by Dave Williams | Nov 21, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A manufacturer of household paper products will invest nearly $600 million to expand its plant in Macon, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday.
Canada-based Irving Tissue will add at least 100 new jobs to the more than 400 existing jobs at the Macon facility.
The company produces a variety of household paper products, including soft bathroom tissue and paper towels.
“We are proud to continue to invest in the state of Georgia and truly appreciate the commitment to helping us expand and grow in Macon,” Irving Tissue President Robert Irving said. “We’ve also been able to expand because of the highly skilled workforce in the area and continued support of our valued employees, customers, and suppliers.”
Irving Tissue will be filling management, supervisory and machinist positions. Interested individuals can learn more about those jobs at careers.jdirving.com.
The Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Global Commerce team worked on the project in partnership with the Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority.
by Dave Williams | Nov 21, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A statewide audit of the Nov. 5 presidential election in Georgia found minor discrepancies but nothing that would alter Republican Donald Trump’s victory in the Peach State over Democrat Kamala Harris.
A hand count of randomly selected ballots in all 159 counties gave Trump 11 more votes than he received from the machine count after the polls closed on Election Night, while Harris received six fewer votes. Trump defeated Harris in Georgia by 184,259 votes on his way to recapturing the presidency, according to audit results released Wednesday.
“Georgia’s election systems are our nation’s best,” said Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whose office oversees elections in Georgia. “This audit shows that our system works and that our county election officials conducted a secure, accurate election.”
The General Assembly passed legislation in 2019 requiring a post-election, pre-certification audit of election results following the introduction of voter-verified paper ballots as a backup to touch-screen voting machines.
In total, county election officials audited 442 batches of ballots. Of those 442 batches, 381 – or 86.1% – showed no deviation from the original candidate totals. Of the other 61 batches, all fell within an expected margin of error for a hand count.
by Dave Williams | Nov 20, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp has been elected chairman of the Republican Governors Association (RGA) for 2025.
The election of Kemp and Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte as the RGA’s vice chairman took place at the end of the association’s annual conference.
“Republican governors are making commonsense, conservative policies a reality, putting families and children first, and making our states the best places to run a business and raise a family,” Kemp said Wednesday.
“I look forward to working with my fellow Republican governors and President Trump to keep getting the job done for the American people and to add even more Republican governors to our ranks.”
Joining Kemp and Gianforte on the RGA’s 2025 leadership team will be the association’s executive committee: Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, Missouri Gov.-elect Mike Kehoe, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster will serve as the RGA’s policy chair.
Republicans will hold the edge in governor’s mansions next year, 27 to 23 over the Democrats, the same margin as this year.
by Dave Williams | Nov 20, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia’s two U.S. senators urged their colleagues Wednesday to approve a federal disaster relief package for victims of Hurricane Helene.
Democrat Jon Ossoff testified Wednesday morning at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on a supplemental spending request from President Joe Biden for nearly $100 billion to help Americans impacted by several hurricanes and other disasters. Later Wednesday, fellow Democrat Raphael Warnock took to the Senate floor to push for senators to act on Biden’s request before the end of the year.
Helene rampaged through South Georgia and north through the Augusta area on Sept. 26-27, causing heavy rainfall and widespread flooding as well as extensive power outages.
Ossoff said much of the damage occurred to Georgia farms.
“Hurricane-force winds and torrential rains destroyed fall crops in the field, knocked down pecan orchards that growers spent decades cultivating, and damaged a million and a half acres of timberland,” he said. “Without our help, many family farms will fold. If they go under, our rural communities go under.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has allocated $229 million thus far in assistance to Georgians impacted by Hurricane Helene. But Warnock told his Senate colleagues said more needs to be done.
The storm killed 34 Georgians – including six children – and left more than 200,000 homes damaged.
“As we pray with our lips for those we lost, we must pray with our legs to help those still reeling from this devastation,” Warnock said. “The time to act is now.”
The pleas for disaster relief from Ossoff and Warnock came one day after Georgia’s other top elected official, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, sent a letter urging the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Appropriations committees to approve $12.2 billion in relief aid for Georgians impacted by Helene.
by Dave Williams | Nov 20, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp is asking for $12.2 billion in federal assistance to help Georgia recover from the impacts of Hurricane Helene.
The storm killed 34 Georgians when it cut a swath across South Georgia north into the August area in late September, causing heavy rainfall and flooding as well as widespread power outages. Ninety-six of the state’s 159 counties are still under a major disaster declaration.
“Hurricane Helene wrought unparalleled damage across our state, leaving thousands of families displaced, businesses shuttered, and our farmers facing catastrophic losses,” Kemp wrote Tuesday in a letter to the four chairs and ranking members of the U.S. House and Senate Appropriations committees.
“Georgia’s agricultural sector, a cornerstone of our economy and cultural identity, was hit particularly hard. Specialty crops, livestock operations, and small farms have suffered widespread devastation, many without sufficient insurance coverage to recover independently.”
The Georgia State Financing and Reinvestment Commission voted early this month to redirect $100 million from a state capital projects fund to provide financial support for farmers and timber producers affected by Helene.
But Kemp wrote that the scale of the damage necessitates federal assistance. He asked that the federal relief package include an agricultural block grant component.
The governor’s request to Congress includes $200 million to $300 million for debris removal and emergency protective measures, $40 million to $50 million in emergency hospital funding, $35 million for an emergency housing voucher program, and $32 million to repair damages to University System of Georgia campuses.
by Dave Williams | Nov 19, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia Supreme Court Tuesday suspended former state Court of Appeals Judge Christian Coomer’s law license for two years.
The suspension will expire in August of next year, two years after the state Supreme Court removed Coomer from the Court of Appeals based on the recommendation of the state Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC). A commission hearing panel had found Coomer’s misuse of campaign funds and dealings with a client before he became a judge undermined public confidence.
Coomer, a Republican and former state legislator, was appointed to the Court of Appeals in 2018 and elected to a full six-year term in 2020. Later that year, the JQC charged him with violating the Georgia Code of Judicial Conduct, and he was suspended from the bench with pay in January 2021 pending the outcome of the case.
The JQC recommended removing Coomer from the bench following a three-month hearing.
The charges against Coomer stemmed from his relationship with James Filhart, an elderly client he began representing in 2015. Filhart hired Coomer to pursue an action for guardianship of Filhart’s girlfriend, according to the court ruling.
After the matter was resolved successfully, Coomer continued to represent Filhart in other legal matters, including drafting a will that named Coomer and his heirs among the beneficiaries and Coomer as executor and trustee.
Coomer also accepted several loans from Filhart, including a loan of $130,000 in 2018 to a business Coomer controlled that lacked assets, the ruling stated. The loan was not secured, and Coomer provided no personal guarantee.
By 2019, the relationship between the two men had soured, and Filhart e-mailed Coomer demanding that the judge return the money he had borrowed. Coomer repaid the loan in 2020 after Filhart filed a lawsuit against him.
Coomer also was accused of transferring campaign funds to his law firm’s operating account and, in two instances, failing to report the transfers on his campaign contributions disclosure report. A third instance involved a trip to Hawaii before Coomer left the General Assembly that he said was for legislative business but ultimately was found to have been for leisure, according to the ruling.
Coomer reimbursed his campaign account for expenses from the trip after the state Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission began investigating him.
The State Bar of Georgia agreed that the two-year suspension of Coomer’s law license was “appropriate and sufficient,” according to the 24-page ruling the state Supreme Court handed down Tuesday. Coomer had agreed to the suspension by entering a petition for voluntary discipline.
