by Dave Williams | Dec 6, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A legislative study committee that has been examining how to guarantee Georgians access to the state’s navigable rivers and streams without violating private property rights is siding with the status quo.
The House Study Committee on Navigable Streams’ final report released this week recommended no changes to the current definition of “navigability” in state law.
The panel also suggested the General Assembly refrain from setting forth which rivers and streams in Georgia are considered navigable and which are not. Legislation introduced into the state House of Representatives during this year’s session that failed to make any headway listed 64 rivers and creeks “presumed to be navigable.”
A debate over a long-assumed right of passage along Georgia waterways – including the right to fish and hunt – began early last year when a property owner on the Yellow Jacket Shoals portion of the Flint River banned fishing there and sued the state to enforce it.
State lawmakers responded with legislation codifying public fishing rights into state law. But that didn’t clear up confusion over which rivers and streams across the state are navigable and, thus, open to fishing and paddling, and which are off limits.
Boating enthusiasts and representatives of the recreational boating industry complained that some property owners along Georgia rivers and streams were preventing them from exercising their right to fish, while property owners told the study committee some boaters were trespassing on their land and leaving trash in their wake.
“The prevailing view is that most landowners and outdoor enthusiasts have no problem with one another, but seek respect from one another,” the committee’s report concluded. “Respect cannot be legislated, but trespass can be legislated, confrontations can be mitigated, and the details of Georgia law can be better communicated.”
Members of the Freedom to Float Coalition, an alliance of outdoor recreation enthusiasts and environmental groups, criticized the committee for not recommending any changes in the laws governing boating rights.
“Maintaining the status quo may lead to the public being excluded from more streams across the state and will have a chilling effect on the state’s robust outdoor recreation economy,” said Rena Peck, executive director of Georgia Rivers.
“The legislature needs to protect boating on the state’s small streams in order to level the playing field with neighboring states where recreational boating in canoes and kayaks is protected on all streams capable of floating recreational watercraft.”
The study committee held several meetings across Georgia between August and November leading to its 11-page report. While the panel made six recommendations, it is unclear whether any will lead to legislation during the 2025 session starting next month.
by Dave Williams | Dec 5, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement has released a list of low-performing schools in Georgia whose students qualify to receive private-school vouchers.
Under legislation the General Assembly’s Republican majorities passed this year, eligible students who reside in a public school attendance zone that is in the lowest-performing 25% of all public schools in the state can qualify for up to $6,500 in annual funding for private school tuition, tutoring services, and other qualified expenses.
To qualify, the student must have attended the school for at least one year or be a rising kindergarten student. Parents must have been Georgia residents for at least a year, with exceptions for active-duty military personnel.
The list of low-performing schools includes schools in 107 school districts across the state and can be found at https://gosa.georgia.gov/georgia-promise-scholarship-sb233-school-list.
Legislative Republicans tried unsuccessfully for years to get a vouchers bill through the General Assembly before finally succeeding this year. To achieve that goal, the bill’s GOP sponsors agreed to concessions that set spending limits on the program.
Senate Bill 233 prohibits spending more than 1% of Georgia’s Quality Basic Education (QBE) fund on vouchers, a cap that is currently set at $140 million a year.
Still, Democrats argued that private-school vouchers will divert money from public schools while not truly serving the needs of students from low-income families. The bill’s opponents said $6,500 is not nearly enough to pay the tuition at most private schools.
by Dave Williams | Dec 5, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The U.S. Postal Service has failed to deliver on Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s pledge to restore on-time mail delivery in Georgia, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff said Thursday.
While DeJoy promised last April to fix the problem within 60 days, mail is still being delivered on time only 75% of the time, Ossoff said during a hearing held by the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
“For my constituents in Georgia, the mail being delivered on time 75% of the time is not where we need to be,” Ossoff said as he questioned DeJoy. “You have not recovered as you said you would.”
Delays in delivering mail in Georgia first surfaced last winter after the postal service opened a new regional mail distribution center in Palmetto. In April, Ossoff reported that only 36% of inbound mail handled by the center was being delivered on time.
DeJoy attributed the delays to problems starting up a postal service restructuring plan aimed at making the agency financially self-sufficient. He put the plan on hold while the postal service works to resolve the issues encountered in Georgia and assured Ossoff the problems would be fixed within about 60 days.
On Thursday, Ossoff said he is continuing to receive complaints of delays in delivering important mail.
“(This is) about whether or not seniors in Georgia are receiving prescriptions,” he said. “It’s small businesses that are not able to get products to market. … It’s death notices not delivered to family members.”
DeJoy said the postal service is continuing to work through the initial difficulties with the restructuring plan, which it must keep pursuing to ensure the agency’s long-term financial viability. The postal service lost $6.5 billion in fiscal 2023 and $9.5 billion during the last fiscal year.
“Within less than three days, people will get all of their mail and packages,” DeJoy said. “That will be the target we’re shooting for.”
Ossoff responded that three days is lowering the target for on-time mail delivery.
“Delivery in Georgia has been abysmal this year,” he told DeJoy. “You need to do better.”
by Dave Williams | Dec 5, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Three Georgia cities are recipients of the latest round of grant funding through the state’s Rural Workforce Housing Initiative, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday.
More than $5 million will go toward infrastructure development and 140 housing units in the cities of Waynesboro, Hawkinsville, and Hinesville.
“We are not resting on our laurels when it comes to supporting communities experiencing historic economic growth in building the infrastructure they need,” Kemp said. “I want to congratulate these communities on their success.”
The largest of the new grants – nearly $2.5 million – will go to Waynesboro to construct street, drainage, water, and sewer infrastructure supporting 51 new housing units on a 190-acre tract.
The city of Hawkinsville will receive almost $2.3 million for road, water, and sewer improvements needed to build 58 single-family homes.
Hinesville’s $1.1 million grant will be used to construct street, drainage, water, and sewer infrastructure to develop 31 detached townhouses.
Each city and developer will contribute matching funds toward the projects.
Kemp launched the Rural Workforce Housing Initiative early last year during his annual State of the State address to the General Assembly. The grants are overseen by the OneGeorgia Authority.
by Dave Williams | Dec 5, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – President-elect Donald Trump will nominate former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., to head the Small Business Administration.
“Small businesses are the backbone of our great economy,” Trump wrote Wednesday on his social media site. “Kelly will bring her experience in business and Washington to reduce red tape and unleash opportunity for our small businesses to grow, innovate, and thrive.”
Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Loeffler to the Senate in January 2020 to fill the unexpired term of retired Sen. Johnny Isakson, who died late the following year. She ran for a full term later in 2020 but lost to Democrat Raphael Warnock in a runoff at the beginning of 2021.
Loeffler, a wealthy Atlanta businesswoman, is married to Jeff Sprecher, chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange. She also was CEO of Atlanta-based Bakkt, a Bitcoin-focused subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange, and was formerly a co-owner of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream.
Loeffler has been a staunch loyalist to Trump, backing his unsuccessful legal efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia that saw Trump lose to Democrat Joe Biden and calling for the resignation of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger amid unproven Republican claims of election fraud.
After the 2020 election cycle, Loeffler founded the organization Greater Georgia to recruit Republican candidates and register GOP voters.
After Trump won a second term in the White House last month, Loeffler signed up to-chair the president-elect’s inauguration committee.
Trump had briefly considered tapping Loeffler to serve in his administration as secretary of agriculture but instead turned to Brooke Rollins, an aide during his first term in office. Loeffler’s nomination is subject to confirmation by the Republican-controlled Senate.
