by Ty Tagami | Sep 15, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A half dozen landowners who filed a lawsuit that might have halted development of the massive Rivian auto plant near Social Circle do not have to pay some of the legal costs spent by the state to defend the project.
Lawyers hired by Georgia and by a local development authority asked a judge in Morgan County to make the landowners pay for the taxpayer dollars Georgia paid them, arguing that the plaintiffs had brought a frivolous lawsuit.
But the judge ruled against the state, determining that the suit was an earnest attempt to determine whether Georgia officials had the authority to waive local land use rules for a private development project on public land.
The state bypassed the agricultural zoning for the 2,000-acre property by purchasing it, then leasing it to the Joint Development Authority for Morgan and nearby counties, which in turn leased it to electric automaker Rivian.
Nearby landowners sued, asking whether a for-profit corporation that makes automobiles on public land was a “governmental purpose” that would trigger legal immunity.
The court decision means the landowners do not have to pay the state’s legal costs of $338,000 in the Morgan County lawsuit.
“It would have been financially devastating for these people,” one of the landowners’ attorneys, John Christy, said Monday.
The state has filed a similar motion in a related case in Fulton County, where it is seeking to recover another $203,000 in legal costs, Christy said.
The state could push forward with its motion for legal costs in the Fulton County case and it could appeal the Morgan County decision.
A spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Economic Development did not answer questions about the state’s next legal steps, responding instead with a statement about the Rivian project.
Rivian will soon break ground on its plant construction, said the joint statement with the local development authority. This “marks the beginning of a generational project that will bring long-term economic opportunity” to the region and the state, the statement said.
The courts have consistently sided with the state and the local authority, the statement added, “and this ruling doesn’t change the status of the Rivian project.”
Christy thinks the judge issued a “well-reasoned and thoughtful” order that will discourage an appeal by the state and to dismissal of the Fulton County demand for legal costs.
“I think that any appeal would be frivolous,” he said. “I think the standard on appeal would be very high.”
Morgan County Superior Court Judge Stephen Bradley wrote in an 11-page order filed Friday that the state’s claim about a frivolous lawsuit was undermined by its own actions.
The state voluntarily joined the case as a defendant, hiring a large team of lawyers, the judge wrote. This signaled an expectation for “a much more pitched battle in the case,” he added.
Bradley also noted that a lawyer for the local development authority — a co-defendant in the case — had displayed apparent “misgivings” about whether the state’s sovereign immunity would transfer to the Rivian project.
The authority’s lawyer had explained in court that she was withdrawing applications for a change in local restrictions because it would have required 34 public hearings, the judge wrote, adding that he interpreted this as a tacit admission that the law governing the matter was unclear.
“Neither the first nor the second suit filed by the plaintiffs were based on bad faith or were short of justiciable issue,” Bradley wrote, explaining why he sided against the state in what he said was an unprecedented case. “The issues presented concerning governmental land use regulations and public immunity, specifically focusing on the basis of that immunity — particularly the potential use of sovereign immunity to shield a private, for-profit corporation — raise new and unanswered questions of law.”
Bradley wrote that the way the government has handled the property in this transaction seems “clearly designed to circumvent resistance from local voices opposing the Rivian Project.”
by Ty Tagami | Sep 15, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — It was another boom year for Georgia, as businesses continued flocking to the state, burnishing its record as the No. 1 place to do business.
A record-breaking $26.3 billion flowed into the Peach State for the fiscal year that ended June 30, as companies expanded or established new locations. That is according to the office of Gov. Brian Kemp, which said the growth will translate to 23,300 new private-sector jobs over the next few years.
Area Development magazine has consistently ranked Georgia as the top state for business.
Kemp credited the state Department of Economic Development with fostering an attractive business environment. The state has supplied over $18 million to help rural communities prepare new industrial sites through its Rural Site Development Initiative, Kemp’s office said. There are now more than 70 certified sites.
Kemp said the effort “will pay off for generations.”
Company expansions at existing locations were the major driver, with 77% of the growth occurring outside metro Atlanta. But the 10-county Atlanta region remains a business hub, hosting major companies such as Duracell and Mercedes-Benz.
International investment was a major reason for the continued growth, with more than 6,500 jobs coming from expansions or new locations at companies from countries such as the Republic of Korea, Japan, and Canada.
State lawmakers pledged to continue collaborating with the Kemp administration, crediting the state’s ports, railways, energy systems and other infrastructure — and higher education.
“We continue to invest in workforce programs to ensure a steady talent pipeline with our existing industry partners,” Lt. Gov. Burt Jones said. “These investments and initiatives will ensure we have a workforce that is growing and able to meet skillsets for jobs of today and tomorrow.”
by Ty Tagami | Sep 11, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Health-care advocates warned Thursday that Georgia residents who have to find their own insurance in the government marketplace should expect significant rate increases next year.
Insurance companies are filing rate increase requests with regulators, arguing that federal budget cuts and the end of COVID-19 tax credits are the main drivers, said Anthony Wright, executive director of Families USA.
“These are individual workers and working families who simply don’t get coverage on the job or through public programs like Medicaid or Medicare,” Wright said.
Wright said affected workers include retail and restaurant employees, ride-hail and food-delivery drivers, beauticians, barbers, plumbers and other self-employed workers.
Georgia’s government marketplace is called Georgia Access. The state also offers Pathways to Coverage for those nearer the poverty level.
The group KFF calculates that a half million Georgians could lose coverage. Another group, Georgians for a Healthy Future (GHF), puts that number at 340,000, estimating an average rate increase of 75%. (The smaller figure is attributed to the expiration of the tax credits alone. The larger figure includes tax credits and budget cuts.)
“If costs soar and coverage slips away, the consequences will ripple through every part of our state at almost every income level,” said Whitney Griggs, health policy director for GHF.
Georgia’s Office of Insurance was not immediately available to clarify the numbers, but it will not be long before insurance shoppers see the result, with enrollment for 2026 likely to start around November.
by Ty Tagami | Sep 10, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Georgia Democrats are losing a member of the state Senate as he gears up his campaign for next year’s Democratic primary for governor.
Sen. Jason Esteves, D-Atlanta, said Wednesday that he is resigning from the Senate “because the best way I can serve the people of Georgia is by putting my whole heart into this campaign.”
The former Atlanta school board member is contesting two prominent Democrats for the party nomination.
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is running, as is former Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond, a former state lawmaker who served as the appointed school superintendent for DeKalb County in the 2010s and then as the elected CEO of DeKalb.
Senate Democrats issued a statement praising Esteves’ efforts during three legislative sessions, saying he worked to expand access to health care, invest in public schools, and reduce the cost of housing for seniors.
Esteves’ campaign touted his involvement in legislation that will save Atlanta seniors $1,000 on their annual taxes, in passage of a constitutional amendment to cap increases in home values and in the defeat of the Buckhead City movement.
Whoever emerges from the Democratic primary will face the winner of the Republican nomination.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is campaigning in the GOP primary against state Attorney General Chris Carr.
by Ty Tagami | Sep 10, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A former Democrat who switched to Republican in the Georgia House of Representatives is challenging longtime State School Superintendent Richard Woods for next year’s GOP nomination.
Mesha Mainor, who clashed with Democrats over her support for private school vouchers, joins several Republicans who want to prevent Woods from winning a fourth term as the state’s education leader.
In July, Fred “Bubba” Longgrear, superintendent of the Candler County School District, said he would challenge Woods in the primary. Randell E. Trammel, who lives in Cartersville and is CEO of the Center for Civic Engagement, announced his candidacy in June, nearly a year after Nelva M. Lee. She is a Locust Grove entrepreneur Gov. Brian Kemp had appointed to a two-year term on the state Board of Community Health in 2021.
Mainor cast herself as an independent voice, saying she switched from Democrat to Republican because they represented “authoritarianism.”
“I left the Democratic Party because I refused to follow the political agenda of radical Democrats and the American Federation of Teachers that puts government authoritarianism over parents and children,” Mainor said Wednesday.
The former state representative from west Atlanta switched parties in 2023 after Democrats and some Republicans united to stop legislation to create a school voucher program. Mainor voted with the Republican majority to pass the voucher bill when it returned in early 2024.
But her district provided a deep well of votes for Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election, and she lost her seat to a Democrat in the November 2024 general election.
The state school superintendent leads the state Department of Education and is responsible for distributing state and federal funds to Georgia’s 180 school districts. The superintendent must ensure those funds are used appropriately and must make sure schools follow the law and state Board of Education rules. The superintendent can also make recommendations to the state board.
