ATLANTA – The University System of Georgia (USG) generated an economic impact statewide of $18.6 billion in fiscal 2020.
While that was up 0.6% over fiscal 2019, the system actually produced slightly fewer jobs in fiscal 2020, generating 155,010 jobs directly and indirectly compared to 157,770 in fiscal 2019.
Fiscal 2020 marked the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in Georgia, forcing the university system to shut down in-person instruction and switch to online classes during the last couple of months of the spring semester that year.
“With strong support from the state and significant planning from our campuses, USG’s economic impact on local communities across Georgia held steady despite a challenger year,” said Teresa MacCartney, the university system’s acting chancellor.
The annual economic impact study conducted by the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia found that every $1 spent directly by the system’s 26 colleges and universities generated an additional 47 cents for the surrounding region’s economy. Of the $18.6 billion in economic impact in fiscal 2020, $5.9 billion was spent within those local communities.
Of the jobs the system generated, 34% were on-campus positions, while 66% were off-campus jobs in either the public or private sectors.
A second study the Selig Center conducted found that system graduates in the Class of 2020 on average will earn an additional $862,162 during the course of their careers as a result of their degree.
Those graduates who end up working in Georgia are expected to bring in a combined $175 billion in lifetime earnings, of which 34% can be attributed can be attributed to their degrees, according to the report.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Lottery generated more than $1.5 billion for the state’s HOPE Scholarship and Pre-K programs during the last fiscal year, a record that came despite a global pandemic that dampened economic activity.
The fiscal year that ended June 30 marked the sixth straight year the lottery has exceeded $1 billion in profits for education, surpassing the previous fiscal year by $307.6 million. Fiscal 2021 also was the lottery’s 10th consecutive year of growth.
“Over the past year, like many organizations, we faced numerous challenges,” said Gretchen Corbin, the Georgia Lottery Corp.’s president and CEO. “We pivoted, made adjustments and worked hard each day … to maximize revenues for HOPE and Pre-K.”
Scratchers and draw games performed particularly well, getting a boost from the introduction of new games as well as large Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots. The lottery’s line of online products also gained in popularity as players became more familiar with online play options.
The lottery has returned more than $23.8 billion to education in Georgia since voters approved a referendum creating the program in 1992. More than 1.9 million students have received lottery-funded HOPE scholarships, while more than 1.6 million 4-year-olds have attended the statewide voluntary Pre-K program.
ATLANTA – Georgia’s top elected leaders vowed Monday to make the current spike in violent crime across the state and particularly in Atlanta a top priority.
Gov. Brian Kemp announced Monday he will add crime to the General Assembly’s agenda for a special session on tap this fall primarily to draw new legislative and congressional district lines.
Meanwhile, Georgia House Speaker David Ralston said House budget writers will allocate $3 million in additional law enforcement resources aimed specifically at fighting crime in Atlanta.
Kemp, Ralston and state Attorney General Chris Carr addressed members of the House Public Safety and Homeland Security, which is holding hearings this summer to try to identify what’s behind the crime wave and how the state might help fix it.
Kemp, who gave an update last week on the Gang Task Force he formed two years ago, told lawmakers Monday the state’s multi-agency Crime Suppression Unit has arrested 109 criminal suspects, impounded hundreds of vehicles involved in street racing, seized hundreds of stolen firearms and made thousands of vehicle stops.
The governor also thanked the General Assembly for passing laws aimed at human traffickers and street gangs since he took office in 2019.
“These initiatives have helped us move the needle,” Kemp said. “[But] the dangerous gangs aren’t letting up.”
Ralston cited a 60% increase in homicides in Atlanta this year, along with a rise in shootings and stabbings in the city, as reason enough to put more resources into fighting the crime wave.
Of the $3 million he proposed Monday, $2 million would be used to add 20 state troopers to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s SWAT and DUI task forces to focus on crime in and around the city of Atlanta. Another $1 million would double the size of the GBI’s Gang Task Force and the Human Trafficking Task Force, which operates out of the attorney general’s office.
“I want you to bring people to the table who want to offer solutions,” Ralston told members of the House committee. “I want us to work together to find a way forward.”
Kemp repeated criticism he leveled last week at Atlanta officials for not taking an aggressive enough stance in fighting the crime wave.
Carr echoed that theme by accusing some prosecutors around Georgia of selective enforcement of state law, deciding which misdemeanors they wish to enforce and which to let go.
“Georgia has one of the toughest anti-gang statutes in the nation,” he said. “It needs to be put to use.”
While lawmakers could consider legislation related to crime during the upcoming redistricting session, action on Ralston’s funding proposals won’t happen until lawmakers take up the fiscal 2022 mid-year budget and fiscal 2023 budget early next year.
Democrats argued at a U.S. Senate committee hearing in Atlanta Monday that Georgia’s new election law restricts opportunities for early voting.(Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Georgia’s new election law is a thinly disguised Republican attempt to reverse GOP losses suffered in the last election cycle with restrictions aimed at reducing voter turnout, witnesses told a U.S. Senate committee Monday.
“Some people don’t want some people to vote, so they’re trying to deny access to the ballot,” Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., said during a rare Senate committee field hearing in downtown Atlanta.
Georgia Republican leaders didn’t attend the Senate Rules Committee hearing to defend the law but had plenty to say on a phone call with reporters, accusing Democrats of mounting a “publicity stunt” to build support for federal legislation currently bogged down in Congress.
“Today’s hearing is the latest attempt to change the narrative that they couldn’t get a federal takeover of elections,” Gov. Brian Kemp said. “They’ve brought the political fight here.”
Georgia Rep. Barry Fleming defended Senate Bill 202 as a measure that will expand the days and hours for early voting, impose a ‘reasonable’ ID requirement on voters casting absentee ballots, codify ballot drop boxes in state law for the first time and impose election-night reporting requirements that will lead to quicker results.
“Georgia passed a law that strengthened security, expanded access and increased security,” said Fleming, R-Harlem, who carried the bill in the House.
But witnesses testifying at Monday’s hearing pointed to record voter turnouts in the November general election and the January runoffs that elected Warnock and fellow Democrat Jon Ossoff as evidence the system in Georgia isn’t broken.
State Rep. Billy Mitchell, D-Stone Mountain, chairman of the Georgia House Democratic Caucus, also noted the lack of successful challenges to the election results. While there were many allegations of widespread fraud in Georgia, none held up in court.
“With the highest level of voter participation and the lowest number of challenges, why would you want to change that?” Mitchell asked.
Members of the committee and witnesses objected to a number of the law’s provisions, including limits on times for registration and early voting before runoff elections, limits on locations and hours for drop boxes and a provision allowing the majority party in the legislature to bypass local elections officials if not satisfied with the way an election was conducted.
“These restrictions are not meant to solve any real problem,” Ossoff said. “The only real problem for Georgia’s GOP is that they lost.”
With 19 Republican-led states having passed election laws this year containing additional restrictions, Warnock called for Congress to pass federal voting-rights legislation.
“We must have national standards to push against what we’re seeing in Texas, Georgia and other [states],” he said. “There is nothing more important for us to do in this Congress.”
While Warnock and other Democrats say the federal government has a constitutional right to control federal elections, Georgia Republicans are asserting the opposite in fighting a lawsuit challenging the new election law the U.S. Justice Department filed last month.
“States have a constitutional right to run their own elections,” Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said Monday. “We are going to vigorously defend Georgia’s law, and we’re going to win in court.”
Georgia Commissioner of Transportation Russell McMurry
ATLANTA – Both westbound travel lanes of Interstate 16 in Treutlen County reopened Friday, one day after a bridge over the highway was heavily damaged and two days earlier than expected.
As of late Friday afternoon, crews were working to reopen the eastbound lanes by midnight.
The bridge on Georgia Highway 86 over I-16 was struck by a dump trailer early Thursday morning, forcing the state Department of Transportation to close the highway in both directions between exits 71 and 78.
“Georgia DOT engineers and contractors worked expeditiously through the night to safely remove the damaged bridge so that I-16 could be opened back up to traffic days earlier than expected,” Georgia Commissioner of Transportation Russell McMurry said Friday.
“My thanks goes out to the GDOT team members and contractors who worked through the night and day today to make this happen. Our sincere gratitude goes to law enforcement, and I’d like thank those communities and individuals who have been impacted by this event for their patience and support.”
An eastbound detour from I-16 will remain in place through midnight. Motorists are urged to remain patient and should pay attention to signage, follow marked detours or wayfinding apps and drive with caution on local roads.
Georgia 86 remains closed while the DOT plans the replacement of the damaged bridge. No timetable for completion of that work has been set.
