by Ty Tagami | Oct 24, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — It has been nearly a month since Gov. Brian Kemp suspended Georgia’s motor fuel tax to help drivers cope with soaring prices at the pump.
With prices down but still relatively high, Kemp announced that he is extending the tax break for another month.
The state excise tax of 33.3 cents a gallon for gasoline and 37.3 cents for diesel will remain suspended until 11:59 p.m. Nov. 30, according to the executive order signed by Kemp on Saturday.
The General Assembly must approve the suspension when it next convenes.
This is the fourth suspension of the tax this year. Kemp said he consulted with Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and House Speaker Jon Burns before extending the state of emergency.
In March, Kemp signed a 60-day gas tax suspension bill after it passed the state House 163-4 and the state Senate unanimously.
Then, in May, he declared a state of emergency and extended the suspension two weeks, into early June. The General Assembly retroactively approved the extension in a special session in June.
On Sept. 28, Kemp signed an executive order declaring another state of emergency and authorizing the current suspension, originally set to expire Oct. 29.
“With a major holiday coming up and fuel prices still at high levels, I am proud to take this step to keep more money in Georgians’ pockets,” Kemp said in a statement Saturday.
Prior motor fuel tax suspensions cost the state about $200 million a month.
by Ty Tagami | Oct 24, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Georgia residents who are in the market for an Audi will eventually be able to buy one made locally.
The German company announced on Saturday that it plans to build its first U.S. manufacturing plant in Peach County.
“We have much greater ambitions for Audi in America, and Georgia will play a central role in making them a reality,” Gernot Döllner, CEO and chairman of the Board of Management of Audi AG, said in a joint statement with Gov. Brian Kemp.
The company is expected to invest about $4 billion in a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility that will reach full production capacity in 2031 at 200,000 vehicles a year, creating 4,500 new jobs in the region, according to Kemp’s office.
Audi, based in Ingolstadt, Germany, plans to build premium SUVs tailored to customers in North America.
The company said the Middle Georgia Megasite in Peach County is a good place to build the vehicles because of its proximity to an established automotive supply chain, a skilled workforce and access to consumers.
The site is near Class I rail and is within five hours by train to the ports in Brunswick and Savannah. It is also half an hour from two regional airports and 90 minutes from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
“We are proud that Audi has selected Georgia as the home of their first U.S. manufacturing facility,” Kemp said.
His office said the Technical College System of Georgia will create curriculum tailored to the new plant’s needs.
Audi is expected to begin grading the site in 2027, with construction starting in 2028.
by Ty Tagami | Oct 23, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Amid a debate about the safety of kratom and how much to regulate it, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr advised lawmakers on Friday to treat all products derived from the substance as illegal unless proven safe.
“I say you ban all kratom-related products from the beginning,” said Carr, who leaves office in January when his term ends.
Georgia lawmakers have already regulated kratom. The law, which is punishable by fines, prohibits sales to people under 21 and requires that products be kept behind the counter or otherwise secured.
But Carr said enforcement has proven difficult due to the proliferation of products at convenience stores, gas stations and other locations, often with unclear or inaccurate labeling.
Officers must have a product lab tested before they can pull it from shelves, which has stymied enforcement.
A kratom product should be legal for sale only if the manufacturer has submitted lab testing in advance that shows it is safe, Carr told members of a state House study committee that has been hearing testimony about kratom since the spring.
He advised establishing a registry of approved products that law enforcement could consult while checking stores.
“Anything not on that list would be treated as contraband subject to seizure by any law enforcement agency anywhere in the state of Georgia,” he said at the hearing at the Georgia Capitol. “There’d be no lab work required and no need to prove what’s inside that package because if it’s not on the list, it comes off the shelf.”
Kratom comes from the leaves of a tree that is native to Southeast Asia. People there have chewed those leaves for centuries as both a stimulant and a substitute for opium, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which says users take it for opioid-like effects at higher doses.
Manufacturers have learned how to extract and concentrate the active ingredients, creating more potent products.
In high enough concentrations, those ingredients can be dangerous, with side effects including high blood pressure, liver damage and seizures, according to a Mayo Clinic article last week.
Kratom affects the nervous system and can also cause confusion, delusion, depression, tremors and trouble breathing, the article reported. Kratom has been linked with a relatively small number of deaths, nearly all of which involved other drugs or potentially harmful substances, the article said.
Publications in Georgia have reported on the danger. The Current, an online news outlet, reported in August about the death of Andrew Wood, a young man who purchased a kratom product at a vape shop in Brunswick. His family said he had been consuming it for months and thought it was safe.
Effingham County subsequently banned kratom, according to The Brunswick News.
Even if Georgia cracked down on kratom sales as Carr recommended, people could still buy the products online. Kratom is not a federally controlled substance.
At prior meetings, the study committee heard from kratom users who praised the substance. On Friday, a Marietta man said “natural” kratom helped him escape addiction to pharmaceutical opioids.
Rep. Michelle Au, D-Johns Creek, who serves on the study committee, said reducing availability would make people less likely to buy kratom without knowing the risks. Ample signage at gas stations and other locations is “implicit messaging” that kratom is safe, she said.
Carr made a similar argument.
“Consumers cannot tell the difference between a lawfully registered, regulated product or something that can stop your breathing. And the same is probably true with the shop owners,” he said. “But many buyers reasonably assume that if a store sells it, then somebody had to have approved it. And in Georgia today, that assumption is fatal.”
by Ty Tagami | Oct 22, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Georgia lawmakers are hearing concerns about the potential impact of a state Supreme Court ruling that struck down a firefighting fee in Chatham County last week.
The court ordered the county to refund about $30 million in fees and interest in a class-action lawsuit over its now-defunct fire service fee, but the decision could affect more than that one coastal community, since other jurisdictions levy various fees.
“This is a very large concern of Perry and all municipalities,” said Randall Walker, the mayor of Perry, a city south of Macon.
Andrea Arnold, the city manager of Decatur, in metro Atlanta, said her city is seeking to grow revenue beyond property taxes. She mentioned fees on recreation, sanitation and stormwater.
The court ruling could undermine that effort, she said. “The recent state Supreme Court decision has us extremely concerned about the future of fees.”
Some but not all fees are specifically authorized under state law.
Arnold and Walker presented to members of the House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee on Local Government Taxation, Funding, and Budgeting at its meeting in Perry on Wednesday.
Without fees, cities and counties would have limited means of generating revenue beyond property and sales taxes.
Clint Mueller, deputy director of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, illustrated the challenge for local governments by pointing to a state college in North Georgia.
State colleges do not have to pay property taxes, Mueller said. “But if a fire occurs on any of their properties, who’s going to come put it out? The county fire department is going to put it out. So there’s still a cost.”
Rep. Mike Cheokas, R-Americus, said a county leader in his area had expressed a preference for fees over property taxes because some property owners, such as nonprofits, are exempt from paying property taxes.
“Even though you have to provide those services, you’re not getting reimbursed for that,” Cheokas said.
He asked advocates and local leaders for suggestions about how to resolve their concerns.
Mueller said the only way to address the ruling is to change either state law or the state constitution to make service fees legal.
The high court upheld a superior court ruling that found Chatham County’s fire fee was effectively a property tax and was illegal because, unlike a property tax, it was not based on property value.
Instead, owners were billed according to the anticipated cost of extinguishing a fire on their property. The fees were partly based on square footage, so owners of larger buildings paid more.
Chatham County stopped collecting the fire service fee in June 2024.
Without it, homeowners and other property tax payers must cover the cost to protect colleges, hospitals and other tax-exempt properties from fires.
The study committee is scheduled to meet again at the Capitol on Wednesday, when the discussion about fees could continue.
by Ty Tagami | Oct 22, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Georgia’s class of 2026 scored lower on the ACT than the class of 2025, but they still beat the national average.
Georgia’s 2026 graduates who took the college admissions test after their freshman year earned an average composite score of 20.9, down half a point from the score by the prior year’s graduates.
Because the composite no longer includes science, the two years are not exact comparisons.
The score topped the national average for the 10th year in a row, according to the Georgia Department of Education.
State School Superintendent Richard Woods attributed the performance to “the refinements we’ve made” in K-12 public education.
The national average also fell, but by a smaller amount: 0.2 points, to 19.2.
Georgia’s class of 2026 performed best in reading, with a 21.8 state average. The next highest score, 21.2 in science, came with a caveat: that test became optional in 2025 and results after August of that year no longer affected the composite score.
The average math score was 20.5, followed by English at 19.9.
The ACT results follow SAT results released earlier this fall. Georgia’s public school class of 2026 had a mean SAT score of 1031, up two points from the class of 2025. Math scores rose four points, but reading and writing slipped one point.
