ATLANTA – Legislation that would tap into a new source of funding to expand broadband service in Georgia got some pushback this week from the telecom industry.
Senate Bill 65 would convert a portion of a state fund that now subsidizes land-line service provided by rural telephone companies into a pot of money to be used for broadband projects. That portion of the Universal Access Fund (UAF) is due to expire later this year, a decade after the fund was created.
Funds from the UAF would supplement the $20 million Gov. Brian Kemp set aside for broadband in the $26.5 billion mid-year budget the General Assembly passed on Thursday, said Sen. Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, the bill’s chief sponsor.
“Twenty million dollars … is a good start,” Gooch told members of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee Thursday. “But we need to put more money into this year after year until the problem is fixed.”
Lobbyists representing telecom giants including AT&T and small rural telephone companies agreed that expanding broadband into the many unserved areas of rural Georgia is critical to the state’s economy. But they said raiding the UAF is unnecessary.
“There are many federal government programs doling out substantial amounts of funding to spread broadband,” said Kevin Curtin, assistant vice president of legislative affairs for AT&T Georgia.
One such federal program was launched by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in December. The FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund is allocating $9.2 billion during the next 10 years to broadband deployment in 49 states, including $326.5 million headed to Georgia.
Others argued lawmakers should look to the state’s general fund budget to support broadband projects, as Kemp just did with the $20 million allocation.
“We want to continue to try to bring broadband to every Georgia citizen,” said Hunter Hopkins, interim executive director of the Georgia Cable Association. “Let’s just put more money in the general fund versus tinkering with the UAF.”
Some members of the committee also were skeptical of the bill.
Committee Chairman Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, wondered whether the rural phone companies would raise their rates after the UAF expires and they’re no longer receiving subsidies from it.
“[Are] poor people in rural areas who already don’t have broadband going to get their phone rates jacked up?” Cowsert asked.
Sen. Lindsey Tippins, R-Marietta, said converting a portion of the UAF to a broadband fund might not raise much money because many Georgians are getting rid of their land-lines telephones in favor of cellphones.
“You’re talking about a decreasing pool of revenue,” Tippins said.
Gooch’s bill has 20 Republican cosponsors, including Cowsert, Tippins and Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller, R-Gainesville.
But since Thursday’s debate was limited to a hearing on the measure, its fate remains uncertain.
ATLANTA – First-time unemployment claims in Georgia rose slightly last week, even as claims nationwide declined, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday.
Jobless Georgians filed 32,386 initial claims last week, up 5,171 from the week before.
Since the coronavirus pandemic struck Georgia 11 months ago, the state has paid out more than $18 billion to nearly 4.4 million Georgians, more than the last nine years prior to the pandemic.
The labor department paid out more than $400 million last week as the agency continued to implement the latest COVID-19 economic stimulus package Congress passed at the end of last year.
Meanwhile, Georgia finished out 2020 with a workforce of more than 4.5 million jobs, more than doubling the monthly jobs number from November to December.
“Georgia is one of the leading states in the country in job creation,” state Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler said. “We created 44,700 jobs in December 2020, only being outdone by Texas.”
The job sector accounting for the most first-time unemployment claims last week in Georgia was accommodation and food services with 7,095 claims. The administrative and support services job sector was next with 3,617 claims, followed by health care and social assistance with 3,581.
More than 183,000 jobs are listed online at https://bit.ly/36EA2vk for Georgians to access. The labor department offers online resources for finding a job, building a resume, and assisting with other reemployment needs.
ATLANTA – The General Assembly gave final passage Thursday to a $26.5 billion fiscal 2021 mid-year budget that covers state spending through June 30.
The state House of Representatives passed the spending plan 165-4. The Georgia Senate then approved it unanimously less than an hour later.
While lawmakers signed off on most of the spending recommendations Gov. Brian Kemp made last month, legislative leaders worked with the governor to add $60 million to provide one-time $1,000 raises to more than 57,000 state employees earning less than $80,000 per year.
According to a statement the University System of Georgia released Friday, income-eligible system employees also will receive the bonuses.
Kemp’s original mid-year budget already had earmarked $1,000 raises for Georgia teachers and school staff including cafeteria workers, custodians and resource personnel.
Front-line state workers including public health nurses, troopers, road crews and child welfare caseworkers deserve raises after stepping up during the coronavirus pandemic, said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Terry England.
“They don’t have the option to only be virtual,” said England, R-Auburn. “They have to have face-to-face contact. … Their jobs aren’t glamorous. But they’re there every day.”
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, said the $1,000 bonuses will be funded by a mix of federal dollars and savings from higher Medicaid payments the federal government has been making amid the pandemic.
The mid-year budget, which now heads to Kemp for his signature, restores $567 million of $950 million in cuts to K-12 schools the General Assembly imposed last year as state tax revenues slowed due to the economic impact of the pandemic. Another $73.6 million will go to restore cuts lawmakers made to the University System of Georgia.
The legislature also supported the governor’s recommendation for $20 million to expand broadband service in rural Georgia.
As the mid-year spending plan went through the review process, lawmakers added funds to support 10% raises for correctional officers in both the state prison and juvenile detention systems to help stem alarming turnover rates.
The final version of the mid-year budget also includes additions of $40 million to buy 520 new school buses and $11 million in bond funds repurposed to help the state Department of Public Health train workers in providing COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine reservations.
Lawmakers added $3 million to the $1 million already appropriated to help Georgia’s tourism industry recover following the pandemic. Most of the additional funds will go to the Georgia World Congress Center, which lost all of its convention business to the virus, England said.
The House and Senate also agreed to add $455,000 for domestic violence and assault centers and set aside $100,000 to help the Georgia Department of Labor deal with a huge influx of unemployment claims brought on by the pandemic. The money will be used to hire a chief labor officer to oversee claims and financial audits.
ATLANTA – Nearly 70 businesses have applied for licenses to produce low-THC cannabis oil for medical use in Georgia, the commission in charge of the state’s medical cannabis program announced Wednesday.
The companies are seeking either Class 1 or Class 2 licenses. Under legislation the General Assembly passed in 2019, Class 1 licenses will let the recipient grow marijuana indoors in up to 100,000 square feet of space.
Class 2 licenses will authorize recipients to grow an indoor crop occupying up to 50,000 square feet.
About 14,000 Georgians suffering from a list of chronic diseases eligible for treatment with medical cannabis and registered with the state will be able to receive the oil. The list of diseases that qualify patients for cannabis oil under the legislation include cancer, seizure disorders, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, mitochondrial disease and sickle-cell anemia.
The Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission launched the license application process last November.
The commission has put an emphasis on attracting applications from businesses owned by minorities, women and/or veterans.
“Today is a great day for patients who need access to low-THC oil, and economic development for minority-, women-, and veteran-owned businesses,” said Andrew Turnage, the commission’s executive director.
The commission will announce contract awards at the end of the review process, likely in late spring or early summer. Companies then can begin to construct facilities and begin production, a process that could take six to eight months.
Once the manufacturing licenses have been awarded, the commission will develop rules and regulations for granting licenses to dispensaries that will distribute the low-THC oil to patients.
Patients and other members of the public will be able to keep track of the program’s progress and sign up for notifications by clicking on the commission’s website at www.gmcc.ga.gov.
ATLANTA – A Georgia House subcommittee approved legislation Wednesday that would prohibit local governments from adopting building codes based on the source of energy to be used.
House Bill 150, which passed 12-2 and now moves to the full House Energy, Utilities & Telecommunications Committee, has drawn fire from environmental advocates who say it would make it harder for cities and counties to push renewable energy over dirty fossil fuels.
In Georgia, the cities of Atlanta, Augusta, Athens, Savannah and Clarkston have set long-term goals of converting their buildings to 100% clean energy.
“I know a carbon-free energy goal is going to be a long haul,” Neill Herring, a lobbyist for the Georgia chapter of the Sierra Club, told the subcommittee Wednesday. “[But] cities should have the right to choose.”
The two Democrats on the subcommittee who voted against the bill echoed similar arguments that the measure strikes a blow against local control.
“I may have a preference for renewable energy, but that’s not what this is about,” said Rep. Karla Drenner, D-Avondale Estates. “This is about preempting 535 cities [in Georgia] from doing what their elected people were elected to do.”
But the subcommittee’s Republicans said the concept of local control should apply to residents of cities and counties, not their elected officials.
“Many homes in my district are warmed by petroleum gas,” said Rep. Beth Camp, R-Concord. “If a municipality makes a decision to terminate a form of energy, they’re telling people what they can and can’t do in their homes.”
Rep. Bruce Williamson, R-Monroe, the bill’s chief sponsor, said nothing in the measure prohibits local governments from using tax subsidies to encourage builders to use renewable energy.
Atlanta-based Georgia Power, an affiliate of Southern Co., supports House Bill 150 as protecting its commitment to a diverse portfolio of energy supply sources, including coal, gas, nuclear power and renewable energy including solar.
Southern merged with AGL Resources – now known as Southern Company Gas – in 2016.
