by Dave Williams | Dec 5, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Three Georgia cities are recipients of the latest round of grant funding through the state’s Rural Workforce Housing Initiative, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday.
More than $5 million will go toward infrastructure development and 140 housing units in the cities of Waynesboro, Hawkinsville, and Hinesville.
“We are not resting on our laurels when it comes to supporting communities experiencing historic economic growth in building the infrastructure they need,” Kemp said. “I want to congratulate these communities on their success.”
The largest of the new grants – nearly $2.5 million – will go to Waynesboro to construct street, drainage, water, and sewer infrastructure supporting 51 new housing units on a 190-acre tract.
The city of Hawkinsville will receive almost $2.3 million for road, water, and sewer improvements needed to build 58 single-family homes.
Hinesville’s $1.1 million grant will be used to construct street, drainage, water, and sewer infrastructure to develop 31 detached townhouses.
Each city and developer will contribute matching funds toward the projects.
Kemp launched the Rural Workforce Housing Initiative early last year during his annual State of the State address to the General Assembly. The grants are overseen by the OneGeorgia Authority.
by Dave Williams | Dec 5, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – President-elect Donald Trump will nominate former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., to head the Small Business Administration.
“Small businesses are the backbone of our great economy,” Trump wrote Wednesday on his social media site. “Kelly will bring her experience in business and Washington to reduce red tape and unleash opportunity for our small businesses to grow, innovate, and thrive.”
Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Loeffler to the Senate in January 2020 to fill the unexpired term of retired Sen. Johnny Isakson, who died late the following year. She ran for a full term later in 2020 but lost to Democrat Raphael Warnock in a runoff at the beginning of 2021.
Loeffler, a wealthy Atlanta businesswoman, is married to Jeff Sprecher, chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange. She also was CEO of Atlanta-based Bakkt, a Bitcoin-focused subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange, and was formerly a co-owner of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream.
Loeffler has been a staunch loyalist to Trump, backing his unsuccessful legal efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia that saw Trump lose to Democrat Joe Biden and calling for the resignation of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger amid unproven Republican claims of election fraud.
After the 2020 election cycle, Loeffler founded the organization Greater Georgia to recruit Republican candidates and register GOP voters.
After Trump won a second term in the White House last month, Loeffler signed up to-chair the president-elect’s inauguration committee.
Trump had briefly considered tapping Loeffler to serve in his administration as secretary of agriculture but instead turned to Brooke Rollins, an aide during his first term in office. Loeffler’s nomination is subject to confirmation by the Republican-controlled Senate.
by Dave Williams | Dec 4, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – President-elect Donald Trump’s legal team asked the state Court of Appeals Wednesday to dismiss an indictment charging him with trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
In a five-page filing, three of Trump’s lawyers argued that since the U.S. Constitution already prohibits indicting and prosecuting a sitting president, the same provision should apply to a president-elect. The Republican former president was reelected to a second non-consecutive term in the White House last month and will take the oath of office on Jan. 20.
“Well before the inauguration of President Trump, this Court should inquire into its jurisdiction to continue to hear this appeal,” the lawyers wrote. “That inquiry should result in this Court deciding that both this Court and the trial court lack jurisdiction to entertain any further criminal process against President Trump as the continued indictment and prosecution of President Trump by the State of Georgia are unconstitutional.”
Trump’s lawyers went on to criticize Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, who won a grand jury indictment in August of last year charging Trump and 18 co-defendants with racketeering for allegedly participating in a conspiracy to reverse Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump in Georgia.
Biden became the first Democrat to carry the Peach State since 1992. But Trump bounced back to win Georgia’s 16 electoral votes last month, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris by more than 115,000 votes.
“There is compelling evidence of local bias and political prejudice against the President by the local prosecutor, who not only answers to a tiny segment of the American electorate but is acting in clear opposition to the will of the citizens of Georgia as reflected by the recent election results,” the lawyers wrote.
Two other federal indictments against Trump have been dismissed since last month’s election, while Trump’s lawyers also are asking a New York judge to throw out his conviction earlier this year on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush-money scheme.
by Dave Williams | Dec 4, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Six local development authorities have been awarded $9.3 million in grants through a new state program aimed at fostering economic development in rural communities, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Wednesday.
The OneGeorgia Authority’s Rural Site Development Initiative will enable grant recipients to identify, assess, and develop new industrial sites through such activities as site studies and land grading.
“When we talk to companies, the first question they ask is if we have the workforce. The second is if we have the sites,” Kemp said. “The Rural Site Development Initiative is just one of the ways we’re making sure Georgia remains in the pole position for economic development for years to come.”
Grants of $2 million will go to each of four grant applicants. The Liberty County Development Authority will use its grant to build an access road at the Tradeport West Business Center.
The Joint Development Authority of Peach County and the city of Warner Robins are planning to build a new entrance to the Robins International Industrial Park.
The Dodge County-Eastman Development Authority will put its $2 million grant toward water and sewer improvements at the Eastman Aerospace Park, located adjacent to the local airport and Middle Georgia State University’s School of Aviation.
The Brunswick and Glynn County Development Authority is planning road, water, sewer, and site grading improvements at the Georgia Breakbulk Logistics Site.
The other two grants in the program’s first round of funding include just more than $1 million to the Screven County Development Authority for flooring and building improvements at a speculative building within the Screven County Industrial Park.
The smallest of the grants – $31,500 – will go to the Dade Industrial Development Authority in Northwest Georgia to help cover the costs of studies and reports required to qualify the Dade Industrial Park as ready for development.
All six applicants leveraged local funding sources to match the OneGeorgia Authority grants. The grant funds must be spent within the timeframe specified in the award, typically two years.
by Dave Williams | Dec 3, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Former Gov. Roy Barnes accused state Senate Republicans Tuesday of pursuing a “vendetta” in issuing a subpoena for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to testify about alleged misconduct in the 2020 election interference case.
“This was nothing but singling out one district attorney who was elected and reelected to embarrass,” Barnes, a lawyer representing Willis, said during a hearing in Fulton County Superior Court on Willis’ challenge to a subpoena a special Senate committee issued last spring.
The GOP-led Senate Special Committee on Investigations was formed last January to gather testimony and documents related to a romantic relationship between Willis and Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to lead the case against former President Donald Trump, who won reelection to a second non-consecutive term last month.
A Fulton grand jury indicted Trump and 18 co-defendants in August of last year for allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia that saw Democrat Joe Biden carry the Peach State’s 16 electoral votes.
On Tuesday, Barnes argued the subpoena the committee issued to Willis did not serve any legitimate legislative purpose, as is required by a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that limited the subpoena power of legislative bodies. Its only purpose, Barnes said, was to embarrass Willis and discover the details of her case against Trump.
But Josh Belinfante, a lawyer representing the Senate committee, said the legislative purposes behind the subpoena were spelled out in the resolution that created the committee.
Senate Resolution 465 asserts that an investigation into allegations against Willis might show that existing state laws governing the hiring and compensation of district attorneys in Georgia might be inadequate for addressing “legal and fiscal issues” raised by her alleged misconduct and might need to be changed.
Barnes also argued that neither a Senate committee nor the full Senate have the power to issue subpoenas, an authority that rests only with the entire General Assembly. Also, the committee didn’t issue the subpoena until after Sine Die, the date the legislature adjourned the 2024 session at the end of March, he said.
“When (the General Assembly) adjourns, it is gone. It has no more force and effect,” Barnes said. “It cannot issue a subpoena.”
But Vincent Russo, another lawyer for the committee, said Georgia’s Constitution authorizes the creation of “interim” committees between legislative sessions, including the special committee.
“Sine Die is the adjournment of a regular session of the General Assembly,” he said. “The General Assembly doesn’t cease to exist when its regular session ends.”
by Dave Williams | Dec 3, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The General Assembly should pass legislation that regulates artificial intelligence without stifling innovation, a state Senate study committee recommended Tuesday.
The Senate Study Committee on Artificial Intelligence, which held eight meetings this summer and fall, unanimously adopted a 185-page report containing 22 recommendations for how lawmakers should address rapidly developing AI technology.
“AI has the potential to improve every Georgian’s quality of life,” said Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, the committee’s chairman. “However, we must balance innovation with safeguards to protect privacy, fairness, and transparency.”
The development of AI technology is widely seen as a double-edged sword. While it promises to increase workplace productivity and produce life-saving drugs, it also threatens to replace large numbers of jobs now done by humans and compromise cybersecurity.
So-called “deep fakes” generated by AI are being used in criminal scams and political advertising, using false images and audio to fool people into thinking a family member or candidate for public office said something they didn’t or did something that never happened.
The study committee is calling for legislation aimed at deep fakes that would include transparency and labeling requirements aimed at identifying false images and audio.
A bill introduced in the state House of Representatives this year called for criminalizing the use of deep fakes in political ads. House Bill 986 overwhelmingly cleared the House but died in the Georgia Senate.
The study committee urged lawmakers to adopt a data privacy law similar to other states and embed requirements for transparency and disclosure in any legislation the General Assembly considers during the 2025 session starting in January.
The panel also recommended that every state agency, city, county, and school system develop a comprehensive AI plan.
The committee suggested state and local law enforcement agencies look for ways to use AI to increase the efficiency of emergency response and management and improve health-care outcomes.
The legislature also should expand tax incentives provided to Georgia-based entertainment projects that incorporate AI innovation, the committee concluded.
The committee’s report calls for continuing statewide efforts to update laws and regulations governing AI as the technology develops by creating a state board for artificial intelligence and keeping the study committee going next year.
“This is an ongoing process,” Albers said. “We are going to have to embrace AI. Doing it correctly will be our task.”
