy Barnes appearing as her lawyer argued Senate Republicans were conducting a vendetta to punish Willis for prosecuting the Republican former president. A Fulton grand jury indicted Trump in August of last year 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.
Last week, the state Court of Appeals disqualified Willis from the case, ruling that her sexual relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to lead the prosecution, constituted an appearance of impropriety.
However, state Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, has announced he will introduce a resolution at the beginning of the 2025 General Assembly session next month to reestablish the Senate Special Committee on Investigations despite the decision removing Willis from the case.
“(The) ruling by the Georgia Court of Appeals … in removing Fani Willis from the election interference case only further validates our body’s justified concerns about the potential need to legislatively address such conduct and decision-making,” Dolezal said the day after the appellate court’s ruling. “These developments confirm the pressing need for continuing legislative action.”
The Senate committee sent subpoenas to Willis in August ordering her to testify at a September meeting and bring documents related to the case. She refused to comply, asserting the subpoenas were unlawful.
Barnes argued 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 but were simply to embarrass Willis and discover the details of her case against Trump.
But Josh Belinfante, a lawyer representing the committee, said investigating Willis’ handling of the election interference case might show existing state laws governing the hiring and compensation of district attorneys in Georgia to be inadequate for addressing “legal and fiscal issues” raised by her alleged misconduct.
by Dave Williams | Dec 27, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Most new laws the General Assembly enacted this year took effect in July.
But some significant legislation or portions of legislation lawmakers passed pertaining to elections, taxes, and health care don’t become operative until New Year’s Day.
The list includes Senate Bill 189, a controversial election reform measure the legislature’s Republican majorities passed along party lines. While most of the 24-page bill took effect in July, three of its provisions don’t kick in until Jan. 1.
The most far-reaching of those provisions requires homeless Georgians to use their county registrar’s office as their mailing address. While Republicans said the homeless registration provision would help fulfill the overall bill’s broader goal of restoring integrity to the voting process, Democrats and civil rights groups said it would disenfranchise eligible voters who happen to be homeless.
“Ill-conceived laws like Georgia’s SB189 are a bad solution in search of a non-existent problem,” said Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, one of the civil rights groups that filed a lawsuit challenging the bill. “The people of Georgia, especially its most vulnerable, deserve better.”
The other two portions of Senate Bill 189 that take effect Jan. 1 allow voters in local elections in the smallest rural counties to use paper ballots and require county election offices to take steps to prevent tampering with absentee ballots.
Two tax measures about to take effect will provide both property tax relief and greater accountability surrounding the various tax incentives the state offers businesses as bait to lure jobs to Georgia.
Georgia voters ratified an amendment to the state constitution last month with 63% of the vote that prohibits local governments 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.
Cities, counties and school districts will be allowed to opt out of the measure if they choose. However, any local government that wishes to take that step will be required to file its intent to do so with the Georgia secretary of state’s office by March 1 and hold at least three public hearings.
The Tax Expenditures Transparency Act of 2024 will require the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts to complete at least 12 analyses each year of state income tax credits or sales tax exemptions. Those reports must include how much the incentives covered by the audits cost in lost tax revenue and whether the tax breaks are delivering the intended economic benefits to the state.
One provision tucked inside a 40-page bill reforming Georgia’s certificate of need law governing hospital construction and new health-care services is aimed at helping rural hospitals keep their doors open. Among other things, House Bill 1339 will raise the annual cap on the state’s rural hospital tax credit from $75 million to $100 million, starting Jan. 1.
The program, launched in 2016, allows donors to contribute to hospitals in counties with populations of 50,000 or less and reduce their state income tax liability by the amount they donate. Taxpayers may choose a specific hospital or, if one is not designated, the hospital will be chosen based on a ranking of need.
Two other new laws that take effect Jan. 1 with health-care ramifications are intended to help military families and first responders.
House Bill 880, which passed the Georgia House and Senate unanimously, will allow military spouses to use an existing professional license “in good standing” from another state to obtain a license in Georgia. Supporters said making it easier for military spouses to get jobs in Georgia could help put a dent in the state’s nursing shortage.
Another measure that made it through the General Assembly without a single “no” vote – House Bill 451 – will require insurance companies to cover mental-health services for first responders suffering post-traumatic stress disorder from being exposed to traumatic events in the line of duty.
by Dave Williams | Dec 26, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A tech startup business launched in Coastal Georgia is about to expand to Atlanta and Dallas.
GAGE, a web platform designed for service workers to show their credentials and skills to potential employers, already is operating a pilot program in Dallas and soon will move into Atlanta, a tech hub that’s a natural fit for the company.
Serial entrepreneur Justin Henshaw of Brunswick founded GAGE to serve workers at a series of restaurants he owned.
“It started as a spreadsheet, an algorithm with a scoring component,” said the Marine veteran, who now serves as GAGE’s CEO. “The employees liked it and said they wished they could take it with them. … So, I built a platform they’re able to take with them from job to job and replace the resume. That’s never been done before.”
The tech industry took notice. GAGE was one of 12 early startups chosen to participate in Techstars Accelerators, a three-month program that helps entrepreneurs obtain seed capital and find markets for their products.
“GAGE is a truly transformative concept with massive potential,” Keith Camhi, Techstars’ managing director, told The Brunswick News this month. “Unlike many disruptive platforms that require significant funding and large user bases before they can monetize, GAGE has developed a uniquely clever go-to-market strategy. … It’s a game-changer.”
GAGE began expanding beyond Coastal Georgia with a pilot program at multiple Smoothie King locations in Dallas. Atlanta is next up in the company’s plans.
“Techstars has an incredible presence in Atlanta,” Henshaw said.
With the Techstars program completed, GAGE is preparing to launch an improved version of the platform next spring, a second generation of the product designed for hourly and shift workers not served by existing platforms that cater primarily to white-collar executives.
“This was built for restaurants, but we’re in banking now and health care … multiple industries that employ entry-level work staff,” Henshaw said. “If this goes the way we hope, it really could be an impactful resource for the most underserved component of our workforce.”
by Dave Williams | Dec 20, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Politics dominated 2024 in Georgia, a presidential election year that saw former President Donald Trump turn the tables on Democrats in the Peach State.
But Republican Trump’s victory four years after President Joe Biden became the first Democrat to capture Georgia’s 16 electoral votes since 1992 was far from the only political news to reverberate under the Gold Dome.
Two high-profile crimes that occurred this year in Georgia – the murder of nursing student Laken Riley at the University of Georgia and a mass shooting that killed four at a Barrow County high school – drove state lawmakers’ agendas.
Here’s a look at the top Georgia stories of 2024:
Feb. 23: Nursing student Laken Riley is murdered while jogging on the University of Georgia campus in Athens. Jose Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, is convicted in the killing. In the wake of the murder, majority Republicans in the General Assembly pass legislation cracking down on illegal immigration, largely along party lines.
March 20: The legislature’s Republican majorities pass a private-school vouchers bill after years of failed efforts. The measure provides up to $6,500 in annual funding to students who reside in a public school attendance zone that is in the lowest-performing 25% of all public schools in the state and wish to transfer to a private school.
April 29: After years of delays and cost overruns, the nuclear expansion at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle goes into full commercial operation with the completion of the second of two new nuclear reactors.
June 27: President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump take part in a nationally televised debate in Atlanta. Biden’s halting performance leads Democrats to replace him on the ticket with Vice President Kamala Harris.
July 12: Former Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine is sentenced to three and a half years in prison for conspiracy to commit health-care fraud in connection with unnecessary lab testing. In a guilty plea, Oxendine admits that his insurance consulting business ordered the tests from a lab company in Texas in return for hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks.
Sept. 4: A teenage gunman is arrested and charged with shooting two teachers and two students to death at Apalachee High School in Barrow County. Colt Gray’s father Colin is charged with giving his son access to the murder weapon, prompting Georgia lawmakers to call for legislation incentivizing gun owners to safely store their firearms.
Sept. 27: Hurricane Helene tears a path through South Georgia north through the Augusta area, killing 34 Georgians and causing heavy rainfall and widespread flooding as well as extensive power outages.
Oct. 19: A gangway on Sapelo Island collapses under the weight of passengers waiting to take a state-operated ferry to the mainland following the annual Sapelo Cultural Day celebration, killing seven people.
Nov. 5: Republican Donald Trump carries Georgia by more than 115,000 votes over Democrat Kamala Harris on his way to winning the 2024 presidential election.
Nov. 24: Georgia Commissioner of Labor Bruce Thompson dies at age 59, eight months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
by Dave Williams | Dec 19, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia Court of Appeals Thursday disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from prosecuting the state’s case against former President Donald Trump for election interference in 2020.
In a 2-1 decision, the appellate court declared that Willis’ sexual relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to lead the case, constituted an appearance of impropriety that could not be overcome even though Wade removed himself from the prosecution team.
A Fulton County grand jury indicted Trump – now the president elect – and 18 co-defendants in August of last year on charges of participating in a racketeering conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
The defendants sought to have Willis removed from the case, citing her relationship with Wade as a conflict of interest.
Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled last March that Willis could remain on the case but only if Wade removed himself. Wade resigned from the case several hours later.
On Thursday, the appellate court ruled that McAfee’s solution wasn’t enough to avoid an appearance of impropriety on Willis’ part.
“The remedy crafted by the trial court to prevent an ongoing appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis was exercising her
broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring,” Judge Trenton Brown wrote.
“While we recognize that an appearance of impropriety generally is not enough to support disqualification, this is the rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings.”
One of the three judges on the appellate panel – Benjamin Land – dissented from the ruling. He argued the appellate court should have given greater deference to McAfee’s trial court opinion.
“I am particularly troubled by the fact that the majority has taken what has long been a discretionary decision for the trial court to make and converted it to something else entirely,” Land wrote.
Although Thursday’s ruling did not dismiss the underlying indictment of Trump and his associates, it raises serious doubts over whether the last of several court cases still pending against the president elect can move forward.
