On December 20, 1860, a secession convention in Charleston, South Carolina passed a Secession Ordinance, removing the Palmetto State from the United States.
On December 20, 1864, Confederate forces in Savannah retreated ahead of Sherman’s army, crossing over into South Carolina, four years to the day after South Carolina’s secession.
Happy Birthday to former Governor Sonny Perdue, who was born on December 20, 1946.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Georgia State House Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) announced committee chair changes due to members leaving office.
• Code Revision Committee: Rep. Timothy Barr (R-Lawrenceville)
• Appropriations Subcommittee on General Government: Rep. Chad Nimmer (R-Blackshear)
• Industry & Labor Committee: Rep. Bill Werkheiser (R-Glennville)
• Small Business Development Committee: Rep. Sam Watson (R-Moultrie)
Augusta Judicial Circuit Chief Superior Court Judge Carl C. Brown convened a task force to consider reuse of a former law enforcement center for juvenile justice.
Augusta Judicial Circuit District Attorney Natalie Paine filed an injunction seeking to prevent development of a current park into residential properties.
Chatham Area Transit will purchase two new trolleys for use as downtown shuttles.
Savannah City Council is asking for nominations to the boards for Civil Service, Downtown Savannah Authority, Ethics, Historic District Authority of Review, Housing Authority of Savannah, Savannah Hospitality Authority, and Savannah Zoning Board of Appeals.
Rome will receive nearly 80 acres of greenspace as a donation.
Mayor Jamie Doss said there are no immediate plans for the property but it would not be developed.
“It could be used for recreational trails. Our partners will be brought back to the table,” he said, referencing Coosa River Basin Initiative and TRED, a trails advocacy group.
Under a draft agreement unveiled by the city commission Monday, the Ledbetters plan to donate the whole property back as greenspace.
“This was a wonderful thing for them to do,” Shaw said. “But we couldn’t have done it without commissioners like Sue Lee and the people of Rome and Floyd County who came out every time.”
The donation agreement abates $111,669.62 in city and school property taxes owed for 2017. City Manager Sammy Rich said the company would still pay the county and state taxes that are due.
There’s also an issue of preservation to be worked out. The agreement calls for the property to be used, in perpetuity, as public greenspace — with the exception of the existing city public works facility. Rich said they’re discussing a sunset provision that could potentially allow some development in the future.
“Fast-forward to a hypothetical 50 years from now,” he said. “Is the commission going to be sitting around a table wondering, ‘What were they thinking?’”
The Rome Redevelopment Agency voted to create a Tax Allocation District (TAD) surrounding the Mount Berry mall.
Helen Mayor Helen Wilkins presided over her final meeting after twenty years in office.
“It’s just too many things to think about and talk about,” Wilkins said. “I barely remember from 1997 when I was first elected, but I’ve learned so much and I highly recommend being an elected official, running for public office to anyone because it’s a wonderful way to get to know people in your community, to understand more about how city government works – and government period. It’s not just being a politician. I feel like I’ve been a cheerleader and an ambassador for our town, and I’ve worked with so many, many good people through to years to help make the decisions – good, wise decisions. We’ve all worked together so hard to build our town and keep it going as one of the top three tourist attractions in the state of Georgia, and to keep our wonderful quality of life to the high standards that we have here. I’m so fortunate and blessed to have had this opportunity.”
Lula Mayor Milton Turner also retires after more than 20 years in local office.
Gwinnett County will ask their local legislative delegation for a higher hotel-motel tax in the 2018 Session.
Officials said the additional tax money could also provide more funding for the long-planned expansion of the county’s Infinite Energy Center campus.
“There’s just a lot going on in the tourism field,” Gwinnett Commission Chairman Charlotte Nash said Tuesday, “and this will be one mechanism to provide some additional funding without having to touch the property tax dollars in Gwinnett.”
Gwinnett officials are asking legislators to raise the county’s hotel-motel tax, the proceeds of which feed into a multimillion dollar fund that helps promote local tourism.
Officials said the additional tax money could also provide more funding for the long-planned expansion of the county’s Infinite Energy Center campus.
“There’s just a lot going on in the tourism field,” Gwinnett Commission Chairman Charlotte Nash said Tuesday, “and this will be one mechanism to provide some additional funding without having to touch the property tax dollars in Gwinnett.”
State law allows for local governments to collect up to an 8 percent excise tax from hotel and motel users. Gwinnett currently taxes those users at 7 percent. The county’s Board of Commissioners approved Tuesday a resolution that asked Gwinnett’s legislative delegation to introduce and support legislation to raise the county’s tax that final percentage point.
Raising the hotel-motel tax rate would require local legislation presented by and voted upon by Gwinnett’s delegation at the state capitol and then signed by Gov. Nathan Deal. The new legislative session begins Jan. 8.
The DeKalb County Public School System will challenge the annexation of Emory University and the CDC into the City of Atlanta.
In a letter to officials, DeKalb Superintendent Stephen Green says the agreement shouldn’t include the Atlanta Public Schools.
The annexation plan had been in the works for a while. Originally, the proposal didn’t include expanding the Atlanta Public Schools. That changed a few days before Atlanta’s City Council approved the annexation.
Only 10 DeKalb students would be re-zoned to APS, but Atlanta would gain more than $2 million in property tax revenue. DeKalb would lose that same amount. That doesn’t sit well with Green. In a letter to officials, he said he’s prepared to take legal action if officials don’t renegotiate the deal.
Marietta Board of Education is moving forward to issue up to $30 million in bonds for construction projects.
The money would be financed through bonds issued by the Downtown Marietta Development Authority and used for the construction of a new Park Street Elementary and a $12 million college and career academy at Marietta High. If approved early next year, the bonds would be paid back using revenue collected through a one-cent education sales tax approved by Marietta voters back in March. The $9 million approved by voters for the career academy’s construction in the latest SPLOST will be paired with a $3 million grant awarded to the district by the Technical College System of Georgia two weeks ago.
The bonds would allow the district to begin construction on the projects sooner instead of waiting until 2019 when the latest SPLOST funding starts rolling in. If all goes according to plan, construction on the career academy would begin next summer and work on the Park Street replacement school would begin in the winter of ‘18.
The Georgia Chamber of Commerce will host the 2018 Eggs & Issues Breakfast at the Georgia World Congress Center on Wednesday, January 10 from 7:30 to 9:30 AM.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr‘s office has approved the sale of Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah to Hospital Corporation of America.
A state hearing officer on Tuesday gave a thumbs up to the proposed sale of assets of the parent corporation of Memorial University Medical Center to a for-profit health care provider.
Deputy Attorney General W. Wright Banks Jr. concluded, based on the public record and state law, the deal with Nashville-based Hospital Corporation of America is “appropriate in light of” legal requirements.
HCA has agreed to pay $434 million to buy all assets of the nonprofit Memorial in a sale that carries the assets and commitment to stabilize the financially struggling local system.
Included in the proposed sale are HCA’s commitment to acquire the 612-bed safety net hospital and maintain such services as the Level 1 Trauma Center, Level 3 Neo- Natal Care Unit, Dwaine & Cynthia Willett Children’s Hospital and the Mercer University School of Medicine Savannah Campus at Memorial.
Savannah City Council will consider a $408 million budget for 2018 on Thursday.
Macon-Bibb County Commissioners are asking for a sales tax increase that would be on the 2018 ballot.
The County Commission approved a resolution asking the local state legislative delegation with help on introducing measures related to the other local option sales tax, or OLOST. Details surrounding the penny-on-the-dollar sales tax would still need to be OK’s by commissioners before legislation is introduced in the state assembly.
Implementing the OLOST would result in a millage rate rollback and an annual cap on residential property value increases.
The resolution was approved with a 6-3 vote Tuesday. Commissioners Bert Bivins, Joe Allen and Elaine Lucas voted against it.
Gwinnett County Commissioners adopted an update to the county’s Comprehensive Transportation Plan.
The new transportation plan is expected to guide Gwinnett County’s transportation planning for the next two decades, going through 2040. One of the major developments to come out of the update was the county’s transit development study that is currently underway, but Transportation Director Alan Chapman said there was more to the plan than just that.
“It really looked at all modes (of transportation), including transit, including roads and bridges, including what we need to invest to operate our system and keep it in a good state of repair as well as sidewalks and trails,” Chapman said. “So it really was an overall look at what we need to do over the next 20 to 25 years.”
The transportation plan will cover a key time in Gwinnett County’s growth, during which it is expected to become the most populous county in Georgia with about 1.5 million residents. For that reason, officials included short term, mid-term and long term projects that can take place as the county approached the middle of the 21st century.
Chapman said information gathered as part of the update was also presented to the county’s Citizens Project Selection Committee which decided what transportation projects were the highest priorities for funding by the 2017 special purpose local option sales tax.
The SPLOST schedule for setting up the SPLOST and identifying important projects to fund with the special sales tax dollars was part of why it took so long for the transportation plan to be finalized and approved, Chapman said.
Comments ( 0 )