ATLANTA – Savannah may soon have a major film studio complex to boost its growing film and TV production industry.
The Georgia Film Academy is working with Georgia Tech to redevelop the Atlanta-based university’s Savannah campus at Jimmy DeLoach Parkway and Interstate 95 into a film production studio, Sandra Neuse, the University System of Georgia’s vice chancellor for real estate and facilities told members of the system’s Board of Regents Tuesday.
The professional education courses now offered at Tech’s Savannah satellite campus would be moved to a more central location in the city.
Film and TV production has evolved into an important component of Savannah’s economy in recent years. In 2019, 129 projects – including eight feature films – filmed in Savannah generated $125.6 million in direct spending and $266.3 million in total economic impact, according to the Savannah Economic Development Authority.
But Neuse said the area lacks sufficient purpose-built soundstages and production facilities. A feasibility study showed the 54-acre Georgia Tech Savannah campus would be a good location to build a studio, she said.
Georgia Tech owns an 18,000-square-foot building on the site that would be repurposed for the studio complex. The project also would include two other adjacent buildings totaling 97,000 square feet.
Under the proposal Neuse presented Tuesday, Georgia Advanced Technology Ventures (GATV) – a nonprofit affiliated with Georgia Tech – would lead a request for proposals to select a developer for the project.
GATV also would guide the relocation of Tech’s professional education program.
The project and various lease and sublease agreements needed to redevelop the property will be subject to the board’s approval.
ATLANTA – Georgia tax collections continued on a strong pace last month, the state Department of Revenue reported Tuesday.
State tax revenues rose by $175.6 million last month compared to January of last year, a 7.5% increase.
Another positive showing for monthly tax receipts comes as good news to Georgia lawmakers beginning to go to work on Gov. Brian Kemp’s $27.2 billion fiscal 2022 state budget plan.
With tax revenues coming in higher than expected during the first half of the fiscal year through December, the General Assembly won’t be faced with a repeat of the $2.2 billion in spending cuts the legislature was forced to impose last year.
Individual income taxes increased by 6.3% in January, thanks largely to a 40.8% decline in tax refunds issued by the revenue agency. Net sales taxes also rose by 10.2% during the month.
Corporate income tax collections soared by 51.2% compared to January 2020, as estimated payments rose by 45.1% while refunds plummeted by 60.1%.
While state tax collection trends are looking encouraging at the present, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee warned late last month the good times aren’t likely to last.
Rep. Terry England, R-Auburn, told his House colleagues state revenues likely will get hit at tax-filing time as the Department of Revenue issues refunds to a large number of unemployed Georgians whose benefits were taxed.
ATLANTA – Legislation extending COVID-19 liability protection to Georgia businesses and hospitals until July 14 of next year cleared the state House of Representatives Tuesday.
Lawmakers voted 99-68 along party lines to extend the sunset on a bill the General Assembly passed last June shielding businesses and health-care facilities in Georgia from lawsuits brought by people who contract COVID-19 in all but the worst negligence or recklessness cases.
Majority Republicans argued businesses are still struggling to keep their doors open amid the ongoing pandemic.
“While they’re being attacked by the virus, what we don’t need is for them to be attacked by frivolous lawsuits,” said House Majority Whip Trey Kelly, R-Cedartown, the bill’s chief sponsor.
But Democrats countered that while the legislation looks out for the interests of Georgia businesses, it doesn’t protect essential workers forced to stay on the job at the risk of exposure to the virus.
“They have sustained our economy throughout the pandemic, yet we have no protections in place for these workers … forced to work in unsafe conditions,” said Rep. Bee Nguyen, D-Atlanta.
Rep. Matthew Wilson, D-Brookhaven, said the legislation is unnecessary.
“We haven’t had waves of lawsuits crippling our small businesses,” he said. “There hasn’t been a single recovery.”
Kelley responded that his bill will help the very front-line workers Democrats were defending because keeping businesses open means they will keep getting paychecks.
“Who’s going to take up for these employees when they don’t have any jobs to go to?” he asked.
Rep. Jesse Petrea, R-Savannah, said the liability shield also protects Georgia hospitals and other health-care facilities as they struggle to maintain bed capacity and distribute COVID-19 vaccines.
“This measure will allow health-care providers to continue to stay focused on the most vulnerable in our society,” he said.
Last year’s legislation extends COVID-19 liability protection only through July 14 of this year. The proposed one-year extension now moves to the state Senate.
ATLANTA – Two Middle Georgia utilities and a Kansas City-based fiber optic company announced a partnership Monday that will bring broadband service to homes and businesses in 18 mostly rural counties.
Central Georgia EMC, Southern Rivers Energy and Conexon will invest more than $210 million to design and build a 6,890-mile fiber network that will provide both improved electric service and high-speed internet access to all 80,000 of the two utilities’ customers. Service is expected to begin as early as June 2021 and continue rolling out during the next four years.
State and local political and business leaders have long identified the lack of broadband connectivity in many parts of rural Georgia as instrumental in holding back rural communities.
The coronavirus pandemic, which has forced many students out of their classrooms to rely on online instruction and hamstrung rural companies trying to conduct business, has given the need for high-speed internet even greater urgency.
“Many economic, medical and other challenges facing rural Georgia can not be fixed by a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach,” Gov. Brian Kemp said during Monday’s announcement at the Georgia Capitol. “[It takes] EMCs, private partners and community leaders working together on creative solutions to close the gap between those with internet service and those without.”
Although a couple of Georgia’s electric membership cooperatives have been providing broadband service for years, the General Assembly first authorized the EMCs to enter the broadband business just two years ago. Since then, EMCs in the North Georgia mountains, West Georgia and South Georgia have launched broadband projects.
Under the deal announced Monday, Central Georgia EMC and Southern Rivers Energy will own the fiber and lease excess capacity to Conexon, which has agreed to serve every EMC customer with fiber-to-the-home internet speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second.
The internet service will be powered by EMC fiber, but Conexon will provide the retail service to homes and businesses and manage account set-up, customer service and billing.
The 18 counties to be served through the partnership announced Monday are Bibb, Butts, Clayton, Coweta, Crawford, Fayette, Henry, Jasper, Jones, Lamar, Meriwether, Monroe, Morgan, Newton, Pike, Putnam, Spalding, and Upson.
“We are marking today this investment not only in rural broadband but in the future of this state,” said House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge. “This investment will bring the latest generation of fiber optic high-speed broadband to the doorstep of every resident of this region.”
ATLANTA – Legislation aimed at incentivizing the production of medicine and medical devices in Georgia has been introduced in the state House of Representatives on behalf of Gov. Brian Kemp.
House Bill 304 would offer manufacturers of medical equipment or supplies or the makers of pharmaceuticals a tax credit of $1,250 for every job they create.
The legislation is modeled after a bill the General Assembly passed last year providing a tax credit to the manufacturers of personal protective equipment (PPE), including companies that did not traditionally manufacture PPE but began doing so in response to COVID-19.
“One of the lessons we learned early on in the pandemic is that we cannot waste time in bidding wars with others for life-saving supplies,” Kemp said Friday.
“Last session, we incentivized the production of PPE in the Peach State to alleviate that problem, build up our stockpile, and make it easier to stay in business in the era of COVID-19. HB 304 is a natural next step to that program.”
The legislation’s chief sponsor is Rep. Jodi Lott, R-Evans, one of the governor’s floor leaders in the House. Cosponsors include House Republican Caucus Chairman Matt Hatchett of Dublin and Reps. Bert Reeves, R-Marietta; Ron Stephens, R-Savannah; Bruce Williamson, R-Monroe; and Patty Bentley, D-Butler.
