by Ty Tagami | Apr 9, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The annual federal child tax credit will shrink in half at the end of the year, falling to $1,000 if Congress does not intervene.
Most of the Democrats in the U.S. Senate, including Georgia’s Raphael Warnock, are calling not only to prevent that from happening but also to permanently expand the credit.
Legislation introduced Wednesday by Sen. Mchael Bennet, D-Colo., would increase the annual credit to $4,320 for parents with a child aged 5 and under and to $3,600 for each child aged 6 through 17. It would also offer a one-time $2,400 “baby bonus” to parents of newborns.
“This is about attacking poverty in our country and ensuring that the government isn’t taxing people into poverty,” said Warnock, who is among more than 40 other Senate Democrats co-sponsoring the bill.
Crucially, no members of the Senate’s Republican majority have signed onto the measure.
The tax credit was temporarily expanded in 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan, which got no votes from Republicans in Congress.
But last year, J.D. Vance, then running for vice president, floated the idea of doubling the credit. And Republican state lawmakers in Georgia demonstrated that the GOP can get behind such policies when, in bipartisan votes, they passed House Bill 136 this year to establish a $250 per child state credit.
Child tax credits are growing in popularity as an effective way to support families, according to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, a left-leaning group.
After Congress temporarily expanded the credit in 2021, the child poverty rate for children under 6 fell nearly in half, from 9.8% to 5.3%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The poverty rate for older children fell to 5.2% from 8.9%.
When that temporary expansion expired, child poverty shot back up, with 5 million more children living in poverty in 2022, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank.
Unlike the existing federal credit and the state credit in HB 136, the national Democrats’ proposal would establish a “refundable” credit, meaning low-income families who owe less in taxes than the value of the credit would actually get money from the federal government. Currently, they lose out on the difference between the credit and their tax bill, so higher earners are more able to take full advantage.
by Ty Tagami | Apr 8, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The surge of measles infections in West Texas connected with the death of two children is prompting Georgia health officials to stress the importance of vaccination against the highly contagious disease.
“It’s a really very unique and very, very large outbreak,” State Epidemiologist Dr. Cherie Drenzek said Tuesday. “I think that we can expect that this Texas outbreak will likely go on for months more as well.”
Two children have died during the outbreak in a largely unvaccinated religious community, Drenzek said at a briefing for the Georgia Board of Public Health, adding that a U.S. adult has died of measles as well.
The infections have resulted in nearly two dozen calls to the Georgia Department of Public Health from concerned medical providers about potential measles infections here, but so far Georgia officials have identified only three cases.
The infections were all in one family and resulted from international travel, with no connection to Texas.
But the Texas infections appear to be spreading to nearby states, with New Mexico recently reporting 56 cases and Kansas reporting 24.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Friday that there have been 607 documented measles cases in the country so far this year, up from 285 in all of 2024. This year, 12% of the infected have been hospitalized.
Children and adults under 20 have been the most affected age group, with a fifth of those hospitalized being under age 5.
The CDC reports that 97% were either unvaccinated or their vaccination status was unknown.
Measles was declared eliminated in the Unted States in 2020, meaning there was no spread within the country and new cases developed only after travel abroad.
But infections started climbing during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 49 cases in 2021 and 121 in 2022. Infections fell to 59 in 2023 but then started rising sharply last year.
“Every single one is a public health emergency,” Drenzek said.
She said the measles vaccine is the most effective prevention and urged Georgians to ensure they’ve been vaccinated unless they contracted the disease as children and that children get the vaccine in preschool.
Drenzek also urged medical providers to continue calling the state hotline with suspicious cases, at 866-PUB-HLTH.
by Dave Williams | Apr 8, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Democrats and Republicans are boasting of their fundraising success early in what is an off-year for elections in Georgia.
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., raised more than $11 million during the first quarter of this year, the most ever raised by a Senate incumbent in the first three months of an off-year.
Meanwhile, the Georgia Republican Party brought in President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump to its Spring Gala, which raised more than $300,000.
Ossoff received donations from 156 of Georgia’s 159 counties, with an average contribution of $32 from nearly 260,000 donors. Ossoff will be up for re-election to a second six-year term in the Senate next year.
“I’m grateful to the hundreds of thousands of record-shattering supporters who have already joined what will be the biggest and most relentless turnout effort in Georgia history,” he said.
Republicans have yet to field a challenger to Ossoff. Potential GOP candidates are waiting to see whether term-limited Gov. Brian Kemp enter the race. If he does, he would be the clear frontrunner on the Republican side.
Last week’s Spring Gala was the Georgia Republican Party’s largest fundraiser in the last two years. More than 300 attending the event heard from GOP luminaries including Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, state Insurance Commissioner John King, and a host of Republican state lawmakers.
Headliner Lara Trump is a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee.
“I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to Lara Trump for joining us in Georgia, just as she did so many times in 2024,” Georgia Republican Chairman Josh McKoon said. “I also want to recognize all of our sponsors and donors whose generosity made this incredible night possible.”
by Dave Williams | Apr 8, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The University System of Georgia Board of Regents will vote next week on a proposal to consolidate Georgia Southern University and East Georgia State College.
The university system launched a wave of consolidations back in 2011 under the late Chancellor Hank Huckaby that initially involved eight consolidations and later led to five more. The goal was to reduce administrative costs while maintaining high standards for teaching and research.
“When we began our consolidation initiative, the system hadn’t changed much and needed to do things differently to better serve our students and the state,” system Chancellor Sonny Perdue said Tuesday. “The dollars saved through consolidation have always been reinvested directly in our campuses – fueling the hiring of strong faculty, expanding student support services, and driving measurable improvements in retention and graduation rates. … Our commitment in making this recommendation is no different.”
Both Georgia Southern and East Georgia State College are four-year institutions. Georgia Southern is located in Statesboro, and East Georgia State College is in nearby Swainsboro.
If the regents approve the consolidation, it would then need approval from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. An implementation team with representatives from both schools would work out the details.
Georgia Southern was previously involved in a consolidation with the former Armstrong State University in Savannah in 2017.
The proposed consolidation would reduce the number of public colleges and universities in the system to 25.
by Dave Williams | Apr 8, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Port of Brunswick handled an all-time record of 91,360 units of Roll-on/Roll-off cargo last month, up 18% compared to March of last year, the Georgia Ports Authority reported Tuesday.
As was the case with container trade at the Port of Savannah, higher volumes of vehicles and heavy equipment at Brunswick was due in part to customers front-loading orders to avoid new tariffs. The Port of Brunswick has become the nation’s busiest for Roll-on/Roll-off cargo.
“More manufacturers are making Colonel’s Island a main hub for the global trade of autos and machinery,” said Griff Lynch, the ports authority’s president and CEO. “Brunswick’s central location in the fast-growing U.S. Southeast market and unmatched capacity to take on new business mean our customers can plan for the long term.”
To better handle growing trade at Brunswick, the first phase of a new railyard on the south side of Colonel’s Island Terminal will be completed next month. That will double rail capacity from five to 10 trains per week, increasing the port’s annual rail capacity from about 150,000 autos to more than 340,000.
A second phase in the project will bring annual rail capacity to 590,000 units, more than three times the current capacity.
The ports authority also recently competed $262 million in capacity upgrades in Brunswick, including new warehousing and vehicle processing space. A fourth berth for Ro/Ro vessels is in the engineering phase.
Lynch said uncertainty over tariffs has not affected the agency’s plans to invest $4.2 billion in capacity expansions at Savannah and Brunswick during the next decade.
by Ty Tagami | Apr 5, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia legislators clocked out unusually early Friday night, leaving behind stacks of unfinished bills, many of them torn into pieces for the ceremonial throwing of confetti that marks the final moments of a legislative session.
Among the abandoned bills were several that had seemed to be a priority for Republican lawmakers. They had devoted many hours of hearings to them, to the consternation of Democrats, who called the measures “hateful” and a waste of time.
Left on the table were a bill to withhold puberty blockers from teens and a ban on coverage of transgender-related care for employees on the state health plan. A measure to financially punish colleges and schools that promote diversity, equity and inclusion also foundered. So did a “Red Tape Rollback” touted as Georgia’s answer to Elon Musk’s DOGE. An overhaul of election law also failed to pass.
Before they left, lawmakers did pass a measure banning medical care for prisoners changing their gender. They also gave a Senate committee that has been investigating Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis permission to pursue former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. And they gave that committee subpoena powers, with Democrats labeling the effort “authoritarianism.”
“This is a dangerous bill,” Rep. Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville, the minority whip in the House of Representatives, said before the House passed Senate Bill 255 Wednesday. The Senate sent it to Gov. Brian Kemp on Friday.
The flurry of partisan legislation had Democrats fuming as Republicans ignored many of their bills, including measures about guns after the mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County last fall.
The General Assembly did pass a comprehensive school safety bill with bipartisan support, but some Democrats complained it did nothing to curb the availability of firearms.
For the second year in a row, legislation that sought an income tax credit for Georgians who buy trigger locks or gun safes failed to pass. Other priorities for Democrats, from expanding Medicaid to tax breaks on clothing and school supplies, went nowhere.
“Instead of coming to the table and working across the aisle with us to address real issues Georgians are facing, they have introduced the politics of hate,” Rep. Carolyn Hugley, D-Columbus, the House minority leader, said last month amid the fusillade of bills that she said were trickling down from President Donald Trump. “Because you know what? Hate wins elections.”
Republicans countered that popular opinion was on their side with their priorities, such as a ban on transgender athletes in female sports that the Senate sent to the governor Monday and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act signed by Kemp on Friday.
Then-Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed a religious liberty bill nine years ago, fearing the boycotts and other economic harm that might have resulted. At least three dozen states now have such a law, Sen. Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, noted on Friday.
“So it was time for Georgia to take that final step, and we did it, with very little opposition from the business community,” said Gooch, the Senate majority leader. “You didn’t see the protesters. You didn’t see the chambers of commerce coming down to the building in protest like we’ve seen in the past.”
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones gaveled the Senate’s session to a close a little after 9 p.m., which shocked many observers — and lawmakers. They are used to voting past midnight on the last legislative day, called Sine Die.
The House gaveled to a close an hour and a half later, formally ending the first half of the 158th biennium of Georgia’s General Assembly.
Jones told reporters that he was in no rush to hammer bills through during this year’s session.
“This is a two-year cycle,” he said after leaving the Senate floor. “That means whatever doesn’t get done this this year will be available exactly where it sits for next year.”
