Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for February 17, 2026

On February 17, 1739, Thomas Jones wrote to the Georgia Trustees in London of the appalling conditions in Savannah.

“The profanation of the Lord’s Day. When at church in the time of divine service, can hear continual firing of guns by people that are shooting at some game, others carrying burdens on wheelbarrows by the church door.

“The uncommon lewdness practiced by many and gloried in.”

“The negligence of officers in permitting several in this town to retail rum and strong liquors, unlicensed, who have no other visible way of livelihood, where servants resort and are encouraged to rob their masters….”

“I need not mention profane swearing and drunkenness, which are not so common here as in some other places, and few are notorious therein, besides Mr. Baliff Parker, who I have seen wallow in the mire….”

The Georgia legislature, on February 17, 1783, passed legislation granting land to veterans of Georgia militia who served during the Revolutionary War.

On February 17, 1784, the Georgia legislature passed a bill to increase an earlier formula for settling the state, allotting 200 acres to each head of a family, plus 50 acres for each family member (including up to 10 slaves) up to a maximum of 1000 acres.

Thomas Jefferson was elected Third President of the United States on February 17, 1801. The election was deadlocked for three months between Jefferson and his running-mate Aaron Burr.

On November 4 [1800], the national election was held. When the electoral votes were counted, the Democratic-Federalists emerged with a decisive victory, with Jefferson and Burr each earning 73 votes to Adams’ 65 votes and Pinckney’s 64 votes. John Jay, the governor of New York, received 1 vote.

Because Jefferson and Burr had tied, the election went to the House of Representatives, which began voting on the issue on February 11, 1801. What at first seemed but an electoral technicality–handing Jefferson victory over his running mate–developed into a major constitutional crisis when Federalists in the lame-duck Congress threw their support behind Burr. Jefferson needed a majority of nine states to win, but in the first ballot had only eight states, with Burr winning six states and Maryland and Virginia. Finally, on February 17, a small group of Federalists reasoned that the peaceful transfer of power required that the majority party have its choice as president and voted in Jefferson’s favor. The 35th ballot gave Jefferson victory with 10 votes. Burr received four votes and two states voted blank.

On February 17, 1820, the United States Senate passed the Missouri Compromise to govern the admission of new states as either slave-holding or not.

On February 17, 1854, Georgia Governor Herschel Johnson signed legislation by the Georgia General Assembly placing on the ballot for the next generation the question of whether to move the state capital from Milledgeville to Atlanta.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Under the Gold Dome Today

Tuesday – February 17, 2026

TBD     Senate Rules : Upon Adj 450 CAP
7:30 AM HOUSE Approp Sub Econ Dev 341 CAP
8 AM   HOUSE SMALL BUS DEV 506 CLOB
8 AM   HOUSE MOTOR VEHICLES 606 CLOB
8 AM   Senate Econ Dev & Tourism 307 CLOB
9 AM   HOUSE RULES 341 CAP
10 AM HOUSE FLOOR SESSION (LD19) House Chamber
10 AM Senate Floor Session (LD 19) Senate Chamber
1 PM    HOUSE REGULATED IND 515 CLOB
1 PM    HOUSE JUDICIARY NON-CIVIL 132 CAP
1 PM    CANCELED: HOUSE Govtal Aff Sub Elect 415 CLOB
1 PM    HOUSE BUDGET & FSCL AFF OVRSIGHT 606 CLOB
1 PM    HOUSE Education Sub Policy & Innov 506 CLOB
1 PM    Senate Children & Families 450 CAP
1 PM    Senate Retirement 310 CLOB
1:30 PM HOUSE W&M Sub Income Tax 403 CAP
2 PM    HOUSE PUBLIC & COMM HEALTH 606 CLOB
2 PM    HOUSE RETIREMENT 406 CLOB
2 PM    HOUSE Education Sub Curriculum 506 CLOB
2 PM    HOUSE W&M Sub Ad Val (Upon Adj Inc Tax) 403 CAP
2 PM    HOUSE Govtal Aff Sub State & Local 415 CLOB
2 PM    Senate Education & Youth 307 CLOB
2:30 PM HOUSE W&M Sub Sales Tax (Upon Adj Ad Val) 403 CAP
3 PM    HOUSE ENERGY, UTILITIES & TCOM 403 CAP
3 PM    HOUSE Approp Sub Gen Govt 515 CLOB
3 PM    W&M Sub Public Finance & Local Pol 506 CLOB
3 PM    Cancelled ­– Senate Higher Education 307 CLOB
3 PM    Senate Insurance & Labor MEZZ 1
4 PM    Senate Reg Ind & Util 450 CAP
5 PM    Senate State and Local Govt MEZZ 1

The Augusta Board of Elections voted to add an early voting location during the House District 130 Special Election, according to WJBF.

Early voting has arrived for the House District 130 special election, but getting to the early voting poll site at the Municipal Building has voters wanting more.

“We need to be able to accommodate the individuals that can’t get downtown. Downtown is not the only location where we have people voting in this special election,” said Octavia Collins.

The Elections Board voted to add The Brigham Center as a second early voting site, with the Downtown Augusta road work being just one of the reasons why.

“District 130 is quite a large area wise district it goes it goes all the way down to the Burke County line and those two matters combined we thought it was best to open up a place in south Augusta,” said Elections Board Chair Lynn Bailey.

President Donald Trump is expected to visit Extreme Northwest Georgia, according to WRGA News.

It appears as though Rome and Floyd County may get a presidential visit later this week.

Multiple media outlets are reporting that Donald Trump is set visit the area on Thursday.

The Rome News-Tribune reported on Monday that the Floyd County Republican Party has been contacted by the White House in preparation for a possible visit.

Trump recently endorsed Clay Fuller in the Special Election to fill the 14th District seat in the US House of Representatives.

Early voting for that election is underway.

We hope to have more details as they become available.

From the AJC:

President Donald Trump is set to headline his first event in Georgia since he recaptured the state in 2024, with plans to travel to Rome on Thursday to promote his economic agenda.

The appearance in northwest Georgia comes weeks after the FBI raided Fulton County’s elections center and seized truckloads of 2020 ballots, reigniting bitter political divides over the president’s attempt to undo his narrow defeat here six years ago.

And it coincides with the president’s attempts to shape the crowded race to succeed former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a once-steadfast ally of Trump whose abrupt resignation triggered the most significant rupture yet in his political coalition.

The president is testing his clout in Georgia again as a volatile midterm nears.

Trump has yet to take sides among three Republicans dueling for his favor: U.S. Reps. Buddy Carter and Mike Collins and former football coach Derek Dooley.

He’s also seeking to shape other statewide posts, including a race for governor that revolves around his influence and down-ticket candidacies.

Trump is backing Burt Jones for Georgia’s top job, but the lieutenant governor’s GOP front-runner status is now up in the air after billionaire Rick Jackson entered the race with pledges to spend at least $50 million of his own fortune and be Trump’s “No. 1 favorite governor.”

Trump’s influence will be first put to the test in the 14th District race, where Trump endorsed former District Attorney Clay Fuller in the messy March 10 special election. Though a few candidates dropped out after Trump picked his favorite, more than a dozen remain in the race.

Local Republicans are most anxious over a bruising internal clash with former state Sen. Colton Moore, a grassroots favorite known for his ultraconservative views and flair for controversy. Moore has remained in the race, casting himself as an antiestablishment champion for the district.

And party leaders are also wary of a nightmarish scenario where Democrat Shawn Harris, a military veteran who lost to Greene in 2024, takes advantage of the fractured GOP field to flip a district that has long leaned heavily Republican.

From Georgia Recorder:

Early voting began Monday in the race for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, and candidates are racing to set themselves apart from the crowd – and often from the district’s previous representative, former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Greene resigned from her seat last month, spurring more than 20 candidates to throw their hats in the ring, including 16 Republicans, three Democrats, a Libertarian and an independent candidate. Several recent drop outs have narrowed the field to 18.

With so many names on the ballot, it’s likely that none of them will earn more than 50% of the vote in the March 10 election, which will trigger a runoff between the top two candidates on April 7. Whoever wins will serve out the remainder of Greene’s term and will be set to run for re-election in November.

The outcome will determine who represents the district but also help tip the scales in a House of Representatives with 218 Republicans and 214 Democrats. The 14th District was drawn to favor a Republican.

At a recent pair of forums as part of the Atlanta Press Club Loudermilk-Young Debate Series, Republican candidates largely sought to cast themselves as supportive of Greene’s policies while opposed to her combative style.

“The biggest difference between Marjorie and I is I don’t believe in theatrics and drama,” said Republican Reagan Box, who owns a horse training business. “Too much of our politics has separated and divided us as a nation when really we are all fighting the same basic problems, and I’m here to be a voice of common sense and reason.”

Republican Brian Stover agreed.

“One of the biggest differences between me and Marjorie Taylor Greene is I’m kind of a quiet kind of guy,” said Stover, the founder of a waste hauling business. “I’m a workhorse, not a showhorse, and I like to get in there and get things done.”

President Donald Trump is headed to the district Thursday to tout his economic agenda at an event in Rome, according to the White House

Republican Clay Fuller, former district attorney for the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit and a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, touted a recent endorsement from Trump.

“If you want to see a prosecutor, an elected district attorney, if you want to see a military veteran on Capitol Hill, if you want to see somebody who stands for faith, duty and America first, my name is Clay Fuller, and I’m asking for your vote,” he said. “I should be the next congressman for Georgia 14 because President Trump has chosen our campaign and endorsed us to carry on the MAGA agenda into the next decade.”

But many of the other Republicans on the ballot say they’re the best positioned to carry the MAGA torch.

Speaking to reporters after Sunday’s Atlanta Press Club event, former state Sen. Colton Moore called Trump’s endorsement “unfortunate” but said that Trump is “the greatest president of our lifetimes.”

Moore, who butted heads with members of his own party in the Legislature, which led to him being suspended from the Senate Republican Caucus and banned from the GOP-led House chamber. He would go on to be arrested for trying to get in anyway, after which House Speaker Jon Burns lifted the ban.

The Trenton Republican is running as an outsider more in Greene’s vein.

“I’m running for Congress to make sure that our next representative doesn’t just blend in with the curtains and we actually have a true fighter who represents a biblical worldview and the Constitution,” Moore said. In my time in the Georgia Legislature, no one has ever fought harder against corruption than I have.”

Candidates at the forum were split on immigration policy, and not entirely on party lines.

“I think we should double the number of ICE agents and border patrol agents,” said Republican Jim Tully, chair of the 14th District GOP. “I think this country has been overrun. Some estimates have us at plus 20 million over the past four four years or so. These people came here illegally. They crossed a river, they jumped a fence, they came across everywhere but a border crossing. They are here illegally, and they need to go back to where they came from.”

Other Republicans like Meg Strickland, a travel consultant contractor, offered a more moderate perspective.

“I agree that closing the border is imperative. We also were told that we would only be deporting criminals. That’s not what we’re seeing,” she said. “What I think is that Congress started this problem, and Congress is the one that needs to finish it, legislatively. Deportation only is not a solution. We need a long-term strategy for whoever is president to create a legal pathway for residents here. If someone has been here for 10 years, has no criminal past and is gainfully employed or in school, they should be able to stay and work legally.”

The 14th District is home to Dalton, which has a large immigrant and Latino population.

Speaking to reporters after the debate, Democrat Shawn Harris said discontent with ICE’s tactics has contributed to widening the rift among 14th District conservatives.

“When Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump went through their divorce, I call it a divorce, and then when Marjorie quit on the people of northwest Georgia, now the Republican Party is in a civil war with themselves,” said Harris, a retired Army Brigadier General and farmer. “And as you listen to the debate, you can actually hear it’s a difference in the different Republicans that I’m running against.”

Winning the race as a Democrat will be easier said than done. The 14th District is considered the most likely in the state to favor a Republican, according to the Cook Political Report. Harris challenged Greene in 2024 and earned just over 35% of the vote.

Police Blotter: Former Edison City Clerk Tami Fincher was indicted on charges related to embezzlement, according to the Albany Herald.

Former Edison City Clerk Tami Fincher has been indicted by a grand jury on charges that she knowingly and intentionally embezzled, stole or obtained by fraud funds utilizing a city of Edison credit card and through inflated payroll practices.

The indictment lists three counts of fraud in which Fincher is charged with appropriating “in excess of $10,000” through misuse of the city credit card and a fourth count in which she falsely “inflated payroll” by at least $5,000.

The indictment indicates Fincher must forfeit all property derived from illegal practices and that any property that cannot be located will lead to forfeiture of subsequent property.

The indictment was handed down based on evidence gathered by the FBI.

“We’ve been working with FBI agents for about two years now,” current Edison Financial Director Lori Moore said. “It took a long time to get everything they needed, but we knew (the indictment) was coming.

Fincher was among a number of Edison city officials who resigned in the wake of a financial crisis that had the city on the verge of bankruptcy. Bills went unpaid, staffing positions were cut, audits were not completed, and the city had to raise utility costs in order to stave off insolvency.

Edison City Attorney Tommy Coleman said the search by the FBI was implemented when Moore took over as the city’s clerk. She noticed “irregularities” with the city’s credit card bills, and Coleman sought outside help.

“We reached out to the GBI, but they weren’t really interested,” the Albany-based attorney said. “So we took it to the FBI, and they decided to investigate because federal grants were involved and that gave them jurisdiction.

“The amount taken (by Fincher) was not sufficient to pay back all that the city owed, but it certainly played a part in their financial issues. For a small town like Edison, this was quite a sum of money.”

Police Blotter: State Rep. Dexter Sharper (D-Valdosta) appears to be ready to plead guilty to federal charges involving pandemic fraud, according to the AJC.

Sharper, a Democrat from Valdosta serving his seventh term in the Georgia General Assembly, last week entered a motion in federal court in Atlanta to change his not guilty plea. A hearing has been scheduled next month.

Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia charged Sharper last month, claiming he improperly collected $13,825 in unemployment benefits between April 2020 and May 2021.

Prosecutors accuse Sharper of claiming he was unable to work for his party rental business, when they say he was earning money from that business, his government salary as a member of the House and as a musician.

He would become the second state lawmaker to plead guilty to making false statements in order to receive pandemic unemployment relief.

Former state Rep. Karen Bennett pleaded guilty in federal court in January to a similar charge.

Sharper has not resigned his seat, but Gov. Brian Kemp could suspend him from office for adversely affecting the public and his duties.

State Rep. Sharon Henderson, D-Covington, was suspended from office in January, following the recommendation of a bipartisan, three-member commission. Prosecutors said she also collected federal pandemic unemployment benefits using false information, but Henderson has pleaded not guilty.

Department of Unintended Consequences: Lower income taxes for low income workers could imperil affordable housing, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Savannah Morning News.

An income tax cutting proposal designed by Georgia’s Senate Republicans to address the election year affordability issue would also cut into the supply of new housing for low wage earners, potentially harming some of the same people it would help.

Senate Bill 476, approved by the Senate last week, would return billions a year to taxpayers, and it would pay for that by reducing and then eliminating some $30 billion in tax credits and exemptions.

A chunk of that money goes to developers as a match that doubles the value of federal credits to build apartments that rent at below market rates. The credit gets paid over a 10-year period, so developers with newer projects would see their balance sheets go from black to red as they lost future credits that helped to make those projects feasible.

That would mean less housing for restaurant workers, school cafeteria employees and janitors, said Ken Blankenship, a developer who taps the credits.

“Where is that money going to come from? I’m not going to put it in. I’m going to foreclose on the property,” he said. “It is a financial disaster for our industry. Now, you take my deal and multiply that times 50 or 60 deals that are under construction right now,” said Blankenship, who is president of the Georgia Affordable Housing Coalition.

Lawmakers established the credit in 2000. A 2022 review of the program requested by the state Senate estimated that developers would claim $331 million in credits in fiscal year 2023 alone.

A summary of the review by the Department of Audits and Accounts said projects financed with the credits produced an estimated 19,500 jobs, mostly in construction, that paid about $1.7 billion in labor income. The summary also said much of the economic activity would have occurred without the tax giveaway. It noted, though, that “existing research has pointed to personal and public benefits from safe and secure long-term housing.”

The credit is only for below-market rental properties where a substantial portion of the renters earn 60% or less of the median income.

Under SB 476, the state tax credit would drop to half the federal credit in January before being abolished in 2032.

Blankenship said that in addition to bankrupting some developers in the near term, the loss of state funding would cause a long-term slowdown in construction of housing for people who struggle to make ends meet.

Those are the same people that Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, said he wanted to help when he crafted SB 476, which he likened to a pay raise for the middle class.

The legislation would use the revenue saved from tax credits to increase the state income tax standard deduction to $50,000 for an individual and $100,000 for a married couple, up from the current $12,000 and $24,000.

“I stand with those families making less than $100,000 and a yes vote fully supports them,” Tillery said Thursday on the Senate floor before the measure passed, mostly along party lines. He said firefighters, teachers, lunch counter workers and janitors would benefit the most.

The downsizing of the state subsidy would come amid an abiding shortage in affordable housing that a leading economic forecaster expected to endure at least through this year.

“Activity is depressed because affordability is at record lows, few people are desperate to buy or to sell, economic uncertainly is high, and almost nobody’s moving,” said the 43rd annual economic forecast by the Selig Center for Economic Growth.

The report by the Center, based at the University of Georgia’s business school, said construction finances were squeezed between two federal policies: elevated material costs due to tariffs and a labor shortage due to stricter immigration enforcement.

“Since we do not expect these negative factors to change very much in 2026, the homebuilding and real estate industries will remain in recession,” said the report, released late last year.

It is unclear how far the Senate will get with its tax cutting proposal. To become law, it would need approval by the state House and then by Gov. Brian Kemp.

The House has its own tax-cutting proposal focused on local property taxes. Kemp wants to reduce the income tax rate a fifth of a percentage point to 4.99%, which is something SB 476 also does.

But the governor proposed neither increasing the standard deduction nor cutting tax credits to pay for it — both cornerstones of the legislation.

Kemp’s state economist, Robert Buschman, was asked about approaches to reducing the income tax during a legislative budget hearing in January. Buschman praised Kemp’s approach of slowly lowering the tax rate based on “structural” revenue surpluses, but he also said culling ineffective tax credits to pay for continued lowering of the rate “would be a wonderful thing.”

He did not specify whether any particular credit, such as the affordable housing credit, was ineffective. But he was the lead co-author of the 2022 state review of that credit.

Senate Bill 195 by State Senator Chuck Hufstetler (R-Rome) would authorize pharmacists to administer prophylactic HIV prevention medications, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Moultrie Observer.

People who worry about exposure to the HIV virus may soon be able to walk into a Georgia pharmacy and buy preventative medicines.

Bipartisan legislation that would allow pharmacists to order and dispense or inject preventative HIV drugs passed the Georgia House by a wide margin Thursday.

Seven Republicans opposed the measure, which was authored by a Republican.

Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, who has a master’s degree in medical science, said he introduced the measure for a simple reason.

“I’m in healthcare, I do anesthesia, and I look at the data, and the data says this is far, far more cost effective to prevent it then to treat it, as many things are in medicine,” he said.

The South had the highest infection rate in the country, with 49% of the new cases in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Gay and bisexual men accounted for 67% of new infections and 86% of diagnoses among all men, the CDC reported.

Metro Atlanta was a hotspot, with more than 50 new diagnosed cases per 100,000 people in 2023, about twice the state average, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.

Senate Bill 195 would authorize pharmacists to order and then dispense or inject a 30- to 90-day supply of preexposure drugs and to do the same with a 30-day supply of postexposure drugs.

The Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people, said it was encouraged to see the legislation moving. “Increasing access to HIV and AIDS care and prevention by empowering pharmacists will save lives,” the group’s Georgia director, Bentley Hudgins, said in a statement.

Senate Bill 195 passed the House 155-7. It now returns to the Senate, where it passed unanimously last year. It must go back there due to amendments by the House that Hufstetler did not oppose. He said he would ask his colleagues in the Senate to agree to the changes, so the bill could go to the desk of Gov. Brian Kemp.

Should it become law, the State Board of Pharmacy would have until Jan. 1 to approve the training that pharmacists would need before they could offer the HIV prophylactic drugs.

Hufstetler said that if the measure becomes law, it could reduce misery and the need for costly medical care.

“This medicine, at about $26, is far cheaper than the cost of treating somebody with an HIV infection, which would be about $420,000 to $1 million — and obviously an improved quality of life,” he said.

It seems like this might also benefit first responders. Every first aid course I’ve taken emphasizes avoiding exposure to bodily fluids, and I suspect it’s an important issue for professional first responders.

Senate Bill 453, the “Rural Incentive Act” by State Senator Carden Summers (R-Cordele) seeks to grow Georgia’s rural population, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

[Senator Sam] Watson said the idea behind The Rural Incentive Act was that it was an effort to keep young folks living in rural areas.

The bill seeks to amend Georgia Code relating to the computation of taxable net income, so as to exempt from taxation all income received by certain rural residents.

According to the bill “certain rural residents” are those who are between 16 and 35 years of age. Rural, according to the Georgia Code, means a county that has a population of less than 50,000 with 10 percent or more of such population living in poverty based upon the most recent, reliable, and applicable data published by the United States Bureau of the Census.

Many South Georgia counties, including Colquitt, Thomas and Tift are classified as rural counties by the Georgia Department of Revenue. Lowndes County is not classified as such.

Based on 2024 the US Census Bureau population estimations, there are approximately 9,703 residents between the ages of 18 to 34 in Colquitt County, 9,511 in Tift County and 8,938 in Thomas County.

House Bill 1310 by State Rep. Jaclyn Ford (R-Alapaha) would designate cotton as the official state fabric, according to the Moultrie Observer.

House Bill 1310 was introduced by Reps. Jaclyn Ford, R-Alapaha; Robert Dickey, R-Musella; Steven Meeks, R-Screven; Angie O’Steen, R-Ambrose; Al Williams, D-Midway; and Chas Cannon, R-Moultrie.

[Georgia Cotton Commission] Chairman Bart Davis, a Colquitt County cotton producer, stated, “I am appreciative of any recognition of cotton’s contributions and importance to our state as a whole and our rural communities – economically and environmentally.”

Meeks is a member of the Commission’s Board of Directors and Ford has been a member of cotton industry organizational leadership.

The Georgia Cotton Commission is a producer-funded organization located in Perry, Georgia. The commission began in 1965. Georgia cotton producers pay an assessment enabling the Commission to invest in programs of research, promotion, and education on behalf of all cotton producers of Georgia. For more information, call (478) 988-4235 or visit www.georgiacottoncommission.org.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) says paying legal fees for the Trump defendants would absorb her office’s budget, according to the AJC.

Fani Willis says she shouldn’t have to pay nearly $17 million in legal fees to President Donald Trump and his allies after her prosecution against them fell flat, in a filing that also attacked a new Georgia law allowing them to bill for the costs.

In a new filing, the Fulton County district attorney argues having to pay such a “preposterous sum” would wipe out her office’s annual budget. She also said the 2025 law crafted by Georgia’s conservative lawmakers — with her then-pending prosecution in mind — is vaguely worded and cannot be applied retroactively.

Willis called the request for legal fees a “stark example of the punitive, nonsensical schema” created by the bill, which she said leaves Fulton taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars while stripping “a significant percentage (perhaps all)” of her office’s annual budget.

Trump alone is seeking just over $6.2 million in attorney fees and litigation costs tied to his defense in the election interference case that was dismissed last year.

Many of the claims asserting widespread fraud during Georgia’s 2020 presidential election were cited in the affidavit used by the Justice Department ahead of the FBI’s recent raid on the Fulton County elections hub.

Albany and Dougherty County voters will decide on May 19, 2026 whether to levy an addition one-cent sales tax for property tax relief, according to WALB.

Sales tax in Albany and Dougherty County could increase from 8% to 9% if voters approve a plan in May that both the Albany City Commission and Dougherty County Commission have approved.

The 1% sales tax increase would allow for lower property taxes for homeowners, according to county leaders.

“It’s something that we can give back to our residents and puts more monies back in their pockets and less taxes that are taken out of their budgets every year,” said Dougherty County Administrator Deron King.

Under the plan, Dougherty County receives 68.35% of the tax relief, the Special Service District 8.14% and Albany 23.51%. A Dougherty County resident with a $150,000 home would save $568.99, while an Albany resident with a $150,000 home would save $595.78.

The 1% increase is estimated to generate $20 million over five years.

The plan passed through the city commission 5-2, with Albany City Commissioner Chad Warbington voting no. Warbington said he believes city residents are giving up a larger share of potential savings.

“I really felt like—that the special services district in the unincorporated area should not be favored. I think that it should be across the board. The county millage should be reduced evenly. And I really felt like that, in a sense, you’re kind of taking money out of city residents, and we’re subsidizing the special services district,” Warbington said.

When it arrived to the Dougherty County commission, it passed unanimously.

The increase could hurt citizens who do not own property or a business. Some commissioners said they believe that if landlords receive tax relief, renters may benefit as landlords won’t need to raise rent. However, this is not guaranteed.

Dougherty County Commissioner Clinton Johnson said consumers can use the property tax reduction information when negotiating with landlords.

“Consumer can use that knowledge that we’re giving out now to say, ‘Hey, we know,’ because they’re telling us that all property owners, whether you’re a homeowner or not, are receiving a reduction in their property taxes. So you can’t justify raising a rate higher than the rate of the cost of inflation or the CPI— Consumer Price Index,” Johnson said.

The measure will appear on the May 19 ballot for Dougherty County residents to vote on.

Twiggs County Public Schools appear to have been overspending their budget by about $1 million dollars per year, according to the Macon Telegraph.

Twiggs County Public Schools has been overspending its annual budget by about $1.1 million and is now relying on emergency measures to stabilize cash flow, the interim superintendent said Tuesday.

At the Feb. 10 board of education meeting, interim Superintendent Tyrone Bacon detailed a years-long pattern of financial mismanagement and outlined a “leadership reset” aimed at rebuilding financial stability, protecting classrooms and restoring public trust.

An independent certified public accountant confirmed the scope of the district’s financial problem, Bacon said. “Year-in and year-out, we’ve been $1.1 million over budget. This condition has existed for some time,” Bacon said. Payments fell behind for insurance, taxes and regular vendor payments, he added.

Although Bacon said the district’s financial condition developed over time, he did not mention specific dates or timelines. Bacon cited gaps in transparency, salary growth that outpaced revenue and a failure to prioritize long-term stability.

Payroll accounts for 88-90% of district expenses, Bacon said. Some positions saw salary increases of up to 40% over a three-year period, creating permanent structural costs.

Postponing routine maintenance increased long-term district costs as well, he said.

The City of Tybee Island is considering creating a local historical district, according to the Savannah Morning News.

Although Tybee Island has three nationally-designated historic districts, none of the structures in those districts are protected from being demolished.

A local historic district is one of a handful of options for preserving the historic and architectural character of a particular area and can help protect such buildings. Local historic districts are designated by a local ordinance using local design guidelines.

Tybee Island Historic Preservation Commission for more than a year has been pursuing creating a local historic district for the Fort Screven and North Campbell area, which encompasses 205 acres along the northern tip of the island.

The City of Brunswick is considering installing twenty new police cameras at intersections, according to The Brunswick News.

City officials on the finance committee gave the thumbs up to a three-way agreement between City Hall, Axon Enterprises and Georgia Power for a network of 57 cameras and 64 new street lights around the city funded by a nearly $1 million grant. The commission must ratify it.

The City of Tifton appointed Fire Chief Bobby Bennett as their new City Manager, according to the Tifton Gazette.

The appointment comes in the wake of the resignation of former city manager Jeff Shoobridge, which was announced the preceding Monday. Shoobridge served as Tifton’s city manager beginning in October of last year following a nationwide search for someone to fill the role.

Mayor Julie Smith asserted that the choice to promote Bennett to the position was founded upon trust and stability, confident that his years of experience serving the city of Tifton had not only proven his reliability and dedication to the community, but assured he would hit the ground running in continuing to serve Tifton as its newest city manager.

“Tonight, we stand before you not to talk about where we’ve been, but to announce exactly where we’re going — and my friends, we are going to move Tifton forward,” she said during the meeting. “We don’t need to look across the county for answers; we just simply need to look at our own backyard and the dedicated public servants who have already spent their lives building this community.”

Republican Mark Faul announced he is running for Hall County Commission District 1, according to AccessWDUN.

Mark Faul recently announced he is running for the seat currently held by Kathy Cooper, who has announced she is seeking re-election. There are also two other Republican challengers to Cooper’s seat in Korey Anderson and Mark Turner.

Georgia Department of Natural Resources Bald Eagle surveys show coastal habitat loss due to development, according to the Savannah Morning News.

For over a decade, Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Wildlife Resources Division Program Manager Bob Sargent has conducted bald eagle nest surveys across Georgia–in a fashion not too dissimilar from a Tom Cruise stunt.

The helicopter hovers at treetop level for just five to ten seconds within 300 feet of the nest, so that he won’t spook the birds away. But that’s just enough time to catch a glimpse of the number of eggs in a nest, typically about one to three, and record how many have hatched.

Sargent most frequently monitors the six coastal counties, where about a third of Georgia’s eagles have been laying their eggs since November. The species is especially plentiful in Chatham County where fish, reptiles and other waterfowl prey in salt marshes are plentiful.

“What I’ve seen in the last 11 years in surveying birds, is that more and more of these birds are nesting closer to human development,” said Sargent. “They have to tolerate being closer to people, and the result is that there is more disturbance occurring at these nest sites.”

In the mid 1900s, the bald eagle population was decimated to just 400 nests nationwide. Hunting, the use of the pesticide DDT, mass clear-cutting and habitat loss, as well as water quality issues put bald eagle populations across the country in a crisis, said Sargent. In the 1970s, Georgia was down to just one successful nest.

And with the regulation of DDT and reforestation efforts across Georgia, the population has bounced back. Now, DNR has identified at least 230 nests in the state. The U.S. FWS identified over 300,000 individuals in 2020.

But as treetops become fewer and farther apart, bald eagles have less options, said Sargent. In the Savannah area, Tree Canopy US has documented a 5,000-acre decline in tree canopy from 2017 to 2023, equivalent to over 3,700 football fields.

He observes housing, highways and warehouses increasingly closer to nests—which causes him concerns for the chicks.

In April 2024, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service relaxed the regulations to remove bald eagle nests for development.

The revisions were intended to “increase the efficiency and effectiveness of permitting,” the law stated. The general permit options for qualifying wind-energy generation projects, power line infrastructure and other activities that may disturb breeding bald eagles, and bald eagle nest take.

“In some instances, development has been able to go through a permitting process with the Fish and Wildlife Service… to actually remove nest trees,” said Sargent.

And when trees dwindle, other events such as disease and storms may pose even more of a threat.

Coastal bald eagles took the brunt of the avian flu hit, said Sargent. In 2022, just 34 nests surveyed in the six coastal counties—less than a third—produced at least one eaglet. Typically, 80% are successful.