ATLANTA – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is asking the nation’s new attorney general to withdraw a federal lawsuit challenging election reform legislation the General Assembly passed in 2021.
The Biden administration sued to block provisions of Senate Bill 202, which Georgia lawmakers adopted in the wake of lawsuits President Donald Trump filed at the end of his first term challenging the results of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election. Various courts rejected the Republican suits, ruling that Democrat Joe Biden was the legitimate winner of the Peach State’s 16 electoral votes that year.
Senate Bill 202 required voters seeking to cast absentee ballots to show a photo ID, a provision that already applied to in-person voting. The 2021 legislation also limited the number of absentee ballot drop boxes and prohibited non-poll workers from handing out food and drinks within 150 feet of voters standing in line.
Democrats who opposed the bill called for economic boycotts of Georgia, which led to the relocation of Major League Baseball’s All-Star game in 2021 from Truist Park to Colorado. The game will be held at the Atlanta Braves’ ballpark this summer.
“The (Justice Department) should never be leveraged for political purposes,” Raffensperger said this week. “I hope Attorney General Bondi will join us in ending this frivolous lawsuit against the state of Georgia, and release documents exposing the coordination between the Biden (administration) and the liberal left.”
Raffensperger also cited a 2022 University of Georgia poll that found 99% of voters reported no issues casting their ballots, and a follow-up poll in 2024 that reflected a similarly high satisfaction rate, with 98% of voters experiencing no problems voting.
ATLANTA – Georgia House budget writers approved a $40.5 billion mid-year state budget Wednesday that would take advantage of a huge surplus to fund improvements to the state’s prison system and provide disaster relief to victims of Hurricane Helene.
The fiscal 2025 mid-year budget would increase state spending by $4.4 billion over the original budget the General Assembly adopted last spring. Of that increase, $2.7 billion would come out of the surplus.
Gov. Brian Kemp made the prison system and hurricane relief major priorities of the mid-year budget he presented to the legislature last month.
The House Appropriations Committee upped the ante on both, raising the number of additional correctional officers the state plans to hire from the 330 the governor recommended to more than 400 and increasing the hurricane relief package Kemp proposed by $197 million to $811 million.
The prison package follows release of a Justice Department audit last fall that accused the Georgia prison system of violating inmates’ constitutional rights by failing to protect them from widespread violence. Beefing up the system’s staffing and upgrading deteriorating prison infrastructure will require a multi-year effort, committee Chairman Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin, told his House colleagues before Wednesday’s vote.
“This is just the beginning of a costly but essential endeavor,” he said.
To help offset the cost of the increased hiring, the House version of the mid-budget calls for reducing Kemp’s request for the design and construction of new modular prison units from four to two. That would reduce the total prison package from $372 million to $333 million.
Hatchett said the hurricane relief money would help homeowners, business owners, farmers, and timber producers across a large swath of South Georgia and the eastern half of the state struck by Helene in late September recover from the devastating hurricane.
“This storm had a much larger impact than any other disaster in our history, causing generational loss, changing the landscape of our state both literally and figuratively,” he said.
Other highlights in the mid-year budget include a $1 billion one-time income tax rebate and $1.7 billion for transportation and water projects.
The transportation funding includes $530 million to help the state Department of Transportation improve roads and highways vital to the movement of freight throughout Georgia.
The water projects the governor is recommending include $500 million to increase surface water supplies in Coastal Georgia as an alternative to dipping into environmentally fragile groundwater to supply the huge Hyundai electric-vehicle manufacturing plant now under construction west of Savannah. A new water intake on the Savannah River is expected to deliver 20 million gallons a day by 2030.
The mid-year budget, which would cover state spending through June 30, fully funds Georgia’s Quality Basic Education (QBE) formula for students in grades K-12, something the state has only been able to do in recent years after building up a $16 billion surplus.
Another $50 million would go for one-time school safety grants, which Kemp announced last month. Every public school in Georgia would get $68,000 to spend as local school officials see fit.
The mid-year budget is expected to reach the House floor for a vote on Thursday.
ATLANTA – The U.S. Senate voted Tuesday to confirm former U.S. Rep. Doug Collins of Gainesville as secretary of veterans affairs.
The Republican nominated for the post by President Donald Trump received strong bipartisan backing in a 77-23 vote, with both of Georgia’s Democratic senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, supporting the nominee.
“I congratulate Congressman Collins on his confirmation as our next VA secretary and look forward to working with him to ensure Georgia’s veterans receive the care, support, and respect they’ve earned,” Ossoff said in a prepared statement.
Collins, 58, served in the Georgia House from 2007 to 2013 before being elected to the U.S. House representing Georgia’s 9th Congressional District. As ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, he gained national attention as one of Trump’s most vocal supporters during an impeachment inquiry launched during the president’s first term in 2019.
Collins was Trump’s preferred pick to run for the U.S. Senate following the retirement of the late Sen. Johnny Isakson. But Gov. Brian Kemp instead appointed Kelly Loeffler to fill the vacancy.
Collins ran for Loeffler’s seat in 2020 but failed to make the January 2021 runoff. Warnock defeated Loeffler in the runoff to win election to the Senate.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has awarded $24.6 million to help fund 12 land conservation projects across the state through the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program.
Voters overwhelmingly approved the program as a constitutional amendment in 2018. The program is funded through a sales tax on sporting goods.
The largest grant in this year’s round of funding – $5 million – will go toward the acquisition of Upatoi Ravines in Talbot County near Columbus.
Three grants worth $3 million each will help acquire an addition to the Phinizy Wildlife Management Area in Richmond County, restore Paradise Park in Thomasville, and renovate the day use area at Amicalola Falls State Park in Dawson County.
Here are the other grants the Georgia Board of Natural Resources approved late last week:
$1.9 million to expand Campbellton Park in Chattahoochee Hills.
$1.8 million to acquire additional acreage at Panola Mountain State Park in Henry and Rockdale counties.
$1.6 million to acquire acreage on the Pinhoti Trail in Polk County.
$1.3 million to acquire One Mile Branch Preserve in the city of Madison
$1.3 million for waterway trail improvements at Stephen C. Foster State Park in Charlton County.
$1 million for improvements at the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail Rose Hill Cemetery Connection in Macon.
$993,651 for habitat restoration on state lands in Walton County.
$808,500 to acquire the Grizzard Tract at Black Rock Mountain State Park in Rabun County.
ATLANTA – A Mitchell County grand jury has indicted 21 residents of Camilla accused of fraudulently obtaining loans from the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
The defendants allegedly claimed ownership of non-existent businesses and presented fabricated financial data to support their applications for loans through the program Congress created to help small businesses in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
“In the face of an unprecedented global health pandemic, the Paycheck Protection Program was intended to help small business owners keep their doors open and their employees paid,” Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said Tuesday.
“Those who took advantage of the system to fraudulently obtain funds will be held accountable. We’re committed to protecting taxpayer dollars no matter the amount, and we will continue to fight for our local businesses that are doing things the right way.”
Each defendant received at least one loan of $20,833 as a result of their actions, with some submitting more than one application and receiving a second loan. The total amount that is alleged to have been fraudulently obtained by all 21 defendants is $604,157.
The attorney general’s White Collar and Cyber Crime Unit presented evidence to the grand jury last month. The panel returned 13 separate indictments charging the defendants with theft by taking and false swearing.
