ATLANTA — Data centers in Georgia did not produce the same high payback in exchange for nearly half a billion dollars in tax breaks as reported by state auditors last month, according to a correction issued Wednesday.
In a report first released on Christmas Eve, the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts said the state effectively gave away $474 million in the fiscal year that ended in July by exempting data centers from some taxes.
In exchange, auditors said, data centers created 28,350 construction-related jobs in 2025, adding $3.4 billion to the state economy. And they created another 5,471 data center operations jobs, for an additional $823 million injection into the state economy.
But on Wednesday, the state agency revised those numbers. Data centers produced less than a third as many jobs and less than a third as much economic value, they wrote in a summary of a full report by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia.
Data centers actually produced 8,505 construction jobs that added $1 billion to the economy and 1,641 operations jobs for another $247 million added.
There was no explanation for the error. The table with the employment and value numbers in the underlying Carl Vinson report that was linked to the corrected release still contained the same figures as the December version.
Data centers have become controversial due to their demands on water and power infrastructure.
Last month, the state Public Service Commission approved a nearly 10-gigawatt expansion request by Georgia Power to supply current and anticipated demand by the centers, which are powering the development of artificial intelligence as well as traditional internet services.
Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia outlines plans for highway improvements during the Georgia Chamber of Commerce annual Eggs and Issues event in Atlanta on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (Ty Tagami/Capitol Beat)
ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp will take a hammer to gridlock during his last year in office, spending more than $2 billion to upgrade major highways south and east of Atlanta.
The term-limited Republican governor, entering the end of his second four-year term, told a large crowd at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s annual Eggs and Issues event at Mercedes-Benz stadium Wednesday that a conservative approach to budgeting had allowed the new investments in road infrastructure, which he said brings the total upgrades to transportation, water and energy during his tenure to $6 billion.
“While some politicians across the country are suddenly talking about affordability and quality of life,” he said, “in Georgia we’ve been actually doing something about it.”
His budget includes $1.8 billion for new dedicated express lanes on I-75 in Henry County and $200 million to add interchanges and overpasses along Georgia 316 from Athens to Gwinnett County, converting it to an expressway.
“It shouldn’t take you a full afternoon to get from Athens to Atlanta or vice versa,” said the governor from Athens.
He is also allocating $250 million to grants for local road projects, $100 million for rural bridge improvements and $35 million for natural gas delivery projects.
One new investment is coming ahead of the World Cup events in Atlanta, when visitors across the country and the globe will visit the state.
Kemp is putting $50 million into a one-time grant to address homelessness in the capital city and other urban areas. The goal is to draw other funding from donors to establish programs that get people off the streets, he said, adding it is not a handout.
Two other leading state politicians spoke at the event, and they both talked about the cost of living.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican campaigning to follow Kemp in the governor’s mansion, said affordability is the number one concern he hears about from people on the campaign trail. To that end, he said, the Senate, which he leads, will focus on lowering both the state income tax and local property taxes.
Income tax reduction was already a focus in the Senate, where a special committee studied the issue for months last year.
House Speaker Jon Burns, a Republican from Newington, said last week that he was prioritizing property tax reduction but was open to lowering the income tax, too.
On Wednesday, Burns expressed frustration that more than 300 local governments had opted out of a law asking them to restrain rising property valuations by linking those increases to the generally lower rate of inflation.
The amount homeowners pay is based on two things: the assessed value of their property and the local millage rate.
“This year,” Burns said, “the House will put forward legislation enabling the elimination of the homestead property tax statewide.”
ATLANTA — The Republican leaders of Georgia’s Senate will push to reduce both income and property taxes while targeting other cost-of-living issues during a legislative session that will be influenced by election-year politics.
Senate leaders gave a brief outline of their priorities at the Capitol Tuesday, the second day of their 40-day session.
Last week, a high-priority Senate study committee wrapped up its work, issuing a recommendation to eliminate the state income tax by 2032, with gradual cuts starting in 2027. And on that same day, House Speaker Jon Burns, a Republican from Newington, announced his plans to pare back local property taxes.
On Tuesday, the Senate majority leader, Dallas Republican Jason Anavitarte, said his chamber’s caucus “can and will do everything in our power” to embrace both approaches to bring down costs for taxpayers.
He also said Republican senators would target institutional investors who “gobble up” houses then resell them, driving up prices for regular homebuyers while “Wall Street billionaires” profit.
The Senate will also consider ways to expedite building permits, he said. Developers criticized local building departments for causing expensive delays during a hearing in November, but local officials said developers were filing sloppy plans that slowed the review process.
Both the Senate and the House are also interested in improving literacy. Burns said last week that he wanted to see literacy coaches in every elementary school, and Anavitarte said Tuesday that the Senate wanted to provide resources to address the concern.
Anavitarte also mentioned resources for foster children and to combat chronic absenteeism, also the subject of a Senate study committee last year. Also on the agenda are “guardrails” around technology accessible by children including artificial intelligence, he said.
The senators did not offer much detail about how they would accomplish their goals. Property taxes fund about half the cost of public education, so curbing school districts’ authority to raise tax revenue could result in service cuts.
Anavitarte said some school districts were flush with money while others were broke, and “we have to figure out what is that right balance.” He had a similar answer about how to curb institutional residential investors: “I think we have to address the balance and there will be more to come on that.”
ATLANTA — Democrats in the state Senate fired a political volley at President Donald Trump Tuesday, with a package of bills aimed at the way his administration has enforced the laws, particularly for immigration.
Labeling his administration “rogue” and a “regime,” they called on state Republicans to back legislation that would limit the president’s authority to deploy military reserve units and rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, one of whom shot and killed a mother in Minneapolis last week.
“We have seen ICE physically assault people who are just protesting or lawfully observing, and we just saw in Minneapolis ICE murder Renee Good,” Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs said. “We’ve all seen the video. Obviously, the officer did what he was not trained to do, which was step in front of the car, escalate.”
The Trump administration has defended the action, saying the officer feared for his life after previously being injured by a vehicle during an enforcement action. Minnesota sued the Trump administration to block ICE deployments.
McLaurin, who is running for lieutenant governor, introduced Senate Bill 397, which would allow citizens to sue ICE officers for alleged violations of civil rights.
Another bill, Senate Bill 391, would require authorities to obtain a judicial warrant before taking immigration enforcement actions at certain locations, including churches, hospitals, libraries and schools. A third, Senate Bill 390, would require the Georgia governor’s permission for entry of National Guard forces from other states. Finally, Senate Bill 389 would require ICE officers to wear a badge and remove their masks.
Federal officials say the masks are necessary to protect officers against personal threats, such as “doxxing” when personal information is maliciously distributed online and “swatting” when police are called to homes on false pretenses.
That last bill was by Sen. Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain, who noted that lawmakers do not wear masks despite having been doxxed and swatted. And brimmed hats are the only apparel on Georgia State Patrol officers’ heads.
“If our brothers in their gray hats can stand up and show their face, then so can ICE,” said Jackson, the Senate’s minority whip. “It is cowardice. And it’s time to unmask ICE.”
Democrats tried to link their anti-ICE campaign to the increasingly charged political issue of affordability, saying immigration enforcement was disrupting local economies while costing taxpayers billions.
But their salvo was apparently charged with blanks. The likelihood of these bills becoming law is vanishingly small, judging from the reaction of Sen. Jason Anavitarte, a Republican from Dallas and the Senate’s majority leader.
“They want the state to regulate the federal government when that’s not necessarily the role of the state,” he said.
Gerald Pilgrim, chief of staff at the Georgia Building Authority, showcases renovations at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta on Wednesday, Jan, 7, 2026, with a picture by his side showing a restorationist at work on the ceiling, standing on a platform atop tons of scaffolding. (Ty Tagami / Capitol Beat)
ATLANTA — When Georgia lawmakers return to Atlanta for the new legislative session, they will proceed to their weathered wooden desks, and if they are observant, they will notice something new.
The carpeted floor will offer a little more give, and the old stains will be gone.
When they reach their desks, some will bend to the floor to plug in their laptops, as they have long done. But someone will point out that they no longer need to: the old desks now have modern outlets — not just a standard power plug but also a USB-A connector, and even a future-proofed one for USB-C.
Then, other details will register, and it will become clear this is not exactly the same place they left in April.
The fireplaces (unused these days) now have hearths of marble, salvaged from the old state Supreme Court building after the new one was erected nearby.
Perhaps most obvious: the wooden chairs now carry their weight without creaking or worry.
And if lawmakers and visitors were to lift their eyes to the ceiling high above, they would see something that was never there before: gold, real gold.
When they were last here, the ceiling was decorated with gold-colored paint. Now it is adorned with gold leaf, applied by a restorationist hoisted high into the air on a platform supported by tons of steel scaffolding.
Like many of the more than 550 artisans and other workers who renovated the Capitol over the past eight months, the gold leaf was from Georgia, said Gerald Pilgrim, the state official who oversaw the face lift. “We actually have the receipts from Dahlonega.”
The carpet is native, too, from the weave masters in Dalton.
Both were line items in a restoration budget that totaled about $82.5 million, with about $10 million for furniture and similar things and the rest for construction, said Pilgrim, chief of staff at the Georgia Building Authority.
The work started in early May, a month after lawmakers finished their last legislative session. And the bulk of it was completed in time for their return this week, though there are a couple more phases to go.
Some of the most consequential work will be invisible to the lawmakers and to the observers who come to watch them, though repeat visitors might sense a difference. For one thing, the HVAC system is new. Pilgrim said it was the most challenging task, since it was the first significant update since the 1950s, around the time Americans started seeing color in their televisions.
The workers also laid 133,000 feet of wiring under the floors to connect all the new systems. In addition to those modern outlets at legislators’ desks, there is a sound system in the visitors’ gallery above them, for the hard of hearing. Workers also removed some of the fixed seats there to make room for wheelchairs.
From where visitors sit, they would be hard-pressed to notice one major upgrade that will quickly become apparent to the representatives and senators below.
The legislators used to play musical chairs, swapping out their own failing seats for functional furniture from a nearby and likely unobservant desk mate (no doubt one from the opposing party). They needed sturdy support for their 40 days and many nights of making laws.
“There was a lot of stealing chairs,” Pilgrim said. Some were unsafe, “put together literally by toothpicks” and beyond repair, he said, adding that they should have been replaced half a century ago.
The new ones may not be authentic, but they can perform their duty safely, perhaps until the next renovation. The Building Authority kept the old ones in storage but got a 20-year warranty on their replacements.
image on display on Wednesday, Jan, 7, 2026 at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta showing the tons of steel scaffolding that supported workers as they repaired the ceiling last year. (Ty Tagami / Capitol Beat)
