ATLANTA – Major building projects from Valdosta to Athens are included in the $883.1 million bond package Gov. Brian Kemp is recommending to the General Assembly.
That’s lower than the $1.13 billion in bond financing lawmakers approved last June for the current fiscal year. But the amount is likely to go higher as members of the House and Senate add projects when the legislature gets its turn at Kemp’s $27.2 billion fiscal 2022 budget plan.
The most expensive project appropriation in the package is $90 million to continue the planned expansion of the Savannah Convention Center. Lawmakers earmarked $70 million last year for the first phase of the $210 million project.
Next on the list is $56.4 million to build a new headquarters for the Georgia Department of Public Safety in Atlanta. A portion of the money would go toward tearing down the existing building.
The bond package sets aside $124.9 million for K-12 school construction and renovation, $208.2 million for construction and renovation on University System of Georgia campuses and $84.3 million for building projects at the state’s technical colleges.
Highlights include $26.8 million to build an aviation training academy at the Chattahoochee Technical College campus in Paulding County, $26.3 million to renovate the humanities building at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton and $21.7 million for Phase I of the Poultry Science Center Complex at the University of Georgia in Athens.
Athens Technical College would receive $13.1 million to build an Industrial Systems Technology Building, $12.4 million is earmarked for construction of a performing arts center at Valdosta State University, and $12.2 million would go toward a convention center at Georgia Southern University.
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton is due to receive $11.8 million for facility improvements, and $7.6 million would be used to build a Nursing and Health Science Simulation Lab at Albany State University.
The state Department of Juvenile Justice would receive $13.7 million to add a 56-bed housing unit at the Muscogee Youth Development Campus, while the Augusta YDC would get $11.7 million for another 56-bed unit.
Members of the House and Senate appropriations committee will spend three days next week reviewing Kemp’s budget proposals.
ATLANTA – First-time unemployment claims in Georgia increased by 5,581 last week to 37,039, reflecting a national trend, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday.
As a result, the state agency paid out more than $223 million to jobless Georgians last week, as benefit checks authorized by a second COVID-19 relief package Congress passed during the holidays continued uninterrupted.
However, the agency is continuing to work on implementing changes to the system required by the new stimulus package. That work has to be completed before those eligible for the 11 weeks of extended payments can receive all of their benefits.
“Our … teams are working around the clock to implement the new guidelines that include complex requirements and programming,” Georgia Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler said.
“The complexity of some of the additional specifications are challenging to program and will be an increased burden, not only on our staff, but to claimants as well. They could’ve done this in a more simplified manner with more input from the states.”
The labor agency is encouraging claimants to continue requesting weekly payments for those who have exhausted benefits or are awaiting eligibility determinations. All eligible payments will be issued when a decision on eligibility is released.
Since the pandemic first took hold in Georgia last March, the labor department has distributed more than $17 billion in federal and state unemployment benefits to nearly 4.3 million Georgians, more than the combined total from the nine years before the virus hit.
The job sector accounting for the most initial unemployment claims in Georgia last week was manufacturing with 8,582 claims. The accommodation and food services job sector was next with 6,682 claims, followed by administrative and support services with 4,595.
More than 169,000 jobs are listed online at EmployGeorgia.com for Georgians to access. The labor department offers online resources for finding a job, building a resume, and assisting with other reemployment needs.
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp asked state lawmakers Thursday to give businesses more help dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, double down on investment in rural Georgia and build on last year’s criminal justice reforms.
In a 65-minute State of the State address to a joint session of the state House and Senate, Kemp proposed expanding a tax credit the General Assembly passed last year for Georgia businesses that make personal protective equipment (PPE) including masks and gowns to manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.
“We cannot waste time in bidding wars with other states or foreign adversaries,” the governor said. “No one nation should hold a monopoly on life-saving medicines and medical supplies, and we should bring these critical industries and the jobs that come with them back to America and here to Georgia.”
Along with restoring more than $1.2 billion to Georgia’s public schools to offset massive spending cuts on education the legislature imposed last year, Kemp called for a one-time $1,000 supplement to help Georgia teachers and other school employees reopen schools safely.
Building on the Rural Strike Team the governor formed in 2019 to lead efforts to create jobs in rural Georgia, Kemp recommended $40 million in the fiscal 2022 state budget to establish a Rural Innovation Fund to help rural businesses get started and grow.
“Many of the economic, medical, and other challenges that are facing rural Georgia cannot be fixed with a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach,” Kemp said. “These issues are best addressed through targeted, innovative, public-private solutions that meet the needs of specific communities not just today or tomorrow, but five, 10, or 25 years down the road.”
In the criminal justice arena, Kemp asked lawmakers to reform Georgia’s citizen’s arrest law as a follow-up to the hate-crimes bill the General Assembly passed last June. He cited the case of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man shot to death while jogging on a Brunswick street last year by three white men.
“Ahmaud was the victim of a vigilante-style of violence that has no place in our state,” Kemp said. “We can again send a clear message: Georgia is a state that protects all of its people and fights injustice wherever it is found.”
Kemp spent much of Thursday’s address praising the heroism and self-sacrifice of health-care workers in hospitals and nursing homes across Georgia who stepped up to fight COVID-19.
The governor defended his “measured reopening” of the state’s economy to reduce the pandemic’s impact on businesses and their employees. He said he took a lot of criticism for that decision but heeded the pleas of business owners and essential workers struggling to make ends meet.
“These hardworking Georgians were struggling, not because their business was a failure or because their products or services were no longer needed. No, they faced devastation because of a virus, through no fault of their own,” Kemp said. “While some disagreed with me, I know our decision … to give these people a fighting chance – a glimmer of hope – meant everything to them.”
Democratic lawmakers were unimpressed with Kemp’s speech, noting he avoided talking about controversial proposals to change election laws that Republicans are pushing.
Minority-party leaders in both chambers pledged to press for expanding health insurance coverage, bolstering access to mail-in voting and passing a broader criminal justice reform package.
“Thousands of Georgians continue to live paycheck-to-paycheck, and financial security continues to be elusive for most Georgians,” said Georgia Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler, D-Stone Mountain.
To offset last year’s budget cuts, Democrats called for a tax hike on tobacco and vaping products that would increase state revenues by $567 million to $705 million.
A criminal justice reform package Democrats rolled out Thursday goes beyond repealing the citizen’s arrest law to setting new standards for police training, limiting no-knock warrants and ending police choke holds.
Democrats said they also plan to introduce bills allowing Georgians to register to vote on Election Day and providing for state officials to send out absentee ballot request forms for each election, as happened ahead of last June’s primaries.
With those initiatives likely to meet a wall of opposition in the Republican-led General Assembly, Democrats are gearing up to frame election-law changes as attempts at voter suppression after President-elect Joe Biden became the first Democrat to carry Georgia since 1992 and Democrats flipped both of Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats last week.
“These barriers don’t prevent fraud,” state Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, said of election-law change proposals. “They prevent democracy.”
The rebuttal to Kemp’s speech from Democratic leaders also carried a warning following their defeat of Republicans in the presidential and Senate contests and ahead of Kemp’s potential rematch in 2022 against 2108 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.
“If you’re not working for all of Georgia, you won’t be working for Georgia much longer,” said Georgia House Minority Leader James Beverly, D-Macon.
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp Thursday called for increasing funds to Georgia public schools by more than $1.2 billion to help offset cuts to education the General Assembly imposed last year.
The governor’s $26.3 billion mid-year budget – up from the $25.9 billion fiscal 2021 budget lawmakers adopted last June – would restore more than $647 million in “austerity” cuts to Georgia schools. Kemp’s $27.2 billion fiscal 2022 budget plan covering state spending starting July 1 would restore another $573 million.
Kemp’s budget recommendations would mean less heavy lifting for the legislature, which was forced to cut spending last year by $2.2 billion to offset several months of plunging state revenues brought on by the coronavirus pandemic’s toll on the economy.
Nearly $1 billion of those reductions were to Georgia schools, even as teachers and administrators struggled to cope with the impacts of COVID-19.
“The additional burdens of remote learning, social distancing, wearing a mask, adapting to the new normal honestly made education overwhelming,” Kemp said Thursday during his annual State of the State address to a joint session of the state House and Senate. “With those funds, schools will be able to prioritize our students’ safety [and] ensure quality education continues.”
Besides restoring the cuts to K-12 education, the two budgets would put back spending reductions to Georgia’s public colleges and universities as well as the state’s technical colleges. The governor also is proposing to fully fund enrollment growth at both public schools and on University System of Georgia campuses.
New spending initiatives include $30 million to establish a rural broadband infrastructure grant program, $20 million in seed money in the mid-year budget and $10 million in fiscal 2022 to match federal funds and private money to build broadband projects.
Kemp also is recommending $40 million in the fiscal 2022 budget to launch the Rural Innovation Fund, a pool of money to help finance innovative projects targeted to specific needs in specific parts of rural Georgia.
The annual bond package for building projects is highlighted by $90 million that would go toward the $210 million expansion of the Savannah Convention Center. The General Assembly put up $70 million in bond funding for the first phase of the project last year.
Another $6 million in bond financing would go toward expanding the Lake Lanier Conference Center in Hall County.
Transportation-related bonds include $100 million in what has become an annual allocation for new bridges across Georgia and $10 million for improvements to the state’s network of short-line railroads.
On the mental health front, the fiscal 2022 budget includes nearly $2 million to expand services to Georgians with intellectual and development disabilities.
And, in a sign of the times, $5 million would go toward building an 8-foot fence around the state Capitol in downtown Atlanta. The Capitol grounds have seen a stronger-than-usual police presence since last week’s riot in and around the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump.
University System of Georgia Chancellor Steve Wrigley
ATLANTA – University System of Georgia Chancellor Steve Wrigley Tuesday announced plans to retire on July 1 after 36 years in public service.
Wrigley has been serving in the university system’s top spot since 2017. Before that, he spent decades in the university system and elsewhere in state government.
“It has been a great privilege and honor to serve the citizens of Georgia,” Wrigley said in a statement. “During a career in education policy and administration, I have worked with many incredible people and made countless cherished friendships.
“I am grateful to my family and members of the Board of Regents for their support and guidance, and I especially appreciate the support and leadership of governors [Brian] Kemp and [Nathan] Deal during my time as chancellor.”
“For several decades, Chancellor Wrigley has devoted his career to serving his fellow Georgians,” Kemp added. “Since assuming his role as chancellor of the University System of Georgia, he has helped our higher education system achieve new heights.”
Wrigley has emphasized shoring up graduation rates during his four years running the university system.
Georgia’s 26 public colleges and universities experienced an almost 10 percentage point increase in four-year graduation rates during his tenure, while the system saw among the largest increases in the nation over the last five years for six-year college completion rates, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
Despite the pandemic, the system awarded 70,879 degrees this past fiscal year, the most in its 89-year history. Enrollment during the just completed fall semester systemwide was a record 341,000 students.
The system also has held the line on tuition on Wrigley’s watch. He told members of the system’s Board of Regents Tuesday that tuition has risen an average of only 0.9% during the last five years, less than the rate of inflation. Three of those five years saw no tuition hikes.
Before taking the reins as chancellor, Wrigley served as the university system’s executive vice chancellor of administration and, before that, in leadership roles at the University of Georgia.
During the 1990s, prior to joining the university system, he served as chief of staff to then-Gov. Zell Miller.
The Board of Regents has yet to formulate a plan for hiring Wrigley’s successor.
