ATLANTA – The Georgia State Patrol is planning to build a new post on the grounds of the Governor’s Mansion in the Buckhead area of Atlanta, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Friday.
The 1,750-square-foot facility and garage bay will house 12 troopers directly assigned to the post and accommodate up to 30 troopers while maintaining the historic integrity of the mansion and surrounding grounds.
“With this new patrol post, our dedicated state troopers will have another base of operations as they take the fight directly to criminals,” Kemp said. “I look forward to seeing its positive impact on the Buckhead community.”
A rise in violent crime in Buckhead prompted calls among some Republicans in the General Assembly earlier this year for creating a separate city of Buckhead. But legislation calling for a referendum on cityhood for Buckhead failed on the floor of the state Senate last March.
The Georgia House added $1.3 million to this year’s state budget to fund the new post at the Governor’s Mansion. Construction is due to begin next year.
“This new patrol post is a significant long-term investment in public safety by the state of Georgia,” said House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington. “The patrol post will not only improve response times to incidents in and around the city of Atlanta but also improve coordination between state and local enforcement.”
ATLANTA – A program of grants and loans for infrastructure improvements run by the State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA) has awarded $17.3 million to help fund seven projects across Georgia.
The authority’s board voted Monday to approve grants and loans from the Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank (GTIB) to four cities, two counties and a community improvement district.
“Georgia is in the midst of a second industrial revolution, and as a result, the need to further build out our infrastructure has never been greater,” said Gov. Brian Kemp, the SRTA’s board chairman. “Thanks to SRTA, this year we were able to fund all of the rural projects that submitted an application for this statewide program.
“With these substantial awards, we are paving the way for economic growth, expanded opportunities, and seamless mobility for all hardworking Georgians, regardless of their zip code.”
The largest loan, more than $4.9 million, a record since the GTIB was launched in 2010, went to Pike County to resurface Brushy Creek Road from city hall to McCranie Road. The award also included a grant of nearly $1 million.
A $4.7 million loan, the second largest in the program’s history, went to the city of Lilburn for a series of road improvements aimed at improving access to Lawrenceville Highway.
The city of Woodstock will receive more than $2.3 million in grants and loans to widen Town Lake Parkway from Mill Street to just east of Interstate 575 to increase access to the city’s downtown.
The Buckhead Community Improvement District is getting a $2 million GTIB loan to help fund a series of pedestrian, bicycle, streetscape and traffic improvements along Lenox Road from Piedmont Road to Phipps Boulevard.
More than $900,000 in grants and loans will go to the city of Colquitt to resurface and widen 4th Street from Main Street to MLK Jr. Street.
Monroe County will receive nearly $800,000 to replace the Old Brent Road Bridge, which has been closed since last year due to structural failure.
The tiny community of Twin City in Emanuel County is getting $600,000 to realign a three-way intersection at Washington Road and Janice Drive into a four-way, signalized intersection.
The GTIB has awarded $200 million in grants and loans since its inception, investing in projects with a combined value of more than $1 billion.
ATLANTA – While Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis investigates allegations that then-President Donald Trump interfered with the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, her office also should handle its day-to-day duties, state House Speaker Jon Burns said Thursday.
“They need to make sure they have the resources and bandwidth to take care of both issues,” Burns, R-Newington, told members of the Atlanta Press Club during a luncheon speech in downtown Atlanta.
The special-purpose grand jury Willis empaneled last year to investigate Trump’s alleged role in trying to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia completed its work and issued its findings in December. The portion of the panel’s report Fulton Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney allowed to be released concluded the election results were legitimate and recommended that one or more witnesses who appeared before it be indicted for perjury.
On Thursday, Burns cited remarks Georgia Chief Justice Michael Boggs made on Wednesday in his State of the Judiciary address to a joint session of the General Assembly.
While Boggs’ theme was the huge backlog of criminal cases courts throughout Georgia face in the aftermath of the pandemic, he put some numbers to the backlog in Fulton County. He said Fulton is currently saddled with more than 4,000 pending felony indicted cases and almost 14,000 unindicted felony cases.
Burns made his remarks Thursday while defending legislation the House passed this week calling for the creation of a Prosecuting Attorneys Oversight Commission to investigate complaints against prosecutors and hold hearings.
Democrats have complained legislative Republicans are pushing the bill in response to Willis targeting Trump, a charge Burns rejected by pointing out that judges in Georgia are subject to commission oversight.
“I don’t think our district attorneys in this state should be treated any different than our judges,” he said. “We just want them to adhere to the law and apply it equally to every Georgian.”
During his speech, Burns also praised his House colleagues from both parties for passing legislation following through on last year’s landmark mental-health reform bill steered through the chamber by his predecessor as speaker, the late David Ralston.
“The House has been champions of mental-health reform in this state,” Burns said. “It began with Speaker Ralston.”
Burns, who was elected speaker by his fellow House members in January, also urged the state Senate to follow the House’s lead by passing bills aimed at breaking a legal logjam holding up Georgia’s medical cannabis program, giving tenants more legal rights in dealing with “troubling landlords,” and funding a proposed state police patrol post in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta.
Georgia House Appropriations Committee Chairman Matt Hatchett
ATLANTA – The Georgia House Appropriations Committee approved a $32.5 billion fiscal 2024 budget Wednesday that prioritizes mental-health care and law enforcement.
The spending plan, which takes effect July 1, includes the $2,000 pay raises for teachers and state employees Gov. Brian Kemp requested in January. But it goes further by targeting additional $2,000 increases for law enforcement personnel at a cost of $13 million.
The budget also includes targeted raises for employees of the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, the state Forestry Commission, and the Department of Driver Services, agencies plagued with particularly high turnover rates.
With the state sitting on a surplus of more than $6 billion, the budget would increase spending by more than $2 billion over the then-record fiscal 2023 budget the General Assembly adopted last spring. But it won’t satisfy everyone’s wish list, Rep. Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin, the budget-writing committee’s chairman, told committee members before Wednesday’s vote.
“We looked at many needs,” Hatchett said. “Unfortunately, we can’t fund them all.”
For one thing, the committee stopped short of fully funding the Zell Miller Scholarship, which covers tuition at University System of Georgia colleges and universities for Georgia high school students with grade-point averages of 3.5 or better. Instead, the House budget funds 95% of the Zell Miller program and redirects the other 5% to help fund scholarships at private colleges and health benefits for public pre-kindergarten teachers.
The budget does fully fund the state’s Quality Basic Education (QBE) k-12 student funding formula with a record $13.1 billion in fiscal 2024. The QBE was not fully funded when Georgia was suffering leaner economic times, but full funding has been restored for the last several years.
Besides the extra pay raise for law enforcement employees, the House budget also would boost public safety by funding a new state patrol post in Buckhead for $1.25 million.
Rising crime in Buckhead was the key reason cited by supporters of legislation calling for separating Buckhead from Atlanta and creating a separate city. The bill fizzled after David Dove, executive council for Kemp’s office, wrote a memo raising a host of legal questions about the proposal.
The House committee also set aside $2.7 million for a Cold Case Specialty Unit within the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, $6.3 million for the free breakfast and lunch programs for low-income students, $8.2 million to boost the Technical College System of Georgia’s aviation, commercial driver’s license, and nursing programs, and a $20.1 million in funding increase for maintenance of local roads.
The Full House will take up the fiscal 2024 budget later this week or early next week.
Former Ambassador Andrew Young speaking at Atlanta University Center (photo credit: Rebecca Grapevine).
ATLANTA – Former Ambassador Andrew Young, students and alumni, state legislators and civil rights leaders gathered on the steps of the Woodruff Library at Atlanta University Center Friday to celebrate the creation of a new scholarship program for students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
The new $5,000 Andrew Young HBCU Scholarships are designed to help students enrolled in HBCUs continue their educations.
Surrounded by students, Young described having to work many jobs to put himself through college when he was a young man – but ultimately managing to graduate.
“Now that won’t get you through the first two weeks,” he said, referring to the greatly increased cost of higher education today. Young said it is challenging for young people – among them his nine grandchildren – to afford college.
Education publisher McGraw Hill provided seed money for the scholarship fund.
“When we have this kind of support from a major corporation …. we know it’s a good investment. It’s a good investment for them. And it’s certainly a good investment for us.”
Atlanta’s HBCUs have contributed to making Atlanta a nationally renowned civil rights center with a strong business climate, Young said.
“It’s been this university complex that has created the brains that have drawn businesses here … that not only makes Atlanta great city, but I think it keeps even Georgia now a great nation,” Young said. “That’s why business is growing, that’s why we’ve got the world’s busiest airport.
State Reps. Dave Belton, R-Buckhead, and Mack Jackson, D-Sandersville, who helped spearhead the initiative for the scholarships, were also present.
The two lawmakers cosponsored a resolution encouraging Georgia public schools to teach about the civil rights movement and especially Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who attended Morehouse College. The resolution won unanimous approval from the Georgia House of Representatives earlier this year.
“I think everyone needs to hear … the words of Dr. King about peaceful resistance and non-violence is the best way to get there. I think that that resonates,” Belton said.
The first group of scholarships will go to 10 students. Scholarship recipients will also complete a civil rights curriculum designed by the organization Good of All, a group that promotes universal human rights.
The scholarships are designed to advance King’s, Young’s and other civil right leaders’ message of non-violent social change, said Matthew Daniels, founder of Good of All.
Daniels said a new generation of civil rights leaders is needed to fight hate and violence in American society.
“The only alternative we really have is to raise up a new generation that can go on offense for the good side – not defense against the bad,” said Daniels. “That’s why these young people are here.”
Daniels noted that students who leave college often do so between the first and second year due to lack of relatively modest sums, around $5,000, the scholarship amount. The new scholarships are designed to help “plug the gap.”
He and the other organizers plan for the scholarship program to grow each year.
“Inoculating hearts and minds against the poisonous ideologies of racism and violence that we saw in Buffalo …. that’s why we’re doing this scholarship program,” Daniels said. “America needs these young people.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
