by Dave Williams | Aug 12, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The University System of Georgia (USG) generated $23.1 billion in economic impact in fiscal 2024, while recent graduates stand to earn $1.4 million more over their lifetimes thanks to their college degrees, according to two studies released Tuesday.
The economic impact total represented an increase of 5.4% over the previous fiscal year. Of that total, $15.2 billion was in direct spending by students and the system’s 26 institutions on personnel and operating costs, while $7.9 million was the multiplier impact of those funds on local communities.
The companion study found that graduates from the Class of 2024 earning bachelor’s degrees on average will see $1.4 million in lifetime earnings more than those without a college degree. For those with master’s degrees, those earnings rise to $1.7 million, while holders of doctorates earn nearly $2.5 million more in their lifetimes on average.
“A degree from one of USG’s 26 public colleges and universities is a million-dollar deal for graduates and a billion-dollar boost for Georgia,” system Chancellor Sonny Perdue said Tuesday. “Students see real returns through higher earnings and better opportunities. Meanwhile, our institutions power Georgia’s economy and help local communities thrive.”
Of the jobs generated by USG schools during the period surveyed, 32% were on campus, and 68% were off campus. Between them, the university system and the various campuses created about the same employment impact in Georgia as the state’s top five employers combined.
Both studies were conducted on the system’s behalf by Jeff Humphreys, director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business.
by Dave Williams | Aug 12, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The University System of Georgia Board of Regents approved a $3.87 billion fiscal 2027 operating budget request Tuesday.
The 2027 budget, which takes effect next July, represents a $267.5 million increase over this year’s spending plan, or 7.4%.
The Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget (OPB) instructed state agencies last month not to ask for more money, citing the potential loss of federal funds. But the university system is being allowed to request increases in spending that reflect enrollment growth, an increase in square footage across system campuses, and higher health-insurance costs, Tracey Cook, the system’s chief fiscal officer, told the regents before Tuesday’s unanimous vote.
Most of the proposed increase – $216.5 million – would go to cover enrollment growth. About $11.9 million would provide startup costs for a new medical school at the University of Georgia due to enroll its first cohort of students next fall.
The regents also approved a $197.7 million capital budget request. The largest chunk of the funding – $83.1 million – would go toward two building projects.
Of that amount, $48.6 million would pay for new student support, engagement, and wellness facilities at Savannah State University. Another $34.5 million would be used to fund the fourth phase of a multi-year modernization of the Science and Ag Hill area of the University of Georgia campus in Athens.
“These projects have been vetted … and determined to be of the highest priority,” Cook said.
The operating and capital budget requests will head next to the OPB. Gov. Brian Kemp will present his spending recommendations to the General Assembly in January.
by Dave Williams | Aug 11, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – An investigation led by U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., has uncovered 510 credible reports of human rights abuses at immigration detention centers across the country.
The list included 14 credible reports of mistreatment of pregnant women and 18 credible reports of mistreatment of children.
“These detention facilities … are no place for children or pregnant women,” Ossoff said Monday during a news conference to call attention to a report on abuses of immigration detainees released by his office. “It is within our power as citizens to stop this. We can shine a light on it.”
“What is happening now is far worse than what was happening in the first Trump administration,” added pediatrician Dr. Marsha Griffin, cofounder, president and CEO of the nonprofit Community for Children, who appeared with Ossoff on behalf of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “We must end this shameful practice.”
The investigation of immigration detention facilities across 25 states and Puerto Rico, at U.S. military bases, and on chartered deportation flights turned up human rights abuses including deaths in custody, physical and sexual abuse, mistreatment of pregnant women and children, inadequate medical care, overcrowding and unsanitary living conditions inadequate food or water, exposure to extreme temperatures, denial of access to attorneys, and family separations.
Griffin said the average length of stay for children held at immigration detention centers is longer than ever.
“No amount of time in detention is safe for a child,” she said. “Even short periods can cause psychiatric harm and long-term physical health problems. … These children are at elevated risk of suicide. Their spirits break.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), pushed back at the report’s findings.
“ICE detention facilities have higher standards than most U.S. prisons that detain American citizens,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “All detainees are provided with comprehensive medical care, proper meals, and are given the opportunity to call their family members and attorneys. These false allegations are garbage and are part of the reason ICE agents are now facing a 1,000% increase in assaults against them.”
Georgia had the second-highest number of credible reports of physical and sexual abuse of detainees – 13 – below only the 29 reports from Texas, according to the report. The investigation was launched last January to measure reports of abuse since President Donald Trump took office that month.
by Dave Williams | Aug 8, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A Floyd County man on probation following convictions for making terroristic threats and other crimes was arrested Friday on charges of threatening to assassinate President Donald Trump.
Jauan Rashun Porter, 29, of Rome was jailed pending a hearing in federal court scheduled for Tuesday.
According to information presented in court, Porter joined a TikTok livestream about Trump captioned “Alligator Alcatraz,” an immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades that opened last month. At one point, Porter allegedly said “So, there’s only one way to make America great and that is putting a bullet in between Trump’s eyes.”
When asked by the livestream host about federal agents coming to his door, Porter allegedly said, “I’m gonna kill them, too.”
“The allegations against Porter are serious and required a swift, decisive, and collaborative response,” U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said. “We do not tolerate threats against public officials or law enforcement officers, and Porter will now face the consequences of his actions.”
A search of Porter’s apartment found Tannerite (an explosive), two pipes, and pistol ammunition. Porter was convicted previously for terroristic threats, influencing a witness, mutiny in a penal institution, drug possession, battery, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and domestic violence.
The case is being investigated by the U.S. Secret Service. The Floyd County Police Department, the county District Attorney’s Office, and the Georgia Department of Community Supervision aided in the investigation.
Trump was shot in the ear during an assassination attempt last summer on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania and was unhurt in a second attempt on his life at his Florida golf course last September.
by Dave Williams | Aug 8, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Local elections officials recommended a series of changes to state election laws Friday aimed at restoring public trust in the voting process.
“Nothing bothers me more than knowing that the process is not trusted,” Deidre Holden, elections director in Paulding County, told members of a Georgia House study committee formed to evaluate the state’s current election laws and propose improvements.
“When our voters come to cast their vote, they should never leave there with a doubt in their mind that their vote is going to count. They should leave with confidence, and it’s very unfortunate we’re not seeing that.”
Some of the changes Holden and other local election officials testifying at a daylong hearing in Rockmart suggested would alter ballots to create greater transparency, while others ranged from tightening up voter registration requirements to prohibiting rules changes close to Election Day.
Holden said giving voters the ability to register automatically when they apply for a driver’s license – a change the General Assembly made early in the last decade – is failing because it’s adding voters to the rolls who may not be eligible to vote and weren’t intending to register.
“We see more felons registering not knowing they’re registering,” she said. “You see individuals who don’t want to register that get registered. A lot of non-citizens are registering, and it’s producing many duplicate applications.”
But Rep. Saira Draper, D-Atlanta, a member of the study committee, said the current “opt-out” provision – which automatically registers voters who apply for a driver’s license unless they specifically decline to register – is having positive results.
“We became one of the most registered states in the country,” she said.
Draper suggested elections officials find ways to make voters more aware that they’re registering to vote when they apply for a driver’s license without getting rid of the opt-out provision.
Holden also recommended returning to a provision in state election law that prohibited the State Election Board (SEB) from changing rules governing elections within 90 days of Election Day. While a Fulton County Superior Court judge invalidated seven rules changes the Republican-controlled SEB made within weeks of last November’s elections, Holden said the uncertainty disrupted local elections offices.
“We spent 2024 in a state of confusion because of what the SEB had implemented,” she said. “We didn’t know if we had trained our poll workers right or whether we were going to have to retrain them.”
Noah Beck, Polk County’s election director, asked committee members to support legislation moving back the deadline for absentee ballot applications by seven hours, from 11:59 p.m. 11 days before Election Day to 5 p.m. He said allowing applications to come into empty election offices after the close of the business day contributes to public mistrust of the process and causes delays in getting absentee ballots out to voters.
“Moving it to 5 p.m. would be better suited not only to the voter but to the administrators,” Beck said. “End-of-the-day processing would allow us to have better fulfillment times and make it where we’re gambling less on the post office.”
Veronica Johnson, elections director in Lee County, suggested lawmakers either eliminate absentee ballot drop boxes or at least adopt additional guardrails surrounding their use. Drop boxes were adopted during the pandemic to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but detractors have questioned the effectiveness of security measures taken to prevent voter fraud connected with drop boxes.
Holden also recommended several more fundamental changes to the voting process, including getting rid of the requirement that candidates win a majority of the vote and allowing those who capture a plurality to be declared the winner.
She said that would reduce the number of expensive runoffs, which tend to draw low voter turnouts. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has advocated doing away with general-election runoffs altogether.
Holden also proposed letting voters cast their ballots anywhere in the county where they are registered rather than having to go to one specific voting location.
But the most far-reaching change discussed Friday could lead to an overhaul of Georgia ballots. The General Assembly passed legislation last year calling for eliminating QR codes from paper ballots, which tend to confuse voters, by July of next year.
Holden said the next logical step would be to get rid of voting machines altogether and switch to hand-marked paper ballots, a change election watchdog groups have long advocated.
“That’s what our voters want,” she said to applause from supporters of hand-marked paper ballots in the audience. “When they fill in that bubble, they know who they voted for.”
The study committee faces a Dec. 1 deadline to deliver recommendations to the full House.
