Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for April 21, 2025

According to tradition, on April 21, 753 B.C., Rome was founded. The one in Italy, not the one in Floyd County.

On April 21, 1732, King George II signed the royal charter creating the colony of Georgia. The King’s signature did not make the charter effective as several additional steps were required.

On April 21, 1789, John Adams was sworn in as the first Vice President of the United States.

On April 21, 1904, Ty Cobb made his debut in professional baseball for the Augusta (Georgia) Tourists in the South Atlantic League in center field; Cobb hit an inside-the-field home run and a double.

Manfred von Richthofen, known as “The Red Baron,” was killed in action on April 21, 1918, shot by either an Australian gunner or a Canadian. At the time of his death, Richthofen has shot down 80 aircraft in aerial combat.

Former President Jimmy Carter was appointed Distinguished Professor at Emory University on April 21, 1982. Carter held an annual Town Hall in which he takes questions from students.

On April 21, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Israel. From the press statement released that day,

The MOA reiterates for the public record our long-standing relationship of strategic cooperation with Israel. Strategic cooperation can only succeed when there are shared interests, including the commitment to building peace and stability in the region. It reflects the enduring U.S. commitment to Israel’s security. That commitment will never flag. The U.S. commitment to peace will also not flag. The President knows that a strong Israel is necessary if peace is to be possible. He also knows that Israel can never be truly secure without peace.

Descendants of Revolutionary War patriots observed the 247th anniversary of a naval battle on St. Simons Island, according to The Brunswick News.

Saturday’s observance was the 19th since the late Bill Ramsaur, a member of the Marshes of Glynn Sons of the American Revolution, organized the first. Known as Georgia Patriots Day because it falls the same calendar date as national Patriots Day, the day honors the patriots who captured three British vessels in the Frederica River on April 19, 1778.

Three of four British warships sailed into the Frederica River with plans to ram and board three armed galleys commissioned to oppose invasion. The British plans were foiled, however, when the wind died completely and the galley crews rowed a safe distance away and struck the warships with a cannonade for several hours. Because their smaller cannons could not reach the galleys, the British tried to escape by moving downstream with the tide but ran aground at Raccoon Gut.

All but a few of the British escaped to their fourth ship waiting offshore, and the Colonials captured the vessels. To the British, the action was known as “the debacle at Raccoon Gut.”

Columbus is preparing to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the founding of the United States, according to WTVM.

America is celebrating a big milestone this Fourth of July; it’s the 250th birthday of the United States. Cities across the country are putting their own touch on the occasion this year, including the Chattahoochee Valley.

“Freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom of speech – assembly – all that started today,” said Alton Russell, said Chairman of the Columbus 250 Committee. “We ought to be very happy and fortunate that we live in this country, so we need to celebrate freedom.”

250 years ago on April 18th, 1775 was Paul Revere’s ride; the following day, the “Shot heard ‘round the world” occurred at the battles of Lexington and Concord.

“250 years ago, we had the Battles of Lexington and Concord; at that time, that showed the rest of the world that our small militia stood up to the strongest army in the world,” said Danny Ginter, Member of the Coweta Falls Chapter Sons of the American Revolution.

In studying these two critical events, the Columbus 250 Committee – formed around three months ago – is now set to bring in as many organizations and companies as possible through the initiative to celebrate America’s 250th birthday next year.

“Hopefully we can get people to have an interest and maybe come up with events of their own that we can help them coordinate and have a lot of different events between now and next year to celebrate the beginning of our country,” said Russell.

The Columbus Consolidated Government and the Columbus 250 Committee kicked-off the celebration with a press conference Friday morning, all to highlight the upcoming events that will be taking place over the course of the year. Not only were there historical reenactment’s by the Sons of the American Revolution – but also artifacts that were used during that time on display – all in efforts to emphasize the freedoms often taken for granted.

“We’ll be having all sorts of activities throughout the year and through next year to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution this year, and of course next year in July of 2026 it will be the 250th anniversary of our country – The Declaration of Independence,” said Roger Buterbaugh, Immediate Past President of the Coweta Falls Chapters Sons of the Revolution. “It’s important to learn from the past so we don’t make the same mistakes in the future and to educate the youth to instill citizenship and patriotism in them.”

While many of the upcoming events are still in the works, there are a few for the public to look forward to, including on Memorial Day where the Sons of the American Revolution will be honoring fallen soldiers at Parkhill Cemetery. June of this year is also the 250th anniversary of the United States Army; the Columbus 250 Committee hopes to partner with the National Infantry Museum in celebrating that with the community.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Georgia ranks 43d among the states for senior issues, according to the AJC.

A new report from Seniorly ranks the Peach State No. 43 in the country for older workers, driven by a high rate of workplace age discrimination, low senior income levels and a sharp decline in new business growth.

By 2033, 1 in every 12 workers in the United States will be 65 or older. That growth is projected to be fueled by a 79% increase in workers ages 75 and older, and a 22.4% jump among those 65-74, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Georgia seniors earn a median income of $53,005 — below the national average — and face 160 age discrimination complaints per 100,000 eligible workers, one of the highest rates in the country. Even for older adults looking to reinvent themselves, the path isn’t easy: New business applications have dropped 14.5% in the past year, limiting opportunities for aspiring senior entrepreneurs.

Beyond the paycheck, many older adults in Georgia are struggling to meet basic needs. A study by Retirement Living found nearly 10% of Georgia seniors experience food insecurity — one of the highest rates in the U.S. The state also has the third-highest senior poverty rate, worsened by steep rent prices and limited public transportation options.

Health outcomes aren’t much better. Georgia ranks 39th in the nation for senior health, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. From 2021 to 2022, depression rates among older Georgians spiked by 29%. And since 2017, drug-related deaths in this age group have increased by nearly 28%.

Despite affordability and warmer climates, many Southern states are scoring low across metrics that matter most to older adults, especially when it comes to health care, income and quality of life. Alongside Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina consistently rank among the worst places for retirement and senior well-being.

Georgia fell two slots in a ranking of states’ economies, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen.

Georgia dropped two spots in the 18th annual Rich States, Poor States report from the American Legislative Exchange Council.

The Peach State ranked 13th for its economic outlook, down from 11 in 2024 and 12th in 2023.

The state’s lowest score was in tort systems costs, which measures tort costs’ possible share of the state’s gross domestic product based on the report Tort Costs in America from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Georgia’s was 2.6%, 46th among the states based on 2022 data included in the report.

The Georgia General Assembly passed a comprehensive tort reform package that would limit some liability awards and protect businesses from lawsuits for acts outside of their control. Gov. Brian Kemp made the issue a priority and is signing the bill Monday.

The state ranked 25th for its top marginal income tax rate at 5.39%. Kemp signed a bill Tuesday that would reduce the state income tax rate to 5.19%.

Georgia ranked 9th for its economic performance. The state has seen an influx of new residents, more than 408,000 between 2013 and 2023, which placed the state at 6th, according to the report.

The state’s gross domestic product was 77.91% for the same ten-year period, earning the state the 9th spot.

Utah took the top spot for economic outlook in the report, with Tennessee, Indiana, North Carolina and North Dakota rounding out the top five. Among Georgia’s neighbors not in the top five, Florida ranked 15th, Alabama 20th and South Carolina 29th.

The report was co-authored by Reagan economist Dr. Arthur B. Laffer, policy expert Stephen Moore, and ALEC president and chief economist Jonathan Williams.

Speaking of tort reform, Governor Brian Kemp will sign wto tort reform bills this afternoon at the State Capitol, according to Atlanta News First via WRDW.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp today will sign the state’s historic attempt to rein in what his supporters call frivolous and excessive jury awards.

At 2 p.m., Kemp will sign Senate Bill 68, which he named as one of his key legislative priorities before the 2025 Georgia General Assembly.

Tort reform, which would overhaul Georgia’s civil litigation system, would make it harder to sue businesses for things that happen on their property, a concept known as premises liability. But survivors and families of victims say it could also make it harder for them to seek justice against wrongdoers.

Small business owners in the state said they’re frustrated with constantly having to pay huge settlements over lawsuits they feel are frivolous. Kemp has gone so far as to term it “lawsuit abuse,” and many in the legislature agreed, including several Democrats who crossed the party aisle to support the bill.

The bill raises the threshold for holding businesses accountable for what happens on their property. Under the proposed legislation, businesses would have to have prior knowledge of a safety issue or a wrongdoing employee in order to be sued.

Opponents of the bill said nothing in its language actually required insurance companies to lower their rates.

The media advisory from Gov. Kemp’s office says he’ll sign Senate Bill 68 and SB 69.

From the AJC:

Gov. Brian Kemp will sign into law a revamp of Georgia’s legal system on Monday, capping a yearslong effort to limit lawsuits and bring down jury awards. But whether the overhaul will also bring down rising insurance rates remains unclear.

The governor and his supporters have long promised that the sweeping changes, which supporters call “tort reform,” would stabilize insurance premiums by curbing costly litigation and reining in multimillion-dollar verdicts.

But even Kemp’s GOP allies warn the impact on premiums could be modest. House Speaker Jon Burns has already tasked a legislative panel with reviewing how insurance rates are set, signaling more legislation might be on the way next year.

And Insurance Commissioner John King, who has crisscrossed the state defending the legal overhaul, said he will turn up the pressure on companies seeking rate hikes.

“I’m telling insurance companies now they have to do their part,” said King, a potential U.S. Senate candidate. “We are going to have public hearings and they’re going to have to justify raising rates. I don’t mind holding their feet to the fire.”

“It is clear the status quo is unacceptable, unsustainable and jeopardizes our state’s prosperity in the years to come,” said Kemp.

Facing fierce Democratic opposition, Kemp had to rely almost entirely on the Legislature’s GOP majority to pass the bill. Still, it took extraordinary arm-twisting and multiple concessions to narrowly pass the bill.

Senate Bill 93 by State Sen. RaShaun Kemp (D-Atlanta) bans the “three-cueing” reading instruction method and awaits Governor Kemp’s signature or veto, according to Atlanta News First via WALB.

A series of new laws aimed at transforming how reading is taught in Georgia’s public schools are now awaiting approval from Gov. Brian Kemp.

The newly passed bills ban a controversial reading method known as “three cueing” and require educator preparation programs to align with the science of reading, a body of research that emphasizes phonics-based instruction.

The legislation comes amid Georgia’s literacy crisis, where just one in three fourth graders reads proficiently, according to state assessments.

The most immediate change bans the use of three cueing as the primary method of reading instruction. Some education advocates contend the strategy encourages children to guess words using context clues and pictures rather than decoding them through phonics, an approach that many experts say undermines foundational reading skills.

“This method did not teach him to read,” said state Sen. RaShaun Kemp, D-Atlanta, who read a letter from a parent on the Senate floor. “It taught him to guess, leaving him anxious, struggling, and believing he wasn’t capable for his first five years of school.”

Kemp and state Rep. Bethany Ballard, R-Warner Robins, co-authored the legislation. Both are former educators.

The law also prohibits Georgia schools from using Reading Recovery, a long-standing reading intervention program for struggling first graders. Parents whose children participated in the instruction say it uses the three cueing method. A 2023 study by the University of Delaware found Reading Recovery to be potentially harmful to struggling students.

But lawmakers didn’t stop at the classroom level. Under Senate Bill 93, Georgia’s Professional Standards Commission must now adopt criteria to overhaul state-approved teacher preparation programs.

Ballard, a former teacher who authored HB 307, clarified that pictures and context clues can still be used as supplemental tools, just not as the primary means of instruction.

In 2024, Georgia voters approved a Constitutional Amendment allowing local governments to adopt a homestead exemption that rises with inflation, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Savannah Morning News.

Across Georgia last November, voters heartily threw their support behind an amendment to the state constitution that sought to slow the escalation of property taxes.

Two out of three voters favored Constitutional Amendment 1, which allowed communities to decide whether the annual rise in their property tax values should be linked to the generally lower rate of inflation.

And then, not much happened.

Although most cities and counties opted into the tax slowdown, most school districts did not. And education is generally the lion’s share of a local property tax bill.

So, lawmakers decided to give it another go. House Bill 92, which Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law immediately after the General Assembly sent it to his desk on April 1, gives cities, counties and school systems until the end of this month to reconsider the offer to tighten their own purse strings.

The measure is “designed to protect homeowners from exceedingly high property tax assessments,” the chief sponsor of the bill, state Rep. Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, said in February during the first of several legislative votes. “It would, I think, hopefully give the locals some more time to understand the value of allowing taxpayers to keep more of their money.”

The House of Representatives went 173-1 for the bill. It was initially controversial in the Senate, but amendments led to similar enthusiasm there. The Senate version passed the House unanimously in late March.

As the bill was winding through the legislature, local elected officials were already declining the offer. As of mid-March, according to the most recent available information from the Secretary of State’s office, 71% of the state’s 180 school districts had opted out.

About a quarter of the state’s 537 towns and cities joined those school systems, and just over a third of the 159 counties did.

Schools are far less likely to voluntarily slow down their tax revenue increases for a simple reason: education is expensive, especially when enrollment is growing.

And, unlike cities and counties, there is a limit on how high school systems can raise their tax rate.

Some clarity is needed here.

A rising property tax bill is driven by two mechanisms.

First, there is the property tax rate, which is expressed in “mills,” with one mill resulting in a tax bill of $1 for each $1,000 in assessed property value. School boards, city councils and county commissions set their own millage rate. And they often get criticized when they raise it, creating potential difficulty at re-election time.

Second, is the property value. That’s set by county appraisers who value each property based on sales of similar properties nearby.

That is the part of the tax bill that lawmakers want to link to the rate of inflation. Especially in growing areas, property values tend to rise faster than the inflation rate.

Their constitutional amendment targeted the portion of the tax bill that is driven by property values by increasing the value of a property “homestead,” which is basically a tax discount for owner-occupied homes, by the amount of any increase in the official valuation, minus inflation.

Confused?

So was Allen Fort, the longtime superintendent of the Taliaferro County School District, the smallest system in Georgia.

“It’s far more complicated than it should have been,” he said.

People don’t understand the mechanism, he said, and they don’t understand the implications for schools.

When Gwinnett County Public Schools, the state’s largest system, opted out, it published this explanation on its website. It would have meant a loss of $35 million in the 2025-26 fiscal year and more than $100 million over the next three years.

There is another complicating factor for Georgia school systems: most are legally limited to a maximum tax rate of 20 mills.

Typically, 90% of the costs go to paying teachers and other staff. The state sets student-teacher ratios, so more students mean more teachers — and more costs.

More households paying more taxes should theoretically cover that rising cost. But they generally don’t.

That is because houses with children in them typically cost communities far more in educational services than those houses pay in taxes. Arresting the increase of their share of the tax base would simply force schools to raise their millage rates, but then they would hit that cap.

And in many places, industries get big tax abatements to build new factories and other facilities, so they’re not paying either.

So, John Zauner wonders, who would pay for education if school boards opted in to the legislature’s scheme and basically froze their future revenue stream?

Lawmakers are just playing a political game, shifting the attention of frustrated taxpayers from themselves to their local school board members, said Zauner, executive director of the Georgia School Superintendents Association.

“Their issue as legislators is to say, ‘I’m going to provide you tax relief,’ and that’s a great issue to get some votes on,” he said.

The constitutional amendment was as popular in Coweta County as it was in the rest of the state, passing by wide margins in every voting precinct.

The county government then opted in to the new inflation rate tax limit, but the school system opted out.

The school district’s property tax rate is already above 15 mills, explained Evan Horton, the Coweta County School System superintendent.

“You get to that 20-mill cap and there are no more levers to push,” Horton said. “Once you get to the cap, it could prove very difficult to do the things that you need to do.”

Cities and counties generally don’t face the same millage rate limit as schools. Lawmakers also gave them the ability to raise their sales tax rate to recoup some of the dollars lost to the inflation-linked homestead exemptions. Lawmakers did not give that sales tax increase to schools.

So far, only a couple of counties have asked their voters to approve a higher sales tax, said Dante Handel, who works on governmental affairs for the Association County Commissioners of Georgia.

Handel, who has tracked this property tax plan for more than a year and has produced an in-depth analysis and explanation for the public, expects more cities and counties to follow suit in November.

He said the decision for local governments comes down to whether they want to shift the burden of taxation from owner-occupied homes to other types of property owners.

“It’ll hit second homes. It will hit the apartments. The question then is whether or not those apartment owners are going to have that additional tax burden shift down to the renters — most likely they will,” he said. “Then it’ll also shift some of that burden to the industrial and commercial properties. So, it’s a policy decision about whether or not you want to reward the folks who have long-term roots in your community.”

Whitfield County Commissioners plan to roll back their property tax millage rate, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen.

Members of the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners said this week they plan to roll back the county property tax rate to offset revised 2024 property assessments that county residents have begun receiving.

While the revised assessments weren’t on the meeting agenda, several people spoke about their concerns, claiming double digit percentage increases in the assessed values of their homes.

Following two court hearings in October, a senior judge from Floyd County ruled in Whitfield County Superior Court in favor of a temporary tax collection order that allowed for the collection of property taxes based on the 2023 tax digest plus a 10% increase in all assessments. This was decided after concerns were raised by Whitfield County Tax Commissioner Danny Sane and members of the Dalton City Council and the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners about the accuracy of the proposed 2024 tax digest. Whitfield County Superior Court judges had recused themselves from the matter.

That was a temporary collection order. The county assessors still need to adopt a final digest for 2024. After that is finished, the county, the city of Dalton and the school systems will set their final 2024 tax rates and the tax commissioner’s office will mail out the final 2024 tax bills.

Board of Commissioners Chairman Jevin Jensen reminded people in the audience that the assessments are set by the Board of Assessors, which is an independent body, not the commissioners. He also noted that it was the state, not the Board of Commissioners, that ordered a complete reevaluation of the county tax digest.

Jensen said when the digest is completed it is his goal to roll back the county property tax rate to cancel out any additional revenues from the revised assessments.

“My goal is zero revenue (above what was collected under the temporary collection order),” he said. “That is what we based our budget on, and I don’t see us needing any additional revenue.”

Commissioners Greg Jones, Barry Robbins and John Thomas agreed they want to roll back the tax rate enough to cancel out any additional revenue.

State Senator Jason Esteves (D-Atlanta) announced he will run for Governor in 2026, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Athens Banner Herald.

State Sen. Jason Esteves announced Monday that he will run for governor next year.

The Atlanta Democrat was elected to the Senate in 2022 and is serving his second term under the Gold Dome. Before that, he spent nearly a decade as a member of the Board of Education for Atlanta Public Schools.

Esteves has made education, health care, and housing his top priorities in the Senate.

“As extreme politicians in Georgia push (President Donald) Trump’s reckless agenda and rig the system for special interests, Georgians pay the price,” Esteves said Monday in a prepared statement. “Now more than ever, we need to tackle the high cost of living, improve access to health care, protect women’s reproductive freedom, lower housing costs, and invest in schools across the state.”

Esteves is the first Democrat to enter the 2026 race to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.

U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, formed an exploratory committee last month to consider mounting a bid for governor. However, she announced several weeks later that she would suspend her campaign in order to care for husband, who is recovering from cancer surgery.

In the Republican side, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr launched his campaign for governor late last year. Other potential candidates for the GOP nod include Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

From the AJC:

Democratic state Sen. Jason Esteves entered the race for Georgia governor Monday with a promise to boost small businesses, expand access to health care and protect Georgians from the “chaos” unleashed by President Donald Trump’s return to power.

He told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he’ll fight to increase tax credits for local startups and bolster Georgia’s education system. But he also said countering Trump’s push to dismantle federal agencies and gut public health funding will be central to his campaign.

“That not only impacts our pocketbooks, it impacts the health of our family members, and it’s going to impact the health of our children,” the Atlanta Democrat said. “We need a governor that’s going to stop, stand up and fight back against it.”

“President Trump’s chaos has hurt Georgia’s families, and it will continue to hurt Georgia families,” said Esteves, an attorney who owns several breakfast eateries. “And my job as governor is to make sure that we’re doing what we can to stop that impact from hurting Georgians. And Georgia Republican leaders have failed to do that.”

After a failed state House bid, Esteves made history in 2013 as the first Latino elected to a school board in Georgia. He became chair of Atlanta Public Schools board from 2018 to 2021, a stretch that included the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, Esteves won a Georgia Senate seat covering parts of Atlanta and Cobb County, quickly emerging as a vocal advocate for abortion rights, gun restrictions and Medicaid expansion — and one of his party’s experts on education measures.

“He is far and away the most electable of the potential Democratic candidates who have been mentioned,” said Jay Morgan, a former Georgia GOP executive director who is now a lobbyist.

Chatham County hosted a ribbon-cutting for their new Eugene H. Gadsden Courthouse, according to the Savannah Morning News.

The new 155,000 square foot facility will house eight Superior courtrooms, four state courtrooms, and support administrative spaces. The structure includes a basement and two new tunnels that connect the Tom Coleman Judicial Courthouse with the new courthouse.

The courthouse also includes a jury assembly room that seats 185 people, offices for Superior and State Court Clerks and court reporters and staff attorneys, a multi-purpose room that seats 89 people, Superior and State Court Judges’ chambers and administrative offices, a snack bar for 24 people and an attorneys’ lounge, among other support services. The structure is designed to meet 144 mph winds, or a Category 3 hurricane event.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony comes more than three years after the Chatham County Commission unanimously voted to award the $71.5 million construction contract to J. E. Dunn Construction Company. Final cost is $78 million.

According to a Savannah Morning News article published in August 2000, Gadsen was the son of a prominent African-American family, who later went to law school in North Carolina. Gasden was the first black member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Savannah Bar Association, according to the same SMN article.

In 1979, Gadsden, then 67, was appointed to the Chatham County Superior Court, a first for an African-American, the SMN article added. After being re-elected, Gadsden held the position until retiring in 1992.

Savannah Mayor Van Johnson will serve as President of the African American Mayors Association (AAMA), according to WSAV.

Mayor Johnson was officially sworn in on Friday, April 18, at the conclusion of AAMA’s annual conference in Washington, DC.

“As we continue to build on the legacy of the African American Mayors Association and advocate for the needs of the over 500 mayors within our growing organization, I am delighted to welcome Mayor Van R. Johnson II as our new President,” said AAMA CEO, Phyllis Dickerson. “Mayor Johnson’s dedication to public service and his innovative approach to city leadership make him a perfect choice to lead our organization into the future. We are eager to support his vision for our member cities and communities. I also want to thank Mayor Steven Reed for his incredible service to our cities and our organization this past year.”

Prior to his election as AAMA President, Mayor Johnson served as the organization’s Treasurer and has been an active member of the Board of Trustees.

“I am deeply honored to serve as President of the African American Mayors Association,” said Savannah Mayor Van R. Johnson II. “I look forward to working alongside my colleagues to advocate for the needs of our cities at the national level. Together, we will continue to address the pressing challenges facing our communities, from public safety and economic opportunity to health equity and infrastructure investment.”

Whitfield County Commission Vice Chair Barry Robbins said a controversial new data center will spur local revenue, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen.

“We are trying to diversify our economy, the revenue streams for our county,” he said. “The schools will also benefit from the new source of taxes.”

Robbins, Dalton Mayor Annalee Sams and Tunnel Hill Mayor Kenny Gowin spoke Thursday during the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce State of the Community breakfast at the Dalton Convention Center.

The data center has been controversial. Dozens of people attended meetings of the Board of Commissioners and the Dalton-Varnell-Whitfield County Planning Commission to oppose rezoning the site for the data center. Robbins said it will create high-tech jobs and not compete with the floorcovering industry.

After the breakfast, County Administrator Robert Sivick said the data center is expected to buy $5 million a month in electricity, which would be a big win for Dalton Utilities.

Dalton Utilities CEO John Thomas said the impact of this data center would not affect the utility’s other customers’ rates.

“We have a cost of service model where if a customer like a data center is the primary driver for us to make a specific power purchase, then their rates will be based on what it costs us to serve them,” he said. “We are not going to allocate those costs to other customers.”

That said, Thomas added that the growth of data centers across the Southeast “will affect the availability of electricity.”

“I would tell our customers that over the next two to four years rates not just in Dalton but across the state and region will likely go up a little,” he said.

The lawyer for Columbus City Manager Isaiah Hugley sent a love cease-and-desist letter to member of Columbus City Council, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

In the letter, Atlanta-based attorney Scott Grubman, addressed Councilors Byron Hickey of District 1, Charmaine Crabb of District 5, Joanne Cogle of District 7, Glenn Davis of District 2, John Anker of District 9 and Toyia Tucker of District 4.

“I am writing to each of you to address your sustained and continuing campaign of intimidation, accusations, discrimination, and defamation against Mr. Hugley,” Grubman wrote in the letter.

The letter is directed at Hickey’s recent accusations that Hugley violated the city’s code of ethics by not disclosing to the Columbus Council that his wife, State Rep. Carolyn Hugley (D-Columbus), received a small business grant of approximately $29,000 for her State Farm insurance agency.

Hickey made the accusation at the April 8 council meeting, after deputy city manager Pam Hodge informed the council at the March 25 meeting that she was responsible for signing off on Carolyn Hugley’s grant.

Columbus city attorney Clifton Fay and Mayor Skip Henderson explained during that meeting that Isaiah Hugley disclosed his wife’s grant application to them and that the city manager followed the advice of Fay by giving the application to Hodge rather than handle it himself.

“This is a very serious allegation and could not be further from the truth,” Grubman said in the letter. “ As you all well know, neither Mr. nor Mrs. Hugley engaged in any type of wrongdoing, a conclusion made abundantly clear by overwhelming and irrefutable evidence, all of which has been previously provided to you.”

United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins visited the VA in Dublin, Georgia, according to 13WMAZ.

On Monday, the head of Veterans Administration dropped in on Dublin’s Carl Vinson Medical Center. He was joined by Congressman Rick Allen and Congressman Austin Scott to speak with veterans and tour the facility.

Secretary Doug Collins took on the job about nine weeks ago, and said the Trump administration plans to make some sweeping changes at VA centers nationwide. He was the first secretary to visit the Dublin VA in about 15 years.

“At this facility, I think it’s getting back to the permanency of leadership is one of the things that we’re looking to maintain here. There’s been some issues in the past. I’m also a VA secretary that doesn’t back away from the fact that we do have issues,” Collins said.

He said no hospital is perfect, including the Dublin VA In 2022, the Veterans Administration published a report of centers they recommended closing – Dublin’s was on the list.

The report said the hospital is old, outdated, and needs to be replaced. The report also said Georgia’s veterans would be better served by a new VA hospital near Macon.

Collins said the Dublin VA’s improved since the report came out, and he said it’s not going anywhere now.

“We gotta work toward getting a permanent leadership team in here. They’ve done good stuff, but if they’re gonna be changing out that makes it harder for the employees down the line to have a continuity of that leadership,” Collins said.

Under President Trump’s second term, the Department of Government Efficiency has rolled out job cuts across government sectors. 13WMAZ asked Collins if the Dublin VA could be affected by job cuts, too.

“There can be, yes, I’m not gonna say there’s not, but it also at a certain point in time we’ve also protected jobs in this market. As well, if you’re forward facing and you’re helping and if you’re forward facing with our patient care and you’re forward facing with this community, those are jobs that we’ve gotta have,” Collins said.

United States Representative Buddy Carter (R-SSI) published an op-ed taking Georgia’s delegation to the United States Senate to task, according to The Brunswick News.

Carter, the Republican representing Georgia’s coast in the U.S. House, says Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock ignored voters when they failed to support ending the filibuster by Democrats on federal legislation that would have prevented biological males from playing female sports.

“Georgia’s female athletes have two bad teammates, and they’re threatening to undo decades of progress towards affording women and girls fair opportunities to achieve athletic excellence,” Carter wrote.

“That is how 73% of Georgians feel right now because of Sens. Warnock and Ossoff’s ridiculous decision to support biological men competing in female sports.”

Carter wrote that the two are out of touch with the nation.

“This is not a fringe issue,” he wrote. “Eighty percent of all Americans oppose biological men in women’s sports. In true Washington Democrat fashion, the radical left is choosing to stand with the 20 on 80-20 issues.”

“It’s no wonder that President Trump won every single swing state in the 2024 election; the Democrat Party’s policies are out of touch with where the majority of the American people are.”

Introduced in early March by U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., the stalled bill would have mandated Title IX to treat gender as being “recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” Without a single Democrat supporting it, the legislation failed to collect the necessary 60 votes to move forward.

Savannah Chatham County Public School System questioned how potential federal funding cuts will affect schools, according to WTOC.

In a breakdown of the SCCPSS projected general fund, about 70% of funds come from local dollars, about 30% coming from the state and only about 0.2% comes from the federal government.

While that federal number is low, it doesn’t mean the district isn’t worried about potential changes. Right now, the district receives an additional $105 million annually from the federal government through grants and programs. That money funds things like Title I Schools, federal special education and food services.

“That’s one of the things we need to figure out and plan for, based on if we did not receive any of it, if we receive some of it, if certain grants go away, if certain ones don’t. This is all question marks,” said Paige Cooley, the district’s Director of Budget Services.

In order to keep certain funding, the federal government is requiring school districts to sign a letter of certification saying they’re complying with certain civil rights laws. The district’s superintendent said she needs to sign that letter in less than a week.

“We don’t have concrete rules about what this applies to and what it does not,” said Dr. Denise Watts. “So, as a district right now, we’re looking at all of our policies.”

As the district continues to develop its future budget, Dr. Denise Watts said they’ll be monitoring things at the federal level very closely.

From Axios:

State of play: The federal government contributes 16.1% of Georgia’s education funding, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics.

If Trump reduced Title I federal funding to zero, Georgia would lose $621.2 million in revenue, according to the Education Law Center.

Zoom out: Average federal spending in the 2021-22 school year (the latest available) was 17% in Trump-voting states, compared to 11% in states that voted for Harris.