On August 14, 1784, Russians invaded settled Alaska, founding the first permanent Russian settlement at Three Saints Bay.
Dentist, gambler, and gunfighter Doc Holliday was born on August 14, 1851 in Griffin, Georgia.
On August 14, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln hosted a group of African-American men at the White House to discuss emancipation of American slaves outside the United States as colonists.
The Second Battle of Dalton was joined on August 14, 1864.
On August 15, 1903, Georgia Governor Joseph Terrell signed legislation requiring that Georgia schools teach elementary agriculture and civics. Two days later, on August 17, 1903, the General Assembly condemned the practice of whipping female inmates.
The Panama Canal opened on August 15, 1914.
The County Unit System of elections was created on August 14, 1917 when Governor Hugh Dorsey signed legislation by the General Assembly.
Georgia Governor Thomas Hardwick signed legislation creating the Georgia State Board of Forestry on August 15, 1921.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act on August 14, 1935. The road to perdition is paved with good intentions.
On August 14, 1945, the Japanese surrender to the Allies was made public in Japan.
In the afternoon of August 14, Japanese radio announced that an Imperial Proclamation was soon to be made, accepting the terms of unconditional surrender drawn up at the Potsdam Conference. That proclamation had already been recorded by the emperor.
On August 15, 1969, the Woodstock Festival began in upstate New York.
Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppolla was released on August 15, 1979.
President Jimmy Carter was nominated for reelection as President by the Democratic National Convention in New York City on August 13, 1980.
President Ronald Reagan signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act on August 13, 1981.
The ERTA included a 25 percent reduction in marginal tax rates for individuals, phased in over three years, and indexed for inflation from that point on. The marginal tax rate, or the tax rate on the last dollar earned, was considered more important to economic activity than the average tax rate (total tax paid as a percentage of income earned), as it affected income earned through “extra” activities such as education, entrepreneurship or investment. Reducing marginal tax rates, the theory went, would help the economy grow faster through such extra efforts by individuals and businesses. The 1981 act, combined with another major tax reform act in 1986, cut marginal tax rates on high-income taxpayers from 70 percent to around 30 percent, and would be the defining economic legacy of Reagan’s presidency.
Reagan’s tax cuts were designed to put maximum emphasis on encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship and creating incentives for the development of venture capital and greater investment in human capital through training and education. The cuts particularly benefited “idea” industries such as software or financial services; fittingly, Reagan’s first term saw the advent of the information revolution, including IBM’s introduction of its first personal computer (PC) and the rise or launch of such tech companies as Intel, Microsoft, Dell, Sun Microsystems, Compaq and Cisco Systems.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High was released on August 13, 1982.
Paul Anderson, known for years as the “Strongest Man in the World” for his weightlifting feats, died on August 15, 1994 in Vidalia, Georgia. Anderson was born in 1932 in Toccoa, Georgia. He won an Olympic gold medal in the sport of weightlifting in 1956.
A Special Session called by Governor Zell Miller to address legislative redistricting convened on August 14, 1995, after the United States Supreme Court threw out Georgia’s Congressional redistricting map.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Ben Hill County schools will close through August 20 due to COVID, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.
Ben Hill County schools will be closed starting Friday and lasting through Aug. 20, a letter from the school system said.
A large number of students either have tested positive for, or have been quarantined for, COVID-19, the letter said. The letter was posted to the school system’s Facebook page.
All extracurricular and sports activities are canceled for all schools for Aug. 12-13, the letter said.
In the meantime, the schools will rely on virtual learning and all students will be required to log on with their digital devices at home each day. Attendance will be recorded when students log on from individual computers.
That makes nine school systems that shut down in-person learning at least temporarily.
Fulton County is considering opening a mask-optional campus, according to the AJC.
Fulton County Schools is proposing to open a mask-optional campus to serve families upset over rules requiring face coverings.
Classes started Monday in Fulton with masks required in all but 15 schools. Days later, the state’s fourth-largest district announced that COVID-19 case numbers were high enough to warrant mandating masks in all schools.
The district is working on two alternatives for families who either don’t want their child to wear a mask or who are concerned about the spread of the virus even with the safety measure in place.
A mask-optional “learning hub” would serve up to 500 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. It would be located at the recently vacated Crabapple Middle School in Roswell.
The district also wants to provide a virtual option for up to 300 students in kindergarten through second grade.
Governor Brian Kemp yesterday swore in Chuck Eaton as a Fulton County Superior Court Judge.
Governor Kemp is being criticized for not waving his magic wand and making COVID disappear doing enough to fight COVID, according to the AJC.
Kemp is facing criticism from public health experts and state Democratic leaders for failing to take aggressive new steps to contain the outbreak. His recent public remarks have focused as much on combating crime as they have fighting the virus.
The fallout has had consequences, both to public health and in the realm of politics. Georgia’s facing a surge in coronavirus cases at heights that may soon rival January. More than half the state’s residents are unvaccinated. And nearly 90% of the state’s intensive care beds are now filled as hospitalization rates soar.
Health care executives are facing a particular bind, torn over whether to call for their own vaccine mandates in the absence of a state order.
“Georgia is in crisis, but the governor acts like all is well,” said Lauren Groh-Wargo, the top aide to Stacey Abrams, who is expected to challenge Kemp next year.
“No mask mandates. No Medicaid expansion to shore up hospitals and cover the uninsured in a pandemic. No deep community outreach or incentives to get vaccinated,” Groh-Wargo said. “He’s just throwing up his hands like he has no power to save lives.”
His strategy now can be described as a “stay the course” approach. He still holds routine calls with hospital executives and school officials, and he recently held a discussion with local officials. His administration points to his support for more than $500 million in funding to help hire 1,300 health care workers since October.
Ah, yes, the vision of an almighty state government that was rejected by the voters at the polls.
It’s also not clear to me what executive powers Governor Kemp has after allowing the public health state of emergency to expire. Declaration of a new public health state of emergency would require a Special Session of the General Assembly to concur in the declaration, and my personal opinion is that such a vote would fail if taken today.
U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Pooler) opposes school mask mandates, according to the Savannah Morning News.
Buddy Carter spoke out in opposition to mask requirements for schools in an email sent to constituents on Monday.
In it, Carter said masks were a “political tool meant to control your way of life,” a sign that “Big Government is back under President Biden.”
“If you give them an inch, they’ll always take a mile. Big Government is back under President Biden, and now they’re trying to make our children wear masks in school, even if they are vaccinated!” his email read. The email was signed by Carter and paid for by Buddy Carter for Congress, the congressman’s campaign committee.
Carter wrote in his campaign email that COVID-19 isn’t as dangerous for healthy children and equates mask-wearing to a liberal “power grab.”
“If you ‘follow the science’ you would know that COVID-19 poses little risk for healthy children. This is just a Big Government power grab where the federal government wants to take away a parent’s ability to make decisions for their family,” Carter’s email reads.
The writer goes on to say that this represents a change from Carter’s earlier statements about masking as a personal responsibility. It’s 100% consistent to say that it’s a matter of personal responsibility to wear a mask in current conditions but to oppose government mandating it.
Three Augusta City Commissioners spoke in opposition to the $100 vaccine incentive their colleagues voted for, according to the Augusta Chronicle.
Commissioners Catherine Smith McKnight, John Clarke and Sean Frantom spoke about the proposed $100 COVID-19 vaccine bonus during a community meeting with Augusta Republicans at The Azalea House on Thursday.
“Got a lot of complaints about that,” McKnight said before a small group of constituents. “Complaining saying that those that have been vaccinated, where’s their $100? We’ve got colleagues of mine that are supportive of it, and then there’s a few of us that aren’t gonna be supportive of it. I, right now, do not support it.”
“To entice somebody to do something that’s gonna save their life, that’s pretty stupid to me,” Clarke said. “Are you going to pay people to take their insulin? It just keeps on rolling downhill where ‘When is enough enough?’ So we’ll just see how the vote turns out next week. I imagine there’s gonna be a whole lot of $100s given away.”
“I’m not sure whether $100 is really gonna change hearts and minds on it,” Frantom said. “It could be that they’re waiting to hold out for an even higher rate.”
I’d love to see a cost-benefit analysis of vaccine incentives. How much will government and local hospitals save in treatment costs for each $100 or $100 or $1MM spent on vaccine incentives?
State Health Benefits Plan members will see the same costs next year, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Albany Herald.
Members of the State Health Benefit Plan will have the same monthly premiums, co-pays and deductibles in 2022 as they have now, the Department of Community Health (DCH) announced at an agency board meeting Thursday.
The benefits plan covers more than 600,000 state employees, teachers, other school personnel, retirees and dependents. The members’ options for health plans will stay the same as well, DCH officials said.
Separately, the agency’s commissioner, Caylee Noggle, said at the board meeting that DCH is reviewing the state’s extraordinarily low rate of referring poor children to specialty services under Medicaid.
United States District Court Judge Thomas Thrash rejected a lawsuit by Alabama seeking more water from the Chattahoochee, according to the AJC.
In a ruling issued Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Thrash dismissed claims from the state of Alabama and multiple environmental groups that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ plan is holding back too much water in Georgia reservoirs along the upper Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) river basin.
The parties argued the corps didn’t properly balance the needs of downstream Alabama and Florida for uses like drinking water, wildlife conservation, navigation and recreation as it finalized its blueprint for the ACF basin five years ago. They sued the corps in 2017 to revise the template, which details the operations of five reservoirs, including Lake Lanier, through 2050.
Gov. Brian Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr said they were pleased.
“We will continue to be good stewards of our water resources, and we are proud to have obtained a positive resolution on behalf of all Georgians,” they said in a joint statement on Thursday.
Former Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox has been named the sole finalist for President of Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, according to 13WMAZ.
The release says Cox served two terms as Georgia’s secretary of state, and was the first woman in the state’s history to be elected to the post, first in 1998 and again in 2002. In the spring of 2007, she held the Carl E. Sanders Political Leadership Chair at the University of Georgia School of Law. She became the 21st president of Young Harris, a private liberal arts college in the north Georgia mountains.
“Georgia College has found an ideal candidate to build on its momentum and champion students, faculty, staff and alumni,” said Regent Samuel D. Holmes, chair of the Regents Special Committee which also helped with the search. “Cathy Cox understands its unique mission as the state’s liberal arts college, and will be an incredible leader on campus and in the community.”
Cox served two terms in the Georgia House of Representatives and has remained an active member of the State Bar of Georgia.
Former State Senator Rick Jeffares (R-Henry County) will run to return to the legislature, according to the Rockdale Newton Citizen.
Rick Jeffares on Wednesday announced his candidacy the District 25 seat in the Georgia Senate. Jeffares is seeking the seat that will be vacated by Senator Burt Jones, who is running for lieutenant governor.
Jeffares, who previously represented Senate District 17 from January 2011 to December 2017, said he believes his qualifications, willingness to serve others, and prudent, conservative legislation align with community expectations.
“These are exciting but troubling times we face as a state. Senator Jones seeking the office of lieutenant governor is good for Georgia, and I support him in his endeavor,” Jeffares said, “and our district will miss him.”
Senate District 17 includes Henry, Newton, Walton and Rockdale counties. Jeffares resigned from his Senate seat in December 2017 to run for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor.
A Georgia State Senate study committee is considering changing the age for mandatory school attendance form 16 to 17, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Albany Herald.
A state Senate study committee created to take up a bill introduced this year by Sen. Lester Jackson, D-Savannah, held its first hearing Thursday and heard endorsements of the measure from both the Georgia Association of Educators and the Georgia School Boards Association.
Joe Fleming, the GAE’s chief lobbyist, said students who drop out of school are more likely to end up in prison or in need of taxpayer-funded support services than those who stay in school.
“This is an investment that in the long-term would save millions and millions of dollars in Georgia,” he said.
Savannah City Council voted to retain the same property tax millage rate as the previous year, according to the Savannah Morning News.
A divided Savannah City Council voted Thursday to keep the current millage rate of 12.739 mills. Maintaining the rate means property owners who see an increase in their assessed value — and whose homes are not eligible for the Stephens-Day exemption — will pay more in 2021.
State law requires the city to advertise the 2021 millage rate as a tax increase because the city’s property tax digest has grown by 2.73% and the 12.739 mills will produce more total revenue. The council also considered a rollback rate of 12.401 mills, which would reduce most tax bills yet bring in the same amount of revenue as the prior year.
City attorney Bates Lovett told council that the use of the word “increase”” when the rate isn’t actually changing leads to confusion.
“This is not lawyers being lawyers, this is state politicians being state politicians. They have very intentionally chosen the words that we are required to use to try to mislead the public about what is going on,” Lovett said.
“We are required to use the word ‘increase’ when in fact we’re not increasing the percentage of tax that we are charging citizens.”
Well, that’s certainly going to help make friends among state legislators. I look forward to seeing what happens to Savannah’s 2022 legislative agenda.
The Bibb County Board of Education voted for a rollback of the property tax millage rate, according to 13WMAZ.
According to a release from the Bibb County School District, board members voted to roll back the millage rate to 18.099. That’s a 0.394 reduction compared to last year’s 18.493 millage rate.
The bottom line? If your property value stayed the same, you’ll pay a few dollars less in property taxes for education.
Even though board members lowered the tax rate, since the value of property in the county overall went up, the board expects to bring in $389,082 more in tax money for the year, if everyone pays their taxes.
Savannah City Council also voted to approve a contract for Jay Melder as the new City Administrator, according to the Savannah Morning News.
Liburn City Council member Lindsay Voigt resigned due to moving out of the city, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.
Voigt stepped down from office in July and a special election to fill her seat will be put on the November municipal election ballot.
The seats held by Post 3 Councilman Eddie Price and the current incumbent for Post 4 Councilman Emil Powella were already scheduled to be up for election this fall. The addition of a special election to replace Voigt means Lilburn voters will be choosing three-quarters of the City Council in November.
Qualifying for the special election will be held from Aug. 16 to Aug. 18, which is the same time as qualifying for the elections for the other two council seats appearing on the November ballot.
Statesboro District 4 City Council Member John Riggs changed his mind and will run for reelection, according to the Statesboro Herald.
Brunswick will open qualifying for the mayoral election on Monday, according to The Brunswick News.
Six people, so far, have announced their intent to run for mayor, the position held the past eight years by Cornell Harvey, who cannot run again because of term limits.
Incumbent North Ward Commissioner Vincent Williams is among those who have announced their intent to run for mayor. Qualifying to make it official begins 8:30 a.m. Monday and ends 4:30 p.m. Friday.
Other candidates for mayor are Ivan Figueroa, Cosby Johnson, John Perry, Travis Riddle and Ann Senior.
Two candidates have announced their intent to run for Williams’ North [W]ard seat, Gary Cook and Kendra Rolle.
Incumbent South Ward Commissioner Felicia Harris is the only candidate who has announced plans to run for the seat.
Gainesville will move the retired Engine 109 and its accessories to a new location tomorrow, according to the Gainesville Times.
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