What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
– Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NIV)
Today’s historical moments below combine to show some of the major influences on Georgia politics and governance since her founding, and how the same conflicts have played out across the world.
On January 30, 1788, the Georgia legislature passed a resolution calling for a state Constitutional Convention in Augusta to adopt a state Constitution that conformed to the new Constitution of the United States.
On January 30, 1862, the United States launced its first ironclad warship, USS Monitor.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882 in Hyde Park, New York. In 1942, Roosevelt ordered Japanese-Americans on the west coast of the United States into concentration camps, leaving German and Italian Americans free.
On January 30, 1935, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr. protested segregated elevators at the Fulton County Courthouse.
On January 30, 1948, Mohandas K. Gandhi was assassinated.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Tomorrow, voters in House District 7 will choose a new State Rep. to fill the vacancy created by the death of Speaker David Ralston, according to the AJC.
The highest-profile is the runoff between Sheree Ralston and Johnny Chastian in the Blue Ridge-based House District 7.
Candidates to replace state Sen. Dean Burke in Senate District 11 are also on the ballot Tuesday. If no candidate wins a majority, that race will go to a runoff in February.
In Senate District 11, the candidates are:
John Monds, Libertarian
Sam Watson, Republican and former State Representative
Mary Weaver-Anderson, Democrat
Voters will also elect a new State Rep. for HD 172, which was won in November by Sam Watson, who resigned to run for Senate. The only candidate for HD 172 is Republican Charles H. “Chas” Collins.
Under the Gold Dome Today
TBD Senate Rules Committee: Upon Adjournment – 450 CAP
9:00 AM HOUSE CREATIVE ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT – 403 CAP
10:00 AM HOUSE FLOOR SESSION (LD 9) – House Chamber
10:00 AM Senate Floor Session (LD 9) – Senate Chamber
1:00 PM Senate Transportation – Mezz 1 CAP
1:00 PM Senate Government Oversight – 307 CLOB
1:00 PM Senate Agriculture & Consumer Affairs – 450 CAP
1:30 PM HOUSE STATE PROPERTIES – 415 CLOB
2:00 PM HOUSE DEFENSE & VETERANS AFFAIRS – 403 CAP
2:00 PM Cancelled- Senate Health & Human Services – 450 CAP
3:00 PM Senate Finance – Mezz 1 CAP
4:00 PM Senate Judiciary – 307 CLOB
Mental Health Day at the Georgia State Capitol is Tuesday, according to the Albany Herald.
“I think people forget how many people in Georgia actually live and work in rural areas and the barriers to getting services,” [University of Georgia Cooperative Extension agent Jennifer] Dunn said. “Even when the services exist and are available, we need to examine what keeps people from getting those services and how we can break those barriers down.”
The event, which will be held at the Georgia Freight Depot, part of the state’s Capitol Hill complex, will include breakfast followed by a range of educational speakers to share stories, mental health resources and updates on mental health legislation in the state. An online option will be available.
Dunn will provide an update on rural mental health and moderate a discussion panel featuring parents and their experiences finding and using mental health services in both urban and rural areas.
Other highlights of the program include a speech from Kevin Tanner, commissioner for the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, and a live performance from the mental health advocacy theatre group R2ISE. State Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper also will attend the event.
Georgia‘s move to dominate the electric vehicle industry is underwritten by federal funding, according to the Georgia Recorder.
The Republican governor’s ambitious plan doesn’t seem too far-fetched after the significant strides made by the state on the economic development front in the last two years, which includes four multibillion-dollar investments into building electric vehicles and the batteries that keep them running.
“I believe this is a unique moment of opportunity for our state and for the thousands upon thousands of hardworking Georgians who will benefit from great jobs and incredible innovative companies for generations to come,” Kemp said during his inaugural address. “That’s why by the end of my second term as your governor, I intend for Georgia to be recognized as the electric mobility capital of America.
Yet these developments are not without their detractors who criticize the state’s generous incentive packages. For its proposed plant, Rivian Automotive received $1.5 billion in state and local incentives. Local residents have concerns about how the plant will contribute to urban sprawl, the traffic it would create and the environmental damage it could cause.
And a capacity problem could hamper the long-term viability of the electric vehicle industry: a shortage of lithium-ion batteries.
The [joint Senate and House] study committee also called for a more detailed analysis to determine how to offset some of the $2 billion in state fuel taxes now collected annually that the state Department of Transportation uses for road construction.
A $211 fee is currently charged to owners of small battery-powered cars, while $317 is charged to owners of commercial electric vehicles. As a comparison, the DOT brings in 30 cents per gallon from fuel taxes.
As part of President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Georgia has received $135 million [for] charging stations and infrastructure.
State government health agencies presented their budget requests to legislators, according to GPB News.
Appropriations for the state’s four major health departments next fiscal year include over $7 billion for mental and behavioral health services and an expanded HIV prevention program, among others.
But a top concern this year is the unwinding of a pandemic-era policy that’s kept people on Medicaid without interruptions, and is set to expire in April. Called continuous coverage, the federal policy has resulted in a 25% growth in Medicaid enrollment since the start of the pandemic, five times more than estimates under normal circumstances, said Department of Community Health Commissioner Cayee Noggle
DCH will work with the Department of Human Services to re-evaluate over 2 million adults and kids in Georgia through next year. More than half a million are estimated to lose Medicaid coverage in the process.
The FY 2023 budget includes $8.4 million dollars to fund additional case workers and administrative support for unwinding, with an additional $3 million for FY 24. But DHS says their staff will likely see caseloads go up more than 200%.
Department of Behavioral Health and Disabilities Commissioner Keven Tanner said state psychiatric hospitals lost 1,200 employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though recruitment has improved since then, hospitals still spend millions on temporary contract workers.
“These contract staff are expensive,” Tanner said. “We want to replace them with DBHDD staff who are not just more cost effective, but they’re also more committed to the mission of the department.”
The budget includes $2,000 cost of living adjustments for full-time government employees. Additional federal funds aim to address staffing shortages across the health care system.
The Department of Public Health plans to focus on maternal mortality this year, Commissioner Kathleen Toomey said.
“I think that addressing maternal and child health in a very proactive way will be probably my top priority,” Toomey said.
But there aren’t any new appropriations specifically for maternal mortality in the budget.
The Rome News Tribune spoke to local legislators about their priorities.
As state Rep. Katie Dempsey gears up to review agency budget requests through the Human Resources appropriations subcommittee she chairs, she wants to ensure the basic safety nets are in place.
The Rome Republican took to the House floor last week to urge lawmakers to look out for their constituents as the state updates its Medicaid rolls. It’s a federally mandated “unwinding” of the emergency COVID-era regulations.
“People who are on Medicaid were not checked as they would have been and people who might need to be on it were not brought in,” Dempsey said.
Another caucus priority [state Senator Chuck Hufstetler (R-Rome)] wants to be involved with this session is healthcare. Expanding telemedicine — “The one good thing about covid is it forced us into telemedicine early,” he said — is one prong, along with increasing support for income-eligible pregnant women and kids in foster care.
The Gwinnett County delegation to the State Senate elected officers, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.
State Sen. Nikki Merritt, D-Grayson, will lead the Gwinnett County Senate Delegation for the next two years while two freshmen state senators will join her on the delegation’s executive board.
The county’s Senate delegation elected its executive board on Wednesday. Merritt will serve as the chairwoman while state Sens. Nabilah Islam, D-Lawrenceville, and Shawn Still, R-Norcross, will serve as the vice-chairwoman and secretary respectively.
“I am truly honored to further represent Gwinnett County as Chair of the Gwinnett County Senate Delegation,” Merritt said. “Gwinnett County is continuing to grow as one of Georgia’s largest counties. Together, we as a delegation will strive to address issues such as education, housing, taxes and small business support in the Georgia General Assembly.”
State Rep. Anne Allen Westbrook (D-Savannah) writes that Georgia needs more gun control, in the Albany Herald.
Georgia has the ninth-highest rate of gun violence and the 12th-highest rate of gun homicide in the U.S. In fact, gun deaths in Georgia increased by 41% from 2011 to 2020, compared to a 33% increase nationwide. Those statistics are tragic, but they are the sadly predictable result of Georgia’s gun laws. Georgia has some of the most dangerous gun ownership laws in the country, and our rates of suicide, homicide and unintentional shootings prove it.
Every year, 932 people in Georgia die by gun suicide, and an additional 64 are wounded by gun suicide attempts. In Georgia, someone dies by gun suicide every 10 hours, on average.
In Georgia, 81% of all homicides involve a gun, with an average of 730 dying by gun homicides per year. More than 1,500 people in Georgia are wounded by gun assaults, annually. Guns are now the leading cause of death for Georgia children and teens — not motor vehicle accidents, not drownings — guns.
Dangerous gun laws also cost Georgians in dollars and cents. Gun deaths and injuries cost Georgia $23.9 billion each year, of which $597.8 million is paid by taxpayers at a rate of $2,249 per resident per year.
Before it was repealed last year, Georgia’s permitting system helped keep Georgians safe by making sure that people carrying concealed handguns in public passed a background check. States that have weakened their permitting systems have seen both handgun homicide and assault increase by more than 10%.
Two state legislators will introduce bills designed to curb sex crimes, according to State Affairs.
Rep. Steven Sainz, R-St. Mary’s, will be introducing, for the fourth time, the “Georgia Dangerous Sexual Predator Prevention Act,” intended to make life sentences — consisting of prison time, probation, or a combination — mandatory for people who are convicted a second time of one of 13 felony sex crimes. Those repeat offenders would be required to wear a GPS ankle monitor after they are released from prison.
Meanwhile, Rep. Mandi Ballinger, R-Canton, is crafting a bill that will change how SORRB operates in an effort to help the review board evaluate the risk level of more than 6,000 sexual offenders who have been convicted but not yet classified by the agency. Some of those people are incarcerated, and some are living in communities around the state while serving parole or probation.
Governor Brian Kemp proposed more than $35 million in funding for affordable workforce housing, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Gwinnett Daily Post.
“The transformational projects, good paying jobs, and new investments are worth little if there aren’t options for hard-working Georgians to live where they work,” Republican Gov. Brian Kemp noted Jan. 25 in his annual State of the State address.
To address the problem, Kemp has proposed $35.7 million in the amended fiscal 2023 budget to create a rural workforce housing fund. If the governor’s budget recommendation is approved, those funds would be reallocated from existing spending items.
The program would be focused on helping local governments finance the infrastructure needed for building new housing developments, said Sam Nunn, commissioner of the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA).
“We look forward to launching Georgia’s program, which will leverage [DCA] subject matter expertise in infrastructure to partner with local governments as well as developers,” Nunn said.
“Of course, we hope that this infusion will also beget additional rural housing investment to meet the needs of a growing workforce. This is a pervasive issue across states [that] few states have figured out how to address.”
Many developers and other free-market advocates believe local regulations imposed by city and county governments drive up the cost of housing.
But local governments oppose state laws that would preempt local regulation of zoning, building designs and control over the construction of build-to-rent projects.
“I think it’s rather disingenuous of certain groups to blame [high housing costs] solely on local government regulations,” said Todd Edwards, deputy director of governmental affairs for the Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG). “The affordability of housing is a very complex issue.”
The ACCG and the Georgia Municipal Association are currently developing recommendations to increase the affordable housing supply in Georgia without preempting local control, Edwards said.
House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, said earlier this month he is keen to work with local governments on the affordable-housing issue.
“The House will respect our local partners, whether it be the cities and the counties,” Burns said. “That’s where decisions are made on zoning. … Certainly, we will respect their decisions.”
NOTE: Christopher Nunn is Commissioner of Community Affairs, not former United States Senator Sam Nunn.
The State House Transportation Committee voted to recommend passage of House Bill 52 by State Rep. Brad Thomas (R-Cobb), according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Gwinnett Daily Post.
The House Transportation Committee passed the bill unanimously on Thursday and sent it on to the Rules Committee, which will decide when to put it on the House floor.
The General Assembly passed legislation two years ago allowing the state Department of Transportation (DOT) to use a contracting alternative that gets contractors involved in projects as they are being designed, earlier than is typically the case.
“This is really for more complex projects,” Rep. Brad Thomas, R-Holly Springs, the bill’s chief sponsor, told committee members Thursday. “It allows for better control of estimates.”
[GDOT director of policy and government affairs Josh] Waller said an example of a complex project is the planned raising of the Talmadge Bridge in Savannah. The State Transportation Board voted last week to authorize using alternative contracting to build that project.
The Georgia Department of Transportation will receive $4 million in federal funding to buy a new ferry to carry passengers to and from Sapelo Island, according to the Center Square.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources will use the ferry for its passenger service between Meridian and Sapelo Island in McIntosh County. The new ferry will replace an older vessel to continue daily transit service.
Officials say the ferry, which takes about 20 minutes to run between the island and the mainland, is vital for residents who rely on it for their medical, education and shopping needs. A spokeswoman for the Georgia DNR referred questions about the ferry to the GDOT, which did not respond to a request for more information about the project.
Georgia owns about 97% of Sapelo Island, a state-managed barrier island located about 60 miles south of Savannah. In December 2015, members of the island’s Gullah-Geechee community filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against state and local officials.
In 2020, the state agreed to settle and upgrade the transportation facilities residents use to travel to and from the island; the upgrades were estimated to cost more than $10 million. In 2022, McIntosh County agreed to pay $2 million in damages and improve emergency services on the island, which included the addition of a helipad.
Ben Hill County’s school superintendent resigned after her sexuality was questioned publicly, according to WALB.
Dawn Clements was the interim superintendent for 8 months. She recently resigned and retired after concerns over her sexuality.
According to residents, a man wrote a letter to local pastors. In the letter, the man said Clements was not qualified because she is “openly gay”.
A special Board of Education meeting was called Saturday to vote on Clements’ resignation.
The board voted unanimously “no” to accept her resignation. That means the job is effectively hers if she’s willing to accept the position.
Around 200-250 people attended the special meeting Saturday afternoon.
Jeremy Cox, school board chairman, announced Clements’ resignation decision to the large crowd and many clapped loudly. That same crowd clapped just as loud when Cox resigned as chairman. He will still be a board member. Shirley Brooks, the longest-tenured member of the Board, will serve as Chairman in his place.
Roswell City Council members elected their colleague Christine Hall as Mayor Pro Tem, according to the AJC.
The Mayor Pro Tem is elected for a one-year term and stands in for the mayor in his absence, presiding over meetings and representing the city at speaking engagements.
“It is an honor to be chosen as Mayor Pro Tem by my peers on the Roswell City Council to serve the residents of this great city,” said Hall in a statement on the city’s website. “I would also like to thank Councilmember Michael Palermo for the high standard of service he set as Mayor Pro Tem in 2022.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has set up a field office in Troup County, according to WTVM.
A FEMA disaster recovery center will open Sunday, January 29, in Troup County to provide one-on-one assistance. This will help people directly affected by the January 12 severe storms, straight line winds and tornadoes.
Recovery specialists from FEMA and the U.S. Small Business Administration will provide information on available services, explain assistance programs and help survivors complete or check the status of their applications.
Harris County public schools have set up a telehealth program for students and staff, according to WTVM.
The partnership funded through various grants and community funding.
It’s all part of the Harris County School District along with Mercer Medicine of Harris County partnering to bring a Telehealth Program to all of the districts seven schools.
“It helps our students and our staff to one, stay healthy, it gives them convenient, quality healthcare, it reduces their absenteeism,” said HCSD Assistant Superintendent of Support Services Shelia Baker.
The program infuses a telehealth visit with a doctor along with a trained school nurse on site for additional assessment.
“It’s a great program particularly in a rural community where there is some distance for some to drive and get healthcare,” [said parent] Craig Greenhaw.
While there are similar programs statewide Harris County is the first to include care for staff.
Columbia County Judicial Circuit officials are warning of a jury duty scam, according to WRDW.
An old scam has resurfaced in Columbia County in which the caller alleges that the recipient has missed jury duty and that an arrest warrant has been issued for the recipient.
The caller will allege that the arrest warrant will be recalled if the recipient of the call makes a payment via an obscure gift card service or some other non-traditional payment method.
The Columbia County, Ga Government Facebook page says, “at no time will a legitimate employee of the Court, Clerk or Sheriff ever call anyone to advise them that an arrest warrant has been issued and further suggest that service of that warrant can be avoided if the citizen makes some sort of payment.”
Unincorporated Chatham County reports property crimes are up by 10%, according to WTOC.
Overall, total crime has increased while violent crime is on the decline.
The latest numbers from the Chatham County Police Department show overall property crimes, including theft and burglary, are up 10 percent. Chief Hadley says shoplifting is a major contributor to that increase. In 2021, there were 235 cases of shoplifting, in 2022, there were 414.
However, these numbers show a decrease in violent crime of 16 percent when you compare 2021 to 2022, something Hadley says is a welcome change.
“We had 46 less incidents, that’s 46 less victims. That’s 46 less people that were affected by some type of violent crime, whether that be homicide all the way to aggravated assault. That’s always a nice thing to see,” Chief Hadley said.
Chief Hadley says the department is still trying to fill vacancies, they’ve remained steady at an officer vacancy rate of 23 percent.
Quay Boddie was appointed to the LaGrange City Council to fill a vacancy, according to WTVM.
District 2 Councilman Willie T. Edmondson and District 1 Councilman Jim Arrington, both stepped down from their seats to run for mayor. Having three seats vacant, the remaining four city council members unanimously voted to appoint Councilman Boddie to take the seat of Edmondson. Edmondson has less than one year left in his term, so according to city ordinance, a person can be appointed to fill the seat.
The election to vote for the LaGrange Mayor will be Tuesday, March 21st. The election to fill District 1 City Councilman Jim Arrington’s seat, will likely be in June. In November, the seats for District 2 City Councilman Quay Boddie, District 2 City Councilman Leon Childs, and District 1 City Councilman Mark Mitchell will be up for election.
