ATLANTA – One of America’s major telecommunications companies is striking a blow at the pervasive inadequacy of online connectivity in rural Georgia.
Comcast Inc. announced a $9 million investment Friday to expand its internet services to nearly 8,000 homes and businesses in Haralson and Carroll counties in West Georgia.
“I want to applaud Comcast’s continued focus on supporting residents and businesses in rural Georgia,” said state House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, who attended a ceremony unveiling the initiative Friday in downtown Tallapoosa. “Comcast’s technology investment in Haralson and Carroll counties will strengthen these communities and create new opportunities by supporting workforce development, education and quality of life.”
“This announcement supports Georgia’s mission to be the technology capital of the East Coast,” added Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who formed a high-profile task force of political, business and academic leaders last winter with that goal in mind. “I am grateful for Comcast’s commitment to continue to focus on expanding broadband access in rural Georgia.”
Increasing rural Georgians’ access to internet connectivity has been a key goal of the House Rural Development Council, a committee of state lawmakers Ralston formed in 2017 to look for solutions to the economic challenges facing rural Georgia.
Following up on that agenda, the House passed legislation in March aimed at making it easier for the state’s telecom providers to deploy broadband service to rural customers. The bill has been sent over to the Georgia Senate to consider when the General Assembly resumes the 2020 legislative session on Monday.
The Comcast project will give previously unserved homes and businesses in the two counties access to a wide range of internet options via the company’s Xfinity services.
“Today’s announcement truly underscores our commitment to bridging the digital divide in rural Georgia,” said Jason Gumbs, regional senior vice president at Comcast. “During these challenging times, it is clear just how critical broadband connectivity has become.”
The new service will be available within one year.
ATLANTA – Bolstered by federal coronavirus relief funds, MARTA’s governing board adopted a $1.2 billion budget Thursday without raising fares or laying off employees.
The transit agency received $298.6 million in federal aid from the CARES Act Congress passed in March as transit systems across the country began losing riders in droves because of the economic lockdown brought on by COVID-19.
After using $83 million of that money to help offset immediate coronavirus-related losses, MARTA rolled $150 million into the fiscal 2021 budget – which takes effect July 1 – and set aside $65.6 million for use in fiscal 2022.
“This has been an extraordinarily difficult time for transit,” MARTA General Manager and CEO Jeffrey Parker said Thursday. “We’ve provided safe, essential service while experiencing unprecedented revenue losses. This budget … reflects MARTA’s commitment to state of good repair and expansion while being mindful of future financial impacts of COVID-19.”
The budget, which is divided almost equally between operating and capital programing funds, includes 3% pay raises for MARTA employees and sets aside $20 million in a contingency fund for coronavirus-related expenses during the coming fiscal year, including personal protection equipment and emergency sick leave.
Also, MARTA has suspended merit increases for non-union employees, eliminated vacancies and increased its emphasis on reducing overtime costs.
As part of its service expansion efforts, the transit agency will invest $20 million in new natural gas-powered and electric buses and new bus transit centers and bus shelters in DeKalb and Clayton counties.
MARTA also expects soon to enter the environmental impact phase for plans to provide high-capacity transit in Clayton County, with options under consideration including heavy rail, light rail and bus-rapid transit.
The agency’s $599 million capital budget includes $62 million for a systemwide station rehabilitation program and repairs to large sections of aging tracks. Other rail system projects include a systemwide elevator and escalator rehabilitation program and the first installment of a long-range initiative that eventually will replace all of MARTA’s rail cars.
ATLANTA – More than three dozen businesses and nonprofit organizations are calling on Gov. Brian Kemp and the General Assembly to raise more revenue to overcome a looming fiscal 2021 budget shortfall rather than impose deep spending cuts.
In a letter released Thursday, the companies and groups warned that slashing spending on state programs and services would have devastating consequences for large segments of Georgia’s population.
“Georgia cannot cut its way to prosperity: that much has been made clear in the aftermath of the Great Recession and in the midst of the global pandemic,” the letter stated. “Deep cuts will disproportionately harm communities of color and rural communities and curb the state’s ability to recover.”
With Georgia tax revenues reeling from the impact of a business shutdown brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, Kemp ordered state agencies last month to reduce spending by 14% across the board. He subsequently scaled that back to 11% when new revenue numbers came in that didn’t look as dire as previous forecasts.
The Atlanta-based Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, one of the groups signing on to Wednesday’s letter, has been urging lawmakers to increase Georgia’s tobacco tax, the third-lowest in the nation, to the national average and get rid of the “double-deduction” loophole that lets upper-income taxpayers who itemize pay less in state income taxes.
The group also wants a closer examination of the lucrative tax incentives the state offers to lure businesses to move to Georgia, notably the popular film tax credit, to determine if some tax breaks should be eliminated or scaled back to achieve budget savings.
“Our leaders must recapture lost revenue given out through billions of dollars in special interest tax breaks and raise new revenues in order to reduce revenue shortfalls and ensure funding flows to health, education, programs for families experiencing poverty and more,” said Jennifer Owens, the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute’s senior vice president.
Other signatories to the letter include the Georgia NAACP, Georgians for a Healthy Future, Bell Primary Care LLC, Latino Community Fund Inc., and the League of Women Voters of Georgia.
The General Assembly will resume the 2020 legislative session on Monday, three months after suspending the session because of COVID-19.
ATLANTA – Initial unemployment claims in Georgia declined again last week, as more and more businesses brought back employees laid off to limit the spread of coronavirus.
The state Department of Labor processed 135,254 claims last week, down about 14,000 from the week before, the agency reported Thursday. That marked the fifth weekly decline in claims in the last six weeks.
The labor department paid out $156.4 million in regular unemployment benefits last week, $4.1 million less than the previous week.
In the 12 weeks since Georgia’s economy shut down because of the global pandemic, the state has paid out more than $1.4 billion in regular benefits to unemployed Georgians.
To cope with the growing number of jobless workers, the labor department this week launched the federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) program, which provides extended financial support to claimants who have exhausted their regular state unemployment benefits.
“Many people who applied for [regular unemployment compensation] in the first weeks of our COVID-19 economic shutdown are rapidly approaching the end of their initial cycle of [state] benefits,” Georgia Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler said Thursday. “This program will give claimants who have exhausted their benefits the ability to continue to receive financial support for up to an additional 13 weeks.”
During the last 12 weeks, the job sectors accounting for the most initial unemployment claims was accommodation and food services with 625,213 claims. The health care and social assistance sector was next with 288,476 claims, followed closely by retail trade with 283,126 claims.
ATLANTA – Investigative journalist Jon Ossoff has won Georgia’s U.S. Senate Democratic primary, piling up enough votes to avoid an August runoff.
Ossoff declared victory in Tuesday’s primary on Wednesday night after enough ballots had been counted to show him with a winning margin of 51% of the vote.
Former Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson, who earlier had appeared poised to force Ossoff into a runoff, finished second with 15% of the vote, followed by Marietta businesswoman Sarah Riggs Amico, with 12%. Four other candidates were in the single digits.
Ossoff is now free to focus on his bid to unseat first-term Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., in November.
“Our momentum is unstoppable,” Ossoff said. “We will build a country with great health care for every citizen, with equal justice and civil rights for all, with world-class sustainable infrastructure, and a clean political system.”
Ossoff’s win came after a primary election marred by disarray. Some voters practicing social distancing to avoid coronavirus waited in line for hours at the polls to cast their ballots, while others who had requested mail-in absentee ballots didn’t get to vote at all because they never received the ballots or got them too late.
Ossoff and other Democrats blasted Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s handling of the election, while Raffensperger criticized local elections officials – particularly in Democratic-controlled Fulton County – for failing to “properly train” poll workers.
“Yesterday’s election debacle lays bare the need to ensure a free and fair election for every Georgia voter, and our campaign will not stop working to achieve that goal,” Ossoff said Wednesday night. “The people of Georgia deserve to have their voices heard, and that promise of our democracy must live up to its ideals.”
Ossoff lost a bid for a U.S. House seat in a special election three years ago and took some heat for that defeat during the primary campaign. But he outraised his Democratic opponents by a wide margin and held a big lead in the polls.
