by Mark Niesse | Feb 18, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Move over, peaches, peanuts, and pecans.
Lemon pepper wings could soon join the ranks of official Georgia foods, according to a bipartisan bill considered by lawmakers Wednesday.
Lemon pepper wings are a “cultural and culinary phenomenon,” said state Rep. Eric Bell, D-Jonesboro, the bill’s sponsor.
“Lemon pepper is something that’s synonymous with the state of Georgia, and people across our nation have come to know Georgia as famous for its lemon pepper wings,” Bell said. “This is a homegrown identity.”
The renown of Georgia’s lemon pepper wings has grown in recent years through references by hip-hop artists Rick Ross, Quavo and Gucci Mane, Bell told the House Special Rules Committee.
Forget Buffalo wings, invented in Buffalo, New York.
Lemon pepper wings have become a source of Georgia pride and heritage that could attract tourists to local restaurants, Bell said.
Based on the reaction from the committee’s chairman, the bill has a chance of becoming law.
“I’ll have to agree with you that is my favorite wing too is the lemon pepper wing. I do like them better than any other kind,” said Special Rules Chairman Mitchell Scoggins, R-Cartersville.
The committee could soon vote on House Bill 1013. If approved, it would advance to a vote in the full state House of Representatives.
by Mark Niesse | Feb 18, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Republican senators are pitching giant income tax cuts to make Georgia more affordable, a plan that Democrats warn could lead to fewer government services or sales tax hikes.
The income tax relief proposal, which passed the state Senate last week, would exempt the first $50,000 of annual earnings by an individual and $100,000 for a married couple while lowering the income tax rate.
To fund such sweeping tax cuts, the Senate’s Republican majority is seeking to end tax breaks for new data centers and other business interests. But eliminating those tax breaks would save less than $3 billion a year, and the income tax overhaul would cost the state government $6 billion.
Another Republican-sponsored bill would slash the state’s income tax rate, from 5.19% to 3.99% by 2028, adding another $3 billion to the loss of government revenue.
If sales tax rates rise or the government scales back public spending, residents will pay the price, said Danny Kanso, a budget analyst for the liberal-leaning Georgia Budget & Policy Institute.
“The working class and middle-class folks might get hit twice — they might see their taxes going up and they might lose services,” Kanso said. “There are a lot of losers, and there might be very few winners.”
Republican supporters of the tax cuts dismiss those concerns, saying the middle class needs relief from rising prices.
The total amount of Georgia’s annual tax breaks for businesses is $30 billion, a ready funding source to reduce income taxes paid by residents, said state Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, during a Senate debate last week.
“Are we going to vote to allow corporate welfare and corporate subsidies at the expense of families who are trying to pay for gas, groceries, and child care?” Tillery asked. “Or are we going to comb back those credits … and eliminate that tax burden on those hard-working families?”
State Sen. Elena Parent, D-Decatur, called the income tax cut bills a “scam” and a “fairy tale.”
She said she’s worried that Republicans will try to make up for the revenue loss by raising sales taxes, cutting public services or shutting down public universities.
“It is complete magical thinking,” Parent said of the income tax cut bills during a Senate speech. “It’s about delivering a headline without telling you what happens next when politicians promise you something for nothing. It’s usually you who will end up paying.”
So far, the income tax bills don’t seek those kinds of sales tax increases or government downsizing.
The proposals would be partially funded by eliminating a series of tax breaks for data centers, rent-controlled apartments, insurance companies, business headquarters, banks, crab fishermen, electric vehicle chargers, telecommunications facilities, and boat repairers, among others.
The fate of the income tax plans is in flux now that they’re in the hands of the state House, which could amend Senate Bills 476 and 477, or move forward with its own ideas.
House leaders are promoting a different way of trimming residents’ tax burden: They want to eliminate property taxes on a homeowner’s primary property, replacing them with different kinds of taxes for services such as schools, police and fire departments.
“If you don’t decrease your cost of government, then all you’re doing is shifting around the burden of paying for government,” said Clint Mueller, deputy director of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, which advocates for county governments. “If you take it off one type of taxpayer, it has to be paid by a different type of taxpayer.”
by Mark Niesse | Feb 17, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Republican Steven McNeel won a runoff for a Macon-area Georgia Senate seat Tuesday, holding off Democrat LeMario Brown, who had sought to flip the district.
Democrats had hoped to gain ground in the Republican-dominated Senate after victories in statewide Public Service Commission elections last November and in a special election for an Athens-area state House seat in December.
But most voters in the conservative-leaning district decided to keep it under Republican control, according to unofficial results. McNeel received nearly 60% of the vote.
McNeel, an attorney who manages a timber farm, will join the state Senate midway through this year’s legislative session, replacing former Sen. John F. Kennedy, who resigned to run for lieutenant governor.
McNeel will represent Senate District 18, which includes Crawford, Monroe, Peach and Upson counties along with parts of Bibb and Houston counties.
Brown, a former Fort Valley councilman and small business owner, had emerged as the leader in the initial election last month, but a runoff was required because none of the candidates received a majority. Brown was the only Democrat in the race, and the other five candidates split the Republican vote.
With McNeel’s victory, Republicans will hold a 32-23 majority in the Senate.
One Senate seat is vacant after former state Sen. Colton Moore resigned to run for the congressional seat previously held by U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green. The special election for Green’s former northwest Georgia seat is scheduled for March 10.
by Mark Niesse | Feb 17, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — The Georgia House approved a bill Tuesday that aims to protect residential and retail customers from bearing the costs of data centers, but critics said the legislation won’t do enough.
The proposal is the first of several pending data center bills to pass either the House or Senate during this year’s legislative session.
The measure, House Bill 1063, requires electric utilities and new data centers to agree on contract terms that shield other power customers from costs of data center construction and operation.
“This bill is to ensure no family in the state should ever have to choose between keeping their lights on and keeping food on the table because someone else didn’t pay their fair share,” said state Rep. Brad Thomas, R-Holly Springs. “Data centers will pay their own way, period.”
The Public Service Commission, which regulates Georgia Power and other electricity providers, adopted similar rules last year, and Thomas said HB 1063 would make those requirements permanent.
State Rep. Stacey Evans, D-Atlanta, said the bill falls short because it still allows the Public Service Commission to raise electricity rates in response to rising demand from data centers.
“It adds no additional protections for consumers and no cost cutting mechanisms,” said state Rep. Ruwa Romman, D-Duluth. “I want every Georgian to know that this bill will not help with the concerns they brought to us. It simply codifies the status quo.”
The House passed HB 1063 with a 159-5 vote, and it now goes to the state Senate, which is considering its own customer protection proposal. Senate Bill 34 would prohibit costs from data center fuel generation and transmission from being included in residential electricity rates.
by Mark Niesse | Feb 17, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Another Democratic state legislator, state Rep. Dexter Sharper, is expected to plead guilty to COVID-19 unemployment fraud charges.
Sharper, D-Valdosta, allegedly obtained $13,825 in unemployment insurance benefits even though he was still earning income in 2020 through his party rental business and his job as a state representative, according to charges filed Jan. 30.
Sharper initially pleaded not guilty, but federal court documents filed last week show he plans to change his plea during a hearing next month.
Sharper didn’t comment Tuesday, and his attorney didn’t respond to an email.
U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg said in a statement last month Sharper violated citizens’ trust in their government.
“While many of his constituents and fellow citizens were losing jobs and desperately needed unemployment assistance during the pandemic, Representative Sharper allegedly pretended to be out of work to collect a share of unemployment benefits for himself,” Hertzberg said.
Sharper was the third Democratic representative charged with defrauding pandemic unemployment programs.
Former state Rep. Karen Bennett, D-Stone Mountain, pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining $13,940 in unemployment supplements, and she resigned Jan. 1. She hasn’t yet been sentenced.
State Rep. Sharon Henderson, D-Covington, pleaded not guilty to similar charges related to $17,811 in unemployment benefits. Gov. Brian Kemp suspended her from office last month.
