by Dave Williams | Dec 10, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATHENS – Gov. Brian Kemp announced Tuesday that he will unveil a disaster relief package for Georgia victims of Hurricane Helene next month during the first week of the 2025 legislative session.
The initiative will include both budgetary proposals and a legislative component, Kemp told returning and newly elected members of the General Assembly during a luncheon on the University of Georgia campus that wrapped up the 34th Biennial Institute for Georgia Legislators.
Hurricane Helene marched through South Georgia and north through the Augusta area in late September, causing heavy rainfall and widespread flooding as well as extensive power outages. Kemp and First Lady Marty Kemp toured 16 counties in the hurricane’s path during the days following the storm.
“We’ve gone through probably the most damaging storm in our history,” Kemp said. “We saw unbelievable damage and communities that will probably never be the same.”
Kemp has asked the Biden administration and Congress to act quickly on his request for $12.2 billion in federal disaster relief for Georgians who suffered losses from Helene. The storm wreaked at least $5.5 billion in damage to the state’s agriculture and timber industries alone.
Not content to wait for the federal government, Kemp has suspended the state sales tax on gasoline and other motor fuels and redirected $100 million from a state capital projects fund to provide financial support for farmers affected by the massive storm and debris cleanup for owners of damaged timberland.
Besides relief to hurricane victims, Kemp said other issues he will prioritize early in the General Assembly include tort reform, strengthening education and the workforce in Georgia, and public safety, including additional steps to combat human trafficking.
“All of these measures are doable if we work together,” he said. “The (election) races have been run. … Now, it’s time for us to work together for the state.”
Newly elected and returning lawmakers gather in Athens for three days every other December following the elections for a preview of issues the legislature is likely to take up during the upcoming session.
by Dave Williams | Dec 9, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Supporters of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) plan to add about 22,000 acres to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge asked the agency Monday to consider a larger expansion to permanently prevent mining there.
The FWS unveiled the planned expansion in October, which would allow the agency to negotiate with owners of the land who are willing to either sell their property to the federal government or establish a conservation easement.
The expansion would not directly affect the Georgia Environmental Protection Division’s decision whether to grant Alabama-based Twin Pines Mineral a permit to open a titanium mine along Trail Ridge adjacent to the Okefenokee Swamp’s eastern rim.
However, the mine’s opponents have seized upon the expansion as an opportunity to stop the mine, much as the DuPont Chemical Co. abandoned plans for a mine there during the 1990s and donated 6,700 acres of its land to the refuge.
“With this FWS process, we can return to the only strategy that will guarantee the swamp’s permanent protection: land acquisition,” Josh Marks, president of Georgians for the Okefenokee, said Monday night during an online public hearing on the expansion plan.
Marks and other speakers urged the FWS to think beyond the 22,000-acre expansion and include other land adjacent to the refuge owned by Rayonier Inc. and Toledo Manufacturing.
“Thousands of acres are still vulnerable,” said Christian Hunt, senior policy analyst for the nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife. “Mining threatens to destroy all the qualities the refuge was created to protect.”
Scientific research has shown a mine would threaten water levels inside the largest blackwater swamp in North America, increase the risk of wildfires, harm wildlife, and release toxic contaminants into nearby surface and groundwater.
Twin Pines officials say the project would not harm the Okefenokee.
Opposition to the proposed mine has galvanized Georgians across the state. More than 90 members of the state House of Representatives have sponsored legislation aimed at protecting the Okefenokee from mining, and elected officials representing 20 local governments have passed resolutions opposing the mine.
Michael Lusk, who manages the refuge for the FWS, said agency officials have discussed expanding the refuge to include all of Trail Ridge but are sticking with the proposed 22,000-acre expansion for now.
Lusk said the FWS does not intend to seize any private property through the government’s power of eminent domain, something it hasn’t done since the 1970s.
“Nothing in this proposal compels anyone to sell their land,” he said. “If they’re a willing seller, we can talk to them about selling it or setting up a conservation easement.”
by Dave Williams | Dec 6, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia’s economy will continue growing next year but at a slower rate than in 2024, the dean of the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business said Friday.
The state’s economy is projected to grow by 2.4% in 2025, down from 3.1% this year, Ben Ayers told a packed ballroom of business leaders at the Georgia Aquarium in downtown Atlanta.
However, Georgia will continue to outperform the nation, which economic forecasters project to grow by 1.6% in 2025.
“Because the 2025 economic slowdown is due to a deliberate policy shift and not economic shock or a factor outside our control, we think the slowdown will be gradual and not last long,” Ayers said.
The major driver behind Georgia’s slowdown is the Federal Reserve’s move in 2022 to constrain lending to control inflation. That successfully shrank inflation from 8% in 2022 to 3% this year and a projected 3% in 2025.
As a result of lower inflation, the Fed began to cut interest rates in September.
“We expect additional rate cuts in 2025, and quantitative tightening will end.” Ayers said. “These policy moves, the resilient labor market, and recent economic success will ensure that Georgia’s economy grows throughout 2025 and accelerates in 2026.”
Ayers predicted Georgia’s unemployment rate is poised to increase slightly from 3.7% to 4%, lower than the 4.3% jobless rate expected at the national level. The increase in unemployment will be due to less hiring rather than layoffs, he said.
Charlotte, N.C.-based economist John Silvia, president of Dynamic Economic Strategy LLC, said the economic outlook for 2025 at the national level is cloudy because it remains unclear to what extent President-elect Donald Trump will seek to fulfill his campaign promises.
Republican Trump has pledged further tax cuts in addition to the reductions he steered through Congress during his first term in the White House, aggressive government deregulation, stiff tariffs on imports, and a crackdown on illegal immigrants.
But Silvia said higher tariffs threaten to increase the price of products that can’t be produced in the U.S., which flies in the face of Trump’s promise to cut inflation.
“You simply cannot grow bananas in Michigan,” he said. “You can’t produce coffee or cocoa.”
Silvia said deporting huge numbers of illegal immigrants would threaten American industries that depend on immigrant labor including agriculture – the No. 1 industry in Georgia – manufacturing, and construction.
“We’re not going to get the job done if you tell me all these immigrants are going to have to leave,” he said.
Silvia predicted U.S. inflation isn’t likely to return to the pre-pandemic level of 2%, while interest rates probably will remain at or above 4%.
by Dave Williams | Dec 6, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia elementary, middle- and high-school students showed strong improvements this year on the annual College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI), the state Department of Education (DOE) reported Friday.
The CCRPI includes five components: content mastery, progress, closing gaps, readiness, and – for high schools – the graduation rate.
Elementary-school students posted the highest score in closing gaps, which measures how well schools meet annual improvement targets for student subgroups.
Those in middle school scored highest in readiness, which includes literacy scores, student attendance, pathway completion, and other measures of college and career readiness.
High school students posted a graduation rate of 85.7% for their highest score, up 0.8% from last year.
This year’s scores clearly demonstrated academic improvements across all grade levels, State School Superintendent Richard Woods said.
“While we have seen scores increase on state and national assessments, the CCRPI also encompasses other indicators – from schools’ success at improving the performance of all students to the opportunities offered beyond core subject areas,” he said.
“These scores show advancement across the curriculum, and where there are areas for improvement, the data allow us to make a focused effort toward growth.”
Legislation the General Assembly passed this year requires the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement to calculate a single score for schools and districts and publish them online. The DOE will publish the scores as soon as they are available.
by Dave Williams | Dec 6, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Another Georgian is poised to join the second Trump administration.
President-elect Donald Trump nominated former U.S. Sen. David Perdue Thursday to serve as U.S. ambassador to China.
Before his election to the Senate in 2014, Republican Perdue had significant business experience in the Far East, including China, in his roles as CEO of Dollar General and as a top executive at Reebok and Sara Lee.
“He will be instrumental in implementing my strategy to maintain peace in the region, and a productive working relationship with China’s leaders,” Trump wrote in a social media post.
Democrats were quick to criticize the nomination, accusing Perdue of shipping U.S. jobs overseas during his business career.
“Donald Trump is rewarding yet another ultra-MAGA loyalist who built his fortune by selling out the American people,” said Alex Floyd, rapid response director for the Democratic National Committee. “David Perdue can’t be trusted to stand up for American workers.”
Perdue served one six-year term in the Senate before losing a bid for a second term to current Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga.
In 2022, Trump backed Perdue in an unsuccessful primary challenge to Gov. Brian Kemp. The governor had angered Trump for refusing to aid the latter’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia, where Joe Biden became the first Democrat to carry the state since 1992.
Perdue’s nomination is subject to confirmation by the Senate, where Republicans will be in the majority starting next month.
Trump already has chosen former U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, to head the Veterans Administration and former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., to run the Small Business Administration.
