by Ty Tagami | Oct 23, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — The Georgia Supreme Court this week heard several cases, including two that could affect how cities design roadways and who gets to sell cars and another involving child custody with an unmarried couple.
The roadway safety case stems from the death of a 21-year-old who crashed a car into a concrete planter while home from college in 2016. The planter had been placed a half dozen feet off the side of a road in Milton before 2006 when the city was established.
A jury awarded the parents of Joshua Chang more than $30 million. The city lost on appeal and then petitioned the Supreme Court to consider the case.
Milton is arguing that it was not responsible for keeping the shoulder of the road unobstructed. Shoulders commonly accommodate fire hydrants, telephone poles, utility boxes and decorations, the city’s lawyers argued.
Georgia cities enjoy what’s known as “sovereign immunity,” meaning they are shielded from civil liability with some exceptions. The state waives that immunity when a city has insurance that covers the injury. It also waives immunity when cities fail to perform their “ministerial” duty, meaning an injury resulted from neglect to follow procedures.
But cities only have a duty to maintain roads for the safe passage of vehicles in the “ordinary course of travel,” Harold Melton, a lawyer for Milton, said at the Supreme Court hearing in the case Tuesday.
“When you have to make an evasive maneuver, by definition, now you’re doing something that’s unordinary,” he said, referring to the way Chang’s vehicle left the roadway and collided with the planter. He said Milton should not have to maintain the shoulder of a road for moving vehicles.
But an expert had testified at the earlier trial that no highway transportation official would agree that a planter should be that close to a road. And a Milton official had testified that the city erred by leaving the planter in place in the decade after incorporation, saying a “ball was dropped” and that the city had had ample time to remove the obstruction.
Milton had insurance, but the damages exceeded the $2 million in coverage. So the question about whether Milton had a ministerial duty to keep the shoulder of the road safe for cars is a key one for the Supreme Court.
The answer could affect cities across the state.
Naveen Ramachandrappa, a lawyer for the parents, argued that cities should anticipate that cars must occasionally use shoulders for evasive maneuvers.
“The ministerial duty is the duty to maintain the road,” he said, “and the road includes the shoulder, it includes all parts of the right of way that are in intended for use.”
The high court also heard an appeal Thursday by electric vehicle maker Lucid, which failed to convince a trial court that the state prohibition on direct sales of vehicles by manufacturers violates the state constitution.
A point made by Lucid lawyer Andrew Grossman was that Tesla was unaffected by a 2015 state law against direct sales.
“The statute is riddled with exceptions for direct sales, but then it prohibits companies like Lucid from selling directly,” he said.
The high court also heard a case about child custody rights in a situation involving an unmarried couple’s pregnancy through a sperm donor. In this case, the birth mother wants the Supreme Court to reverse a trial court order granting her former partner caregiver status for the child.
by Ty Tagami | Oct 22, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A critic of the Republican-controlled Public Service Commission was arrested Tuesday on a felony count in connection with removal of documents from a public hearing room.
Patricia Durand of Mableton, who three years ago ran as a Democrat for a seat on the commission, was charged with theft of trade secrets, according to Fulton County Jail records.
The document lists the Capitol Police Department, which secures the commission’s meeting space, as the arresting agency. A police spokesperson said late Tuesday afternoon that the arrest report was not yet available for release.
Durand did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment Tuesday afternoon.
A spokesman for the commission, or PSC, said the document that was alleged to have been stolen did not belong to the agency and that the agency neither filed a police report nor asked for an arrest.
Three videos of Tuesday’s incident released by the PSC under the Georgia Open Records Act show a woman in a brown jacket walking out of the PSC hearing room with a booklet. The incident occurred minutes after noon, during a break in a hearing at which the woman, introduced as Patty Durand, had testified that morning.
The first two videos, taken simultaneously from different angles, show her walking to a table where PSC officials had been seated next to the microphone for public comment. She picks up a spiral bound booklet with a blue cover then places it back on the table and walks away.
She then walks to a table where lawyers for Georgia Power had been seated on the other side of the microphone. She picks up a booklet that looks identical, flips through it, looks around, places it in a satchel, then exits the room. A third video recorded minutes later shows her entering an elevator in the lobby.
Georgia Power provided a statement that said the company was cooperating with law enforcement and could not comment about any criminal investigation.
“Theft or exposure of proprietary information is a serious matter,” the statement said. “While we operate transparently, some data must remain confidential to protect customer interests and ensure we deliver the best value to all customers. Unauthorized disclosure risks harming both our company, the vendors and contractors with whom we do business, and the customers we serve.”
Durand is a founder of Georgians for Affordable Energy, a PSC watchdog group.
“Georgia Power has a long history of aggressively overstating future energy needs so it can overinvest in profitable capital projects to benefit shareholders,” she is quoted as saying in a July press release by the organization.
The hearing Tuesday was about a Georgia Power request to add generation capacity to serve growing demand from data centers. The centers power the internet and are an essential engine for artificial intelligence. They consume vast amounts of energy and are being built across the state.
During her testimony before the break, Durand criticized the PSC and Georgia Power for the high cost of the expansion of nuclear capacity at Plant Vogtle and for rate increases that have created “car payment sized electricity bills.” She said the company’s natural gas affiliates would profit from expansion of natural gas power generation plants.
“It is unfathomable to me why anyone listens to Georgia Power’s lawyers, staff or witnesses about anything,” Durand said at the microphone. “Their claims about costs and demand growth have no credibility because nothing they’ve said in the past has proven even close to true.”
Durand won the 2022 Democratic primary to represent the central eastern Georgia district on the five-member PSC, but the general election was canceled that year due to litigation.
PSC candidates run statewide but each commissioner — all currently Republicans — represents only a fifth of the state. The plaintiffs argued that this dilutes the impact of Black voters.
Durand thus lost her chance to run against Tim Echols, the Republican incumbent.
Echols, meanwhile, is fending off a challenge from another Democrat.
First elected in 2010 and reelected in 2016, Echols was up for reelection in 2022 and has not had to run for reelection in nine years.
Democrat Alicia Johnson wants to unseat him.
Republicans have been expressing concern about the outcome. There was low turnout during the primary elections, and they worry that small numbers of motivated voters could have a big influence on the results.
The more publicity the better, said Josh McKoon, chairman of the state Republican Party.
“You think that you get to a point where nothing will shock you anymore, but it’s shocking that these folks on the left are so radical and are so willing to do anything to advance this green New Deal agenda that even committing crimes is not off the table,” he said. “And that to me highlights how important this election is that unfortunately we don’t have a lot of people participating in at the moment.”
Johnson is running on a platform that calls for more sustainable energy and ratepayer protections. It is like the platform of the other Democrat, Peter Hubbard, who is running against Republican incumbent Fitz Johnson to represent the PSC district for metro Atlanta in the Nov. 4 election.
by Ty Tagami | Oct 21, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — The Georgia Senate will vote on another income tax cut next year, and the only question is how big, the chamber’s budget-writing chief said Tuesday.
“The plan is not to wait until after an election to put this bill on the floor of the Senate. The plan is to move this bill forward next year,” said Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, at the close of a hearing on the topic Tuesday afternoon in Gainesville.
Tillery, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, is leading a study committee on eliminating the state income tax. The panel had previously heard from experts and officials from other states that have eliminated their income tax, including Florida and Tennessee.
On Tuesday, Tillery and his fellow lawmakers held their third hearing in a cafe, where taxpayers got a chance to speak.
A mother of a toddler quizzed them on the cost of diapers and baby formula. A retired firefighter talked of firefighters working multiple jobs to make ends meet. And Gainesville Police Chief Jay Parrish said it is difficult to recruit trained officers from other states when they can work in neighboring states that lack an income tax.
Georgia relaxed its training standards for experienced officers, Parrish said, but it was not enough to ease recruiting.
“We thought that is a win until we realized that we are competing in these other states with Tennessee and with Florida,” he said. “Because police chiefs in those states can offer that there’s no state income tax.”
Democrats on the committee said cutting income taxes could cause increased reliance on other revenue, such as sales taxes.
Sen. Michael ‘Doc’ Rhett, D-Marietta, warned of the impact on low wage earners.
“We want to make sure before we move forward with something like this that the money that’s going out also has to be coming in and not be a burden to the working person, not be regressive,” he said.
A regressive tax places a higher burden on the income of low-wage earners than on high-income earners, economists say.
Republicans countered that any reduced revenue caused by income tax cuts could be made up by eliminating corporate tax credits or by charging tourists more for “consumption” in Georgia. They also said Georgia could use its billions in reserves to offset reductions in income tax revenue.
Tillery and several other Republican members of the committee are running against each other for state office.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones will not be campaigning for re-election next year. Instead, the Republican from Jackson is running for governor, opening an intraparty contest to succeed him.
Sen. John F. Kennedy, R-Macon, wants to be the next lieutenant governor and stepped aside as president pro tempore of the Senate — the highest office in that chamber below lieutenant governor — to run for Jones’ job. And Sen. Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, stepped down as majority leader — the next highest office — to run for the same job.
Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, who is vice chair of Tillery’s Appropriations Committee and chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, is running for the office too.
All of them but Kennedy attended Tuesday’s hearing. Dolezal and Gooch took the opportunity to blame inflation on income taxes.
Jones attended briefly, opening the hearing with a pledge to work “methodically” and “responsibly” to abolish the state income tax, currently 5.19%.
“We’re serious about wanting to eliminate the state income tax. We’ve done a good job in lowering it the last three years,” he said. “Our plan is to eliminate it completely.”
by Ty Tagami | Oct 20, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Georgia ranked near the bottom of a first-ever analysis of Medicare performance by a foundation that promotes access to quality health care.
The new rankings by The Commonwealth Fund put Georgia in 42nd place out of 50 states and Washington, D.C. — behind Alaska and ahead of New Mexico.
Georgia scored poorly for several reasons. It had a relatively high rate of beneficiaries who took a drug that the elderly should avoid. Its rate for pressure sores among residents of long-stay nursing homes was above the national average.
And people aged 65 and older rated their health as fair or poor more frequently than the norm in surveys. They also reported more difficulty dressing or walking and more often reported loneliness and food insecurity.
Fund staffers involved in the analysis said they included measures such as loneliness and food insecurity because plans in Medicare Advantage — a privately managed alternative to original Medicare — sometimes offer programs to address those issues. State policy also can influence food insecurity, they said.
The Georgia agency that serves Medicare beneficiaries and caregivers had no comment about the findings. The Georgia Department of Human Services merely aids and informs through its State Health Insurance Assistance Program, a spokeswoman said. The federal government administers Medicare.
States with lower health care costs tended to do better in the rankings because recipients shoulder a portion of the expense and are more likely to seek care when they can afford it.
Outcomes on many of the 31 Medicare performance measures, which used data from the last several years, were likely driven by bigger factors than Medicare itself.
States that scored better tended to have health care systems that perform well for everyone, not just those 65 and older who qualify for Medicare.
“When people are sick coming into Medicare, they tend to be really sick when they’re in Medicare,” David Radley, a senior scientist at the Fund, said at a media briefing last week.
Vermont ranked first and Minnesota ranked third. Both have low uninsured rates among younger adults, he noted.
“That means people, if they are sick, if they do have a chronic illness, they’re much more likely to be having that chronic illness managed and keeping that disease in check as they age into Medicare,” he said, “because they’re more likely to be insured and have good access to care younger in life.”
by Ty Tagami | Oct 17, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — When Meta announced this week that it will implement a filter to make Instagram safe for children, it drew reactions somewhere between skeptical and cynical among Georgians who want to rein in the platform.
The social media company said Tuesday that it would implement a PG-13 filter similar to the ratings system used by the movie industry.
The filter will hide or not recommend posts with strong language, certain risky stunts and other content that could encourage potentially harmful behaviors, such as posts showing marijuana paraphernalia, the company said.
Georgia lawmakers have been studying ways to restrain the industry ever since a bipartisan law they passed last year hit a wall in the courts.
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the Protecting Georgia’s Children on Social Media Act in June after an industry group that represents Meta and other tech companies sued.
Sharon Winkler, who has testified twice to a Senate committee that has been studying other strategies to protect children online, said Meta has failed to fix “known safety issues” for years.
Her son, Alex Peiser, was 17 when he died by suicide in 2017 after breaking up with his girlfriend. Winkler blames Instagram’s algorithm for sending him down a dark hole.
“I’m afraid that this latest announcement is another cynical attempt to lull parents and other concerned adults into a false sense of security about Instagram’s safety for teens,” Winkler said in an email.
The group Fairplay, an online safety advocacy group, cited research by whistleblower Arturo Béjar and said most of Instagram’s promoted safety tools for teens have not worked.
“Splashy press releases won’t keep kids safe, but real accountability and transparency will,” Josh Golin, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. He said Meta should stop lobbying against the Kids Online Safety Act, which is stalled in Congress and would mandate reporting on the effectiveness of safety measures.
Meta disputes the study cited by Fairplay, calling it misleading in a September report about it by the news outlet Reuters.
Laura Ladefian, a certified professional counselor in Atlanta who works with children, said Instagram use is pervasive among her clients, starting around fifth grade and certainly by the end of middle school.
Ladefian testified to the Senate study committee about the addictive power of platforms.
A PG-13 filter would catch some harmful content, but teen users could still bypass it with “coded” language that can expose other children to a higher risk of anxiety, depression and poor self-image through bullying, Ladefian said in an interview. Content is a concern, she said, but the algorithms that drive addictive behavior are the core problem.
“None of that is necessarily accounted for in a filter. It’s the way that peers use and misuse the platforms for social currency,” she said. “My impression is that this is an attempt to calm parents. ‘Hey, we’re doing the thing. We are hearing your concern and here’s how we’re protecting your kids.’ But that would be like telling parents ‘OK, we’ve put these filters on a slot machine, but your kids are still welcome to come.'”
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez called the Instagram PG-13 filter announcement “a reactive and half-baked PR strategy” that he said doesn’t address harmful algorithms and ineffective user age verification.
Torrez’s office has sued Meta for design choices that he said put children at risk of sexual abuse, human trafficking and mental health harms. The lawsuit, which goes to trial Feb. 2, cites Béjar’s research.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr is defending Georgia’s law in court. His office had no comment about the new PG-13 filter but said Carr will “push for commonsense measures” that empower parents and keep kids safe online.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican like Carr, championed that law. But Jones did not respond to a request for comment about the new filter policy. Neither did Sen. Shawn Still, R-Johns Creek, the co-chair of the study committee that is exploring an alternative to that law.
Sen. Sally Harrell, D-Atlanta, the other co-chair, reacted with skepticism to Meta’s announcement, saying by email that the tech industry has a habit of releasing eye-catching headlines and then falling short.
Harrell said her bipartisan committee is focused on taming the algorithms.
“Digital companies want their products to be addictive, because the longer kids stay on their phones, the more profit companies make,” she said. “Our committee is more interested in removing these addictive features than eliminating an occasional bad word.”
