Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for August 15, 2025

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.

Georgia Governor Joseph Terrell signed legislation creating the State Board of Health on August 17, 1903.

Georgia Tech was designated the State School of Technology on August 17, 1908 by joint resolution of the State Senate and State House.

In a quaint bit of Georgia history, on August 17, 1908, Governor Hoke Smith signed legislation prohibiting corporate donations to political campaigns. Cute!

The Panama Canal opened on August 15, 1914.

Georgia Governor Hugh Dorsey signed legislation creating the State Department of Banking on August 16, 1919.

Georgia Governor Thomas Hardwick signed legislation creating the Georgia State Board of Forestry on August 15, 1921.

Georgia Governor Clifford Walker signed legislation changing the method of execution in Georgia from hanging to the electric chair on August 16, 1924.

On August 15, 1969, the Woodstock Festival began in upstate New York.

On August 16, 1974, The Ramones played their first public show at CBGB in New York.

Elvis Presley died on August 16, 1977.

Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppolla was released on August 15, 1979.

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.

On August 17, 1998, President Bill Clinton testified as the subject of a grand jury investigation.

The testimony came after a four-year investigation into Clinton and his wife Hillary’s alleged involvement in several scandals, including accusations of sexual harassment, potentially illegal real-estate deals and suspected “cronyism” involved in the firing of White House travel-agency personnel. The independent prosecutor, Kenneth Starr, then uncovered an affair between Clinton and a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky. When questioned about the affair, Clinton denied it, which led Starr to charge the president with perjury and obstruction of justice, which in turn prompted his testimony on August 17.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Governor Brian Kemp welcomed to the Capitol law enforcement officers who freed two children from a hot car, according to WRDW.

The officers who rescued two children from a hot car on June 4 were honored at the state capitol this week.

J’quawn Dixon allegedly left the children inside a car at Cumberland Mall for 41 minutes on June 4 in 80-degree weather.

According to police bodycam video, the temperature inside the car reached 117 degrees.

Police said “concerned citizens” called 911 and two officers responded, breaking into the car and saving the children.

Dixon was been charged with two counts of second-degree child cruelty.

The two officers were given commendations by Gov. Brian Kemp and First Lady Marty Kemp earlier this week.

“This moment was a powerful reminder that when citizens and officers join forces, lives are saved,” said the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office.

Former Democratic State Senate candidate Ashwin Ramaswami is suing the Republican who beat him, according to the AJC.

The lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Georgia, accuses Republican state Sen. Shawn Still of making “outrageous, false, and malicious” statements about Ashwin Ramaswami, the Democrat who challenged him.

The statements were defamatory and damaged Ramaswami’s reputation by placing him in a false light, the lawsuit said.

Landmark Communications, a political consulting firm that worked on Still’s campaign, is also named in the lawsuit.

Ramaswami ran against Still for the District 48 seat, which represents parts of north Fulton, south Forsyth and northwest Gwinnett counties.

Still won reelection with 54% of the vote in November.

During the campaign, Ramaswami submitted a public records request seeking the names of students at a local high school. In the lawsuit, he said the purpose of seeking students’ names was to find young people who were eligible to vote in the election, ensure they understood absentee and early voting rules, and encourage them to become “civically engaged.”

However, Peach State Values, a political action committee that supports Senate Republicans, sent out mailers that framed the request as Ramaswami soliciting private information about students at a local high school with suspicion.

“If you or your teenager is approached inappropriately by creepy Ashwin Ramaswami, call the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office,” one campaign mailer read.

At the time, Still said he didn’t review the mailers before they went out because of rules that bar campaigns from coordinating with PACs. But he said Ramaswami’s story changed multiple times and his attempt to communicate with teenagers raised safety concerns.

Still’s attorney, Bryan Tyson, said they will seek immediate dismissal of the lawsuit.

The lawsuit particularly takes issue with the phrase “soliciting children,” saying in that the common usage and understanding of those words is “seeking to have sex with children, which Ashwin was not attempting.”

The lawsuit also said images from certain mailers were “intentionally concocted” to make Ramaswami look like a pedophile.

“We just flatly disagree with that,” Tyson said. “The language in the campaign mailer always included Mr. Ramaswami’s Open Records Act request, so it was always clear from the context that he was soliciting information about students.”

A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals heard arguments on Georgia’s voting law restriction on handing out water to voters in line, according to the AJC.

The ban is best-known part of the state’s 2021 voting law, a far-reaching change to elections access and rules passed in the wake of President Donald Trump’s narrow loss.

The groups behind a lawsuit opposing the ban, including the NAACP and several voting rights groups, asked the appeals court to uphold a lower-court ruling blocking the ban, which prohibits giving refreshments within 25 feet of any voter standing in a line stretching more than 150 feet from a polling place.

The law made handing out refreshments a misdemeanor, but there are no known cases of it being enforced.

Judge Timothy Corrigan asked whether giving out food and drinks should be allowed as a form of speech.

“Why isn’t the message that you’re standing in line to vote, you’re standing in line for maybe a long time, voting is important and we want to give you a bottle of water to express that?” Corrigan said. “Why isn’t that good enough?”

Solicitor General Stephen Petrany, who is representing the state in the appeal, told the judges they should reinstate the law, which was blocked by a lower court judge in 2023.

Although most of the voting law has been upheld so far, the appeals court is weighing U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee’s injunctions blocking the food-and-water ban and a requirement that voters to write their birth date on absentee ballot envelopes. Boulee found the birth date requirement to be immaterial to determining whether someone is qualified to vote after they’ve already provided identifying information, such as a driver’s license or Social Security number.

More than four years since the law passed, court challenges remaining pending in federal court. The U.S. Department of Justice withdrew the Biden administration’s lawsuit against the voting law earlier this year after President Donald Trump took office.

The appeals court panel is made up of Corrigan, an appointee of President George W. Bush; Circuit Judge Kevin Newsom, a Trump appointee; and Circuit Judge Adalberto Jordan, an appointee of President Barack Obama.

Lenovo filed a lawsuit claiming Georgia law unfairly prevents them selling computers, according to the AJC.

The lawsuit, filed last week in Fulton County Superior Court, said the state dropped the company as a contractor “without any investigation, and without providing any notice” as the state attempts to root out contracts involving “foreign countries of concern.”

Earlier this year, lawmakers passed House Bill 113 prohibiting the state from contracting with certain foreign countries, including China. The Georgia Technology Authority is responsible for determining countries that pose a security threat to the state or its residents, according to the law, which went into effect in July.

Lenovo is a Chinese company with its U.S. headquarters in North Carolina. It is the company’s China roots that are an issue for the state. China is listed as a foreign adversary by the federal government, a designation that has spanned Republican and Democratic presidential administrations.

The lawsuit alleges that state did not conduct a security assessment to determine whether any specific hardware produced by each company is “deemed a security risk.”

In a statement, Lenovo spokesperson David Hamilton said the company did not have the opportunity to present evidence or obtain clarity about its lawful rights to fulfill existing contracts. The company has had extensive and lengthy contracts with multiple state agencies prior to the new law.

The law presents challenges for state universities, he said. In July, Georgia Tech announced that no new Lenovo products may be purchased, in response to the implementation of the new law.

“Does that mean students who have Lenovo tablets and laptops are not allowed to use them on campus?” [State Rep. Long] Tran said. “I do think there’s a lot of unintended consequences.”

Lenovo is asking the court to rule that the state ban on the purchase of its products be “unlawful, void, and unenforceable.”

The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office is issuing subpoenas related to the First Liberty Building & Loan scam, according to the AJC.

The Georgia Secretary of State’s office issued a new round of subpoenas this week that signal a widening probe of First Liberty Building & Loan, the failed financial firm whose politically connected founder is accused of a sprawling $140 million Ponzi scheme.

Two of the subpoenas were issued to Randy Hough, a former senior development officer with the Newnan-based lender, and Jayme Sickert, its compliance officer, according to an official familiar with the investigation who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.

A third subpoena was issued to Nathaniel Darnell, a financial adviser who also leads the Georgia Republican Assembly, an ultraconservative organization once allied with First Liberty founder Brant Frost IV and his family, the official said.

The subpoenas seek documents and correspondence tied to the company’s lending practices, the official said. A spokesman for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger declined comment on the ongoing probe, which was launched shortly after First Liberty’s June collapse sent shock waves through Georgia’s political establishment.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Frost IV in a lawsuit of orchestrating a $140 million Ponzi scheme that funneled millions to enrich the family and boost conservative causes. Frost IV has publicly apologized and urged investors to work with a court-ordered receiver, a financial guardian tasked with recouping as much money as possible for investors.

The state’s widening civil probe comes weeks after the AJC reported that Raffensperger’s office had subpoenaed the founder’s son, Brant Frost V, for records tied to a new lending firm that he tried to form shortly before First Liberty’s collapse. Regulators approved the business formation days later.

Frost V is not named nor accused of wrongdoing in the SEC litigation. He has repeatedly declined to comment, though the Coweta County GOP he chairs urged members on its website to let due process “take its course regarding the situation surrounding the family business of our chairman.”

“Just as President Trump faced many legal challenges that received media attention without all the facts being brought forward,” read the statement, “we ask that the investigation be allowed to continue without speculation or prejudice.”

He also headed the Georgia Republican Assembly PAC, a separate entity that boosted the GRA, which now faces 61 alleged violations by the state’s ethics commission accusing the group of making $220,000 in unreported expenditures.

Bryan County Democrats are preparing for local elections, according to the Savannah Morning News.

In Richmond Hill, qualifying for mayor begins Aug. 18. The governor’s race is heating up too as there are candidates who have announced their bid and have kicked off their respective campaign for the general election in May 2026.

According to a voting map on bestneighborhood.org, Bryan County is predominantly red. Despite an area that has strong Republican backing, residents like Corey Foreman, chairman of the Bryan County Democratic Committee, want to change that.

“There is more hope in Bryan County than most people realize — and when we come together with purpose, things can change faster than anyone expects,” said Foreman. “The numbers don’t lie. Even if you think this is a county that cannot be flipped, I promise you, it can be. The potential here is real — and growing.”

At the heart of the matter is concern regarding the Republican stronghold not only in the county but in the state. Foreman said affordable healthcare and the cost of living are top of mind.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Attorney General Chris Carr, Lt. Governor Burt Jones are also Republicans. According to Ballotpedia, Republicans make up 55% of Georgia lawmakers, including Ron Stephens, Jesse Petrea and Lehman Franklin, who all serve portions of Bryan County.

Foreman said there is a place in the Democratic Party for those who may not see eye-to-eye on every topic. However, he feels strongly that issues such as reproductive rights and access to affordable health care are at the forefront of the party’s concerns and issues Foreman says are controlled by the GOP.

“The Democratic Party needs action and to show the commitment of the true policy that we want to change for the people,” said Foreman. “There is a little bit of fear – some Democrats aren’t as bold and outspoken as others. I don’t want to keep talking about the issues in Georgia and then hoping that the Republican control fixes it. I want the Democratic Party to step up and be the change.”

In 2021, Bryan County was named the fastest growing county in the state, according to U.S. Census data. With its growing population comes opportunities for Governor Gubernatorial Candidate and Democratic Senator Jason Esteves to flip red voters blue.

Esteves visited Savannah Aug. 3 as part of his campaign tour but said he plans to come back to South Georgia to talk to voters in Bryan County at a later date. Esteves said the goal is not necessarily to turn the entire county blue, but to earn some of the republican votes, even if it is a small percentage.

“Does it mean that we win the county? No, but have we made progress and does that mean we have a Democrat as governor? Yes, and that’s the kind of progress that we’re going to be making not only in Bryan County but across the state,” said Esteves.

The Georgia State Senate Study Committee on Making Georgia the No. 1 State for Tourism held their first meeting in Gainesville, according to AccessWDUN.

The committee is headed by Hall County Republican State Sen. Drew Echols, who led the meeting along with Senators Frank Ginn (R-Danielsville), Russ Goodman (R-Homerville), Sonya Halpern (D-Atlanta), and Emanuel Jones (D-Decatur).

It saw over 100 guests from various local businesses and politicians, and saw six speakers from different perspectives on tourism in the state.

The senators heard presentations from the speakers, asked questions, and made progress toward their goal of improving Georgia’s tourism industry.

“We got a little bit of everything,” Echols told AccessWDUN. “From the coast on the southeast corner to the hunting preserves in the southwest corner and everywhere in between … there’s nuggets everywhere … we got to figure out ways to promote this industry, to market this industry, strengthen it, because things are changing. It’s becoming very competitive.”

One of the speakers was Statewide Tourism Director for the Georgia Department of Economic Development Jay Markwalter, who fielded questions from State Sen. Goodman after his presentation.

“Our budget is $11.8-million,” Markwalter said. “The marketing portion of that is $5.3-million.”

Markwalter could not provide a comparison to surrounding states regarding the department’s budget.

“The second largest industry in the state, and we’re spending $5.3-million on marketing, is that correct?” Goodman asked.

Goodman also inquired about what percent of the state sales tax comes from out-of-state visitors and what percentage of tourism dollars happen in rural counties in the state.

“I didn’t think it was wasteful at all,” Goodman told AccessWDUN. “I think that’s where the gentleman who was doing the speaking is going to help us decipher what other states are doing.”

Echols also spoke about the Lake Lanier parks being closed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in May before a cost-sharing agreement was put into place to keep them open.

Lake Lanier’s significance to tourism is undeniable, attracting roughly 10-million visitors annually according to the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce.

“We need these parks for people to go enjoy themselves,” Echols told AccessWDUN. “They’ve paid for them, by God we need to let them use them.”

The cast of speakers also included Gainesville’s Tourism Director Robyn Lynch, Lake Lanier Convention and Visitors Bureau President Stacey Dixon, President of the Lake Lanier Islands Resort Matthew Bowling, local developer Dr. Jeff Payne, and Director of Policy and Research for the Council of State Governments Southern Regional Office Dr. Tyler Reinagel.

Markwalter provided statistics showing that in 2023, North Georgia welcomed 45-million visitors who spent roughly $4-billion, and that the total economic impact contributes $79.7-billion and supports nearly 500,000 jobs in the state.

Markwalter and Reinagel also spoke about the FIFA World Cup coming to Atlanta next year being a big point of tourism in the state in the near future.

Reinagel provided more statistics showing that nearly 257,000 jobs in the state are directly tied to tourism, with $35.4-billion in total tourism spending for 2023.

When asked whether or not the state would need to spend more to attract more tourism, Goodman told AccessWDUN he was not sure, and that’s what the point of the committee is.

“I don’t know, that’s what the whole part of this study committee is about,” Goodman said. “I go into this with no preconceived notions, it’s to learn and to hopefully move our state forward.”

Another point of contention was the relationship between the state and private industry. State and national parks generate a significant amount in tourism, with the National Park Service reporting that in 2023 visitors spent $26.4-billion in communities near national parks.

Georgia does not have a national park, although there have been recent efforts to make the Ocmulgee National Mounds in Macon one.

The best representation of that relationship was Bowling, who runs the Lake Laniers Islands Resort. Lanier Islands is privately managed but leased through USACE via the Lake Lanier Islands Development Authority (LLIDA).

“Most of [the state and private] partnerships seem to be working very well across the state of Georgia,” Echols said.

Goodman added it was a successful first meeting.

“I thought the participation was great, I think there’s a lot of interest,” Goodman said. “Hopefully throughout this process, we’ll be able to see the things that we’re doing well and the things we can improve upon and hopefully act on them.”

From the AJC:

Jeff Payne, chair of Capstone Property Group in Gainesville, pointed out two tax credits in South Carolina targeting abandoned buildings and former textile mills.

South Carolina offers developers a 25% tax credit for developing buildings that have been abandoned for five years. They also offer another 25% tax credit for improving buildings that were associated with the South’s once ubiquitous textile industry.

“If you improve it and make it usable for a business, you get that credit,” Payne said.

Developers can’t use both credits for the same project. They have to pick one or the other. But Payne said developers can sometimes get about 70% of their costs through tax credits in South Carolina.

It’s the kind of idea that state Sen. Drew Echols seems to be looking for. The Republican from Gainesville, who just finished his first session in the Legislature, is now chair of the Senate Study Committee on Making Georgia the No. 1 State for Tourism.

“We don’t have to … pass a huge, big, beautiful tourism bill,” he said. “There’s a lot of small nuggets out there we’re going to try to grab ahold of during this process.”

Gwinnett County Board of Education members raised property taxes while lowering the property tax millage rate. From the Gwinnett Daily Post:

The school board voted 4-1 on Wednesday to set the district’s total millage rate at 20.15 mills. The lone dissenting vote came from board Vice Chairwoman Tarece Johnson-Morgan, who said Gwinnett County Public Schools’ fiscal year 2026 budget does not do enough to address some issues facing the district.

Board members were looking at two options for the millage rate which were 0.1 mills, or about $6.3 million, apart before deciding to go with the lower rate.

The millage rate for school taxes breaks down to 18.7 mills for maintenance and operations and 1.45 mills for debt service.

The maintenance and operations millage rate is down 0.4 mills from what it was set at last year.

The school board had initially planned in May to only lower the maintenance and operations millage rate by 0.2 mills and set it at 18.9 mills. District leaders then announced in July that they were then asking that it reduced even more to 18.8 mills.

“Why did we recommend lowering (the millage rate)? We analyzed our financials, the revenue, the budget surplus, our fund balance reserves … we’ve considered community feedback and of course our commitment to property tax relief for our community, our students, our employees,” GCPS Chief Financial Officer Masana Mailliard said.

But, Gwinnett County’s tax digest grew this year, with some of that growth coming from higher assessed property values. That means property owners whose property increased in value can expect higher tax bills because it was not a full rollback to a revenue-neutral level.

When the district was looking at setting the maintenance and operations millage rate at 18.9 mills, GCPS expected to receive 5.3% more in tax revenues. Had the board just lowered the rate to 18.8 mills, the increase would have been about 4.8%.

The Bulloch County Board of Education hosted the first of three meetings required before they pass a property tax increase, according to the Statesboro Herald.

At noon Thursday in the first of their three property tax increase hearings, Bulloch County Board of Education members heard from two people very much opposed to the board’s proposed 3-mill rate hike; two or three others who want better controls on spending, an exemption for senior citizens or both; and one not opposed to the increase who noted that surrounding counties all have higher millages for school funding.

School system Chief Financial Officer Alison Boatright had first presented the rationale behind the tax proposed tax increase from last year’s 7.932 mills to 10.4 mills for school maintenance and operations. (That’s a 2.468-mill direct rate increase, but under the Georgia law known as the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, it has to advertised as an increase from the “rollback rate” of 7.446 mills that would have been needed to offset average inflation in property values, so in that sense it’s an increase of 2.954 mills, or 39.67%.

A mill is 1/1000th the assessed value of property, with most in Georgia assessed at 40% of market value. So, a 3-mill hike would mean $300 added tax on $250,000 worth of non-exempt property.

Complying with requirements in the tax law, Boatright cited slightly different example values to state that the increase in tax will be approximately $349 on an “average homestead property” (market value $300,000) and $325 added tax on an “average non-homestead property” (market value $275,000).

The slideshow also included the total school tax – the portion of a total Bulloch County property tax bill that goes for school operations – that would result from the proposed increase. That “school M&O” tax would be $1,227 on a $300,000 homestead property, or owner-occupied home – and $1,144 on a $275,000 non-homestead parcel, a category that includes rental housing and second or vacation homes, as well as businesses.

The first two speakers, very much opposed to the millage hike, were Bulloch Action Coalition co-founders Lawton Sack and Cassandra Mikell. The BAC, a 501c4 nonprofit corporation identified as a civic and social organization, has been campaigning against local tax increases consistently for more than two years.

Sack began with criticism of the timing of the noon Thursday, Aug. 14 tax increase hearing and also of the specially called meeting at 4 p.m. July 30 where the board reversed course and by a 5-3 vote formally proposed the tax increase.

No one spoke against Glynn County’s proposal to raise property taxes, according to The Brunswick News.

Nobody from the public spoke for or against the proposed millage rate for the fiscal year at two public hearings held Thursday.
Glynn County Finance Director Tamara Munson said setting the annual millage rate is an ongoing process, starting with year round property assessments and ending after the property digest has been adopted in July when the fiscal year begins.

When the trend of prices on properties that have recently sold in the county indicate there has been an increase in the fair market value of any specific property, the board of tax assessors is required by law to re-determine the value of such property and adjust the assessment.

Munson said state law requires three public hearings any time property values increase resulting from inflation and the millage rate is not rolled back to offset those increases. As a result, the county will increase the 2025 property taxes it will levy this year by 7.07% over the rollback millage rate.

During her presentation, she explained how millage rates are applied to the assessed value of a home, which is 40% of the fair market value. A tax rate of 1 mill equals $1 in tax liability per every $1,000 of assess value.

The increase in property assessments only applies to businesses, vacation homes and those without a Scarlett-Williams Act homestead exemption.

Property owners with a Scarlett-Williams homestead exemption will not see an increase in the county’s portion of the tax bill.

Munson said 49% of the county budget is generated through property taxes and 54% of that money is spent for personnel costs.
A final budget hearing will be held 6 p.m. on Aug. 21 before the regularly scheduled Glynn County Commission meeting.

The Lowndes County Board of Elections will meet August 19, 2025, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

Augusta suspended their Emergency Rental Assistance program, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

“High level of demand” is forcing the city of Augusta to indefinitely suspend disbursement of emergency rental funding in what also seems to be a local response to federal cuts in housing assistance.

In Georgia, the federally assisted Georgia Rental Assistance Program is no longer accepting new applications. ERA-2 funding is scheduled to end Sept. 30, according to the National Council of State Housing Agencies.

“Effective immediately, all intake activities for the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program at the Augusta-Richmond County Housing and Community Development Department are suspended until further notice,” the city announced Wednesday in a prepared release.

The city initially announced in early August that applications would be accepted through Sept. 19. An update on the city’s website soon cited the unusually high demand.

Parts one and two of the ERA program were created as part of the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act and expanded by the American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package enacted in response to personal financial difficulties aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. ERA-1 funding concluded in 2022.

Augusta is considering proposing changes to their municipal charter, according to WJBF.

“Think of a Constitution, think of the establishment of the legislature, that is the commission, think of the executive branch which should be the mayor and either the administrator or the manager, we’re leaning towards manager for a number of reasons. Then you have the voters who play their role,” said Marcie Wilhelmi, Chair of Augusta Charter Review Committee.

One of the biggest challenges for the committee has been the discussion of the form of government.

Katie Davis, Co-President of League of Women Voters of the CSRA, explains some of her concerns with this process

“They seem very excited that they had interviewed a number of former mayors of the city and that they unanimously recommended the strong mayor model, well, you ask a mayor if a mayor should have more power, what kind of answer do you think you’re going to get,” Davis said.

Augusta Commissioners are considering raising property taxes, according to WJBF.

It was the one two punch for commissioners: rising employee health care costs and paying back the federal government for mismanaging housing grants that has the budget bleeding red.

“The last thing we want to do is raise property taxes but I don’t see any money trees out there that money is falling off, when we’re looking at a deficit or a shortfall,” said Commissioner Tony Lewis.

That has the administrator offering up a tax increase to fill the nearly $11 million dollar gap.

It would add another $90 dollars of taxes on the averaged priced home, but some commissioners don’t want to pile on taxpayers.

“We’re going up on our trash, streetlights, we’re going to have to do something with that. I hate to hit the citizens up with property taxes as well,” said Commissioner Catherine Smith Rice.

The city could make deep budget cuts or go deep into the reserves to balance this year’s budget.

“If we go into reserves, we’re going to do more than look at it next year. We’re going to have to tighten our belts and do some other things that we probably don’t want to talk about we’re going to have to talk about it,” said Commissioner Francine Scott.

Rome City Commission and Floyd County Commission agreed on a Floating Local Option Sales Tax proposal to put before voters, according to the Rome News Tribune.

The Rome City and Floyd County commissions have tentatively agreed to terms that would allow a November vote on a new sales tax.

City Manager Sammy Rich said during a Rome City Commission meeting Monday that further discussions settled on a 68/32 split.

The agreement is required in order to call for a vote. The FLOST, and corresponding reduction property taxes, hinges on what voters decide in the upcoming election, Nov, 4.

Rich said about 40% of the collected sales tax comes from visitors outside the county — and if that sales tax goes up a penny to 8 cents, that’s a boost to the community.

Rich said that, if approved, the five-year FLOST would be the first significant tax relief for property owners in several decades. Collections would begin Jan. 1.

HB 581 was championed by state Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, a former Floyd County commissioner. Rich said some clarification is still needed on a few nagging issues that he believes state legislators will iron out in the end, and they are outweighed by the benefits.

Savannah City Council adopted an revised ordinance governing horse-drawn carriages, according to the Savannah Morning News.

Savannah City Council voted Thursday to progressively lower its heat regulations for horse-drawn carriage operations, instituting an 85-degree Fahrenheit threshold for stopping horse tour operations starting Jan. 1, 2026. Council’s move also reduced the tour stoppage temperature by three degrees, down to 92, for the remainder of the year.

The reductions were approved on a narrow 5-4 vote after more than an hour and a half of public comment and council debate. The decision was dubbed a win for animal welfare advocates pushing for the reduction to 85 degrees, while horse tour operators have deemed the move a de facto ban.

But Thursday’s meeting may not be the final word.

Savannah Mayor Van Johnson is considering a veto of the item over concerns about impacts to small local businesses. He ended the vote by saying “we may be seeing this again.”

“I’m evaluating my options,” Johnson said when asked if he planned to use the veto.

From the AJC:

The law, one tour operator warns, could lead to the shuttering of the nearly 50-year-old tourism industry for good. Cara Marshall of Carriage Tours of Savannah calls the 85-degree rule a “ban in disguise,” citing the lost revenue and the $200,000 she spends each year to feed, house and care for her 23 horses.

The council ruling came during a marathon meeting highlighted by more than 90 minutes of public comment on the heat law. The new restriction passed by a 5-4 margin, with Mayor Van Johnson voting against it and threatening to use his veto power to block it because of what it could mean for the city’s two carriage tour operators, both long-established small businesses.

Six council members would have to vote to override his veto.