Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for May 19, 2025

Button Gwinnett died on May 19, 1777 of a gunshot wound received in a duel with Lachlan McIntosh.

On May 19-20, 1791, George Washington spent his second and third days in Augusta, where he visited Richmond Academy. Washington left Georgia on May 21, 1791 to go to Columbia, South Carolina.

Georgia ratified the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which governs voting for President and Vice President on May 19, 1804.

The Battle of Spotsylvania ended on May 19, 1864. In Georgia, the Affair at Cassville occurred on May 19, 1864.

On May 19, 1933, the Atlanta City Council voted to allow beer sales in the city. Prohibition was still in effect at the federal level at that time, but the President had signed the Cullen-Harrison Act that allowed sale of 3.2% beer effective April 7, 1933.

On May 19, 1977, “Smokey and the Bandit” was released.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Today is the voter registration deadline for the June 17th Special Primary Elections for Public Service Commission, according to AccessWDUN.

Monday is the deadline to register to vote or submit changes to your existing voter registration and be eligible to vote for the June 17 statewide Special Primary for Georgia Public Service Commission and other offices up for election in 2025.

Hoschton’s Tim Echols is one of two Republican incumbents facing challengers in the primary for the PSC. Echols is seeking his third term on the PSC and will face off against challenger Lee Muns of Augusta in the Republican primary for the District 2 seat. The winner of that primary will take on Democrat Alicia Johnson of Savannah in the general election in November.

Early voting period for the primary election will be held from May 27 to June 13. If no candidate receives 50% of the vote in the June 17 election, a runoff election will be held on July 15.

You can check the details of your voter registration by signing in to the Secretary of State’s MVP page.

From Georgia Recorder:

Monday is the last day to register to vote in the June 17 primary to fill two Georgia Public Service Commission seats on an embattled board that has faced criticism for a series of Georgia Power rate hikes over the last several years.

Winners of the upcoming primaries will face off in November to determine who will serve on the five-member charged with regulating a number of telecommunications, electricity and natural gas services across the state. The winners will serve on a board that has approved six utility rate increases since 2023 for Georgia Power customers.

This year’s primary and general elections will mark the first time since 2020 PSC contests have appeared on Georgia ballots following lawsuits challenging redistricting and the fairness of the PSC election process for Black voters. Typically, the terms of the five commission districts are staggered over a six-year period.

Currently, Republican incumbents Tim Echols and Fitz Johnson are facing challengers seeking to upset their bids to remain on the board. The other three members of the board are also Republicans.

Echols, who is seeking his third term on the PSC, will face challenger Lee Muns in the Republican primary for the commission’s District 2 seat. Whoever wins will go on to face Alicia Johnson of Savannah, the sole candidate for the Democratic Party.

Although the commissioners must reside in the geographical district that they represent, every Georgia voter can determine the winner since the state regulators are elected statewide.

There is a large field of candidates for the metro and suburban Atlanta area represented by Johnson, who is seeking re-election after being appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp to fill a vacancy in 2021.

One of the Democratic candidates is Daniel Blackman, who served as a regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency under President Joe Biden, and went to a run-off against incumbent Lauren “Bubba” McDonald in the 2020 Public Service Commission election.

The District 3 Democratic primary also includes Keisha Waites, a former member of the Atlanta City Council and the Georgia House of Representatives, as well as Peter Hubbard, founder of Center for Energy Solutions who has been an expert witness at PSC hearings, and Robert Jones, who has had a career involved in energy regulation in California.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Friday that a residency challenge has been filed against Blackman after he moved into the PSC district one day before the deadline for candidates.

A Georgia woman declared brain dead is being kept on life support to support the viability of her unborn child under Georgia’s “Heartbeat Bill,” according to the Athens Banner Herald.

April Newkirk alleges her pregnant daughter, who is brain dead, is being kept on life support until Emory University personnel can safely birth her baby. Here’s what we know:

Adriana Smith, 30, was nearly nine weeks pregnant in February when she started experiencing intense headaches. According to her mother as reported by the Associated Press, she went to Northside Hospital and was sent home with some medication. The next morning, Smith was gasping for air and making a gurgling noise in her sleep, so her boyfriend called 911. According to 11Alive, Smith was taken to Emory Decatur and later transferred to Emory University Hospital where she worked as a nurse. A CT scan revealed multiple blood clots in her brain. She was eventually declared brain dead and has since been moved to Emory Midtown.

April Newkirk said her daughter, now 21 weeks pregnant, has been kept on a ventilator for more than 90 days, with the plan to keep her on life support until at least 32 weeks of gestation when the fetus has a good chance of survival outside the womb. However, Newkirk told 11Alive that the fetus has fluid on the brain.

“She’s pregnant with my grandson. But he may be blind, may not be able to walk, may not survive once he’s born,” she said.

The doctors are reportedly unable to consider any other options due to Georgia’s abortion laws. Whether or not the family would have chosen to abort the pregnancy, Newkirk expressed how the lack of choice in this matter has compounded the trauma of this event.

“I think every woman should have the right to make their own decision,” Newkirk said. “And if not, then their partner or their parents.”

Emory has declined to comment on any specific cases due to federal privacy laws, but their spokesperson Janet Christenbury said, “Emory Healthcare uses consensus from clinical experts, medical literature, and legal guidance to support our providers as they make individualized treatment recommendations in compliance with Georgia’s abortion laws and all other applicable laws. Our top priorities continue to be the safety and wellbeing of the patients we serve.”

After Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, Georgia’s “heartbeat bill” went info effect, banning abortions after there is a detectable heart beat (usually six weeks or sooner). It has exceptions for things like medical emergencies, rape, incest, and if a doctor determines the pregnancy is medically futile.

However, Smith’s case is reportedly in a legal gray area: Because she is brain dead — no longer considered at risk herself — her medical team is legally required to maintain life support until the fetus reaches viability.

Bioethicist and lawyer Thaddeus Pope of Minnesota said that continued treatment is not legally required because removing the life support doesn’t constitute an abortion Georgia’s law doesn’t specifically limit removing treatment from a pregnant woman who is alive but incapacitated or brain dead.

Georgia state Sen. Ed Setzler, who sponsored the heart-beat bill, supports Emory’s decision and that Smith’s relatives have “good choices” including keeping the baby or offering it for adoption.

“I think it is completely appropriate that the hospital do what they can to save the life of the child,” Setzler told AP. “I think this is an unusual circumstance, but I think it highlights the value of innocent human life. I think the hospital is acting appropriately.”

U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams of Georgia released a statement calling Smith’s story “gut-wrenching” and that “For more than 90 days, her loved ones have been forced to watch her endure unnecessary medical interventions-unable to say goodbye, unable to honor Adriana’s dignity, and unable to make the decisions that should be theirs.”

From the Associated Press via WJBF:

Georgia’s so-called “heartbeat law” is among the restrictive abortion statutes that have been put in place in many conservative states since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade three years ago.

Smith’s family says Emory doctors have told them they are not allowed to stop or remove the devices that are keeping her breathing because state law bans abortion after cardiac activity can be detected — generally around six weeks into pregnancy.

The law was adopted in 2019 but not enforced until after Roe v. Wade was overturned in the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, opening the door to state abortion bans. Twelve states are enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy and three others have bans like Georgia’s that kick in after about six weeks.

Like the others, Georgia’s ban includes an exception if an abortion is necessary to maintain the woman’s life. Those exceptions have been at the heart of legal and political questions, including a major Texas Supreme Court ruling last year that found the ban there applies even when there are major pregnancy complications.

From the AJC:

State Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes, D-Duluth, penned a letter to Republican Attorney General Chris Carr questioning whether it’s “legally required” under Georgia’s abortion law to keep Smith alive.

“Let me be plain: this is a grotesque distortion of medical ethics and human decency,” she wrote. “That any law in Georgia could be interpreted to require a brain-dead woman’s body to be artificially maintained as a fetal incubator is not only medically unsound — it is inhumane.”

Carr, a Republican candidate for governor who backed the 2019 law, has yet to respond to Parkes’ letter. But his office recently indicated in a statement that the statute doesn’t mandate life support in such cases.

“There is nothing in the LIFE Act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death,” the statement said. “Removing life support is not an action ‘with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy.’”

President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order that might affect Georgia elections, according to the Associated Press via WSAV.

President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to overhaul how U.S. elections are run includes a somewhat obscure reference to the way votes are counted. Voting equipment, it says, should not use ballots that include “a barcode or quick-response code.”

Those few technical words could have a big impact.

Voting machines that give all voters a ballot with one of those codes are used in hundreds of counties across 19 states. Three of them — Georgia, South Carolina and Delaware — use the machines statewide.

Those pushing conspiracy theories related to the 2020 election have latched onto a long-running legal battle over Georgia’s voting system. In that case, a University of Michigan computer scientist testified that an attacker could tamper with the QR codes to change voter selections and install malware on the machines.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, has defended the state’s voting system as secure. In March, the judge who presided over Halderman’s testimony declined to block the use of Georgia’s voting equipment but said the case had “identified substantial concerns about the administration, maintenance and security of Georgia’s electronic in-person voting system.”

Perhaps nowhere has the issue been more contentious than Georgia, a presidential battleground. It uses the same QR code voting system across the state.

Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, a lead plaintiff in the litigation over the system, said her group has not taken a position on Trump’s executive order but said the federal Election Assistance Commission should stop certifying machines that use barcodes.

The secretary of state said the voting system follows Georgia law, which requires federal certification at the time the system is bought. Nevertheless, the Republican-controlled legislature has voted to ban the use of QR codes but did not allocate any money to make the change — a cost estimated at $66 million.

Republicans said they want to replace the system when the current contract expires in 2028, but their law is still scheduled to take effect next year. GOP state Rep. Victor Anderson said there is no realistic way to “prevent the train wreck that’s coming.”

The Hemp Beverage Alliance will hold their annual meeting in Georgia, where attempts have been made to regulate the nascent industry, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Savannah Morning News.

Georgians have had a long relationship with beer, an affection that grew during the pandemic before it started to unravel.

Now, many are attracted to a new and different product, something with intoxicating power but without the familiar downsides: hemp beverages.

Beer sales plummeted nationally and in Georgia after COVID-19 subsided. The golden liquid comprises two-fifths of state revenue from alcohol beverage taxes, and income from that tax had been bubbling up about 1% a year before the big lockdown. Then, during fiscal year 2020, which ended that July, four months into the pandemic, it fizzed up 4%. The next year, like a shaken can of beer, the sales tax exploded by nearly 10%, according to the Georgia Department of Revenue.

But sales flattened as the pandemic subsided, hitting negative territory starting in fiscal year 2023.

Breweries started closing, and Georgia was hit hard, said Matt Shirah, co-founder of Scofflaw Brewing in Atlanta.

“Smaller breweries with distribution are experiencing heavy double-digit declines,” he said.

Lawmakers even introduced a bill this winter called the “Georgia Craft Brewery Innovation and Survival Act.”

Observers cite many reasons for the shift away from beer, including a post-pandemic hangover, generational change, rising costs, and concerns about alcohol toxicity.

“I think that alcohol is kind of the tobacco of our generation,” said Ian Dominguez, a fund manager who has long invested in alcohol but is shifting to hemp products. He thinks hemp beverages are entering a period of tremendous growth.

“We think this category is going to be bigger than craft beer in 10 years,” he said. “I’ve never been as confident of something in my career.”

Hemp beverages had a global market valued at $1.16 billion in 2023, according to the industry trade publication Beverage Information Group, which reported projections of compound annual growth at 19.2% to 2030.

Canada and the United States are major markets, as is Europe and particularly Germany — that bastion of beer.

Last month, Shirah attended the International Cannabis Business Conference in Berlin, where industry representatives, policy makers and others from more than 80 countries were expected to attend. The organizers cited market research that had the overall cannabis market in Germany alone reaching $4.6 billion in less than a decade. Lawmakers legalized cannabis in that country last year.

Cannabis is not legal for general consumption in Georgia, but hemp is legal due to a 2018 federal law called the Agriculture Improvement Act.

As long as the intoxicating component known as tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is 0.3% or less “on a dry weight basis,” it’s no longer considered a controlled substance.

Katherine Russell, policy director for the Georgia Department of Agriculture, told state lawmakers in March that she believed Congress wanted to open a legal lane for industrial hemp, for products such as Hempcrete or for flooring used in construction.

In doing so, federal lawmakers — and President Donald Trump, who signed the farm bill into law during his first term — opened what some are calling a loophole for cannabinoids, the intoxicating substance in the plant.

Subsequently, Georgia began passing laws to allow and to regulate the industry, with new rules coming online late last year.

In the interim, all sorts of hemp products of varying quality flooded Georgia convenience stores and other outlets.

Hemp and cannabis are essentially the same plant, as similar as an azalea and a dwarf azalea, Russell explained, adding that the intoxicating capacity of the plant can be controlled by practices such as the timing of the harvest and the admixture of other compounds, such as hexahydrocannabinol, or HHC, a semisynthetic analogue of THC.

“We’re dealing with an industry of entrepreneurs who are very creative thinkers,” Russell said. “We’ve seen people have novel responses to some of the regulations.”

Gary Long, CEO of a Georgia hemp consumables production company, said highly intoxicating products were getting dumped onto shelves by companies from outside Georgia during the period between the federal farm bill and Georgia’s new Hemp Farming Act, which took full effect last Oct. 1.

Before that, with little in the way of a regulatory framework, state enforcement of the federal limits was inconsistent, he said.

“There are products, or have been products, in our market in Georgia that have far exceeded the federal limits,” said Long, who started out as a licensed medical cannabis provider then, last year, opened ONE59, with a new 133,000-square-foot hemp production facility in Glennville. His products include hemp gummies, absorptive skin creams, and beverages aimed at consumers seeking transparency with ingredients.

“I think the Department of Agriculture is now enforcing the law much more readily than they were,” he said.

This winter, Georgia lawmakers had mixed reactions to the onslaught of hemp products. They unleashed a flurry of conflicting bills that would have alternately promoted and suppressed the budding industry, including a bill from the Senate that would have banned hemp beverages altogether.

That bill died by the hands of Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell, chairman of the House Regulated Industries Committee. Instead of substantial change, both the House and Senate settled on establishing a committee to review the subject. “We’re going to be studying this in depth this summer,” Powell said in March.

Jim Higdon, co-founder of Louisville-based Cornbread Hemp, which sells beverages, gummies, oils and related products, said something similar happened in the Kentucky legislature, where he said distillers used their clout in an attempt to kneecap his industry.

He said hemp advocates limited the impact by asking customers to contact their lawmakers about it.

Higdon thinks lawmakers will eventually embrace hemp for a simple reason. “The tax revenue potential for hemp beverages and hemp products writ large is significant,” he said.

“Wine and spirits are definitely against hemp beverages and want them to go away,” he added. “But the microbreweries and hemp beverages have a symbiotic relationship because what hemp beverages need is a good canning line, and these microbreweries have canning lines with capacity.”

Shirah said it was clear to him by 2023 that he had to pivot Scofflaw into hemp drinks.

“Hemp beverages will drive at least half of our revenue this year and at least two thirds of 2026 top line revenue, maybe more,” he said.

Scofflaw makes several THC-infused beverages, with Strawberry Lemonade and Sweet Tea Lemonade among the more popular items. Shirah said he is working on a hemp-infused, non-alcoholic, malt-based beverage.

Meanwhile, the Hemp Beverage Alliance is high on Georgia. Their national expo will be July 9-11 at the Omni Atlanta Hotel.

Minnesota was among the first states to embrace the hemp industry, and Christopher Lackner, the president of the alliance, said communities there have seen the benefits of the tax revenue. He said Georgia is primed to follow, despite the ban proposed during this year’s legislative session.

“Since the Georgia regulations and rules came in last year, we have all pegged Georgia as the next Minnesota, which is to say, the next hemp beverage marketplace,” he said. “So we’re very excited that this legislative session ended without a ban.”

United States Senator Raphael Warnock (D-Atlanta) says 42,000 Georgia jobs could be imperiled by federal changes, according to the AJC.

This week, Washington politicians are voting on partisan legislation to cut taxes for billionaires by repealing clean energy tax credits that are creating tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs and are bringing billions of investments to communities across Georgia.

The sad truth is that cynical politicians want to repeal these tax credits because they were passed by a Democratic Congress and signed into law by a Democratic president. They’re so focused on the politics that they’re willing to take away good-paying jobs, which often don’t require a college degree, from their constituents.

If we set politics aside and center what’s best for ordinary people, there’s no doubt everyone would come together to protect these tax credits and thousands of Georgia jobs.

During my first term in the Senate, I was proud to champion these clean energy tax credits, which were passed as part of landmark climate legislation in August 2022. Since then, clean energy investment has exploded across Georgia.

In less than three years, businesses have announced or advanced 51 new projects worth over $28 billion in our state. In fact, Georgia has benefited from these clean industry tax credits more than any other state. New projects are expected to add nearly 42,000 jobs across all corners of Georgia.

More than 95% of these new jobs are outside metro Atlanta, and these projects overwhelmingly benefit places where folks are less likely to have a college degree and don’t earn as much as the average American.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said solar panel manufacturer Qcells — which will invest over $2.5 billion in projects across Georgia, partially thanks to these tax credits — is “fantastic” and claims her constituents are “excited to have jobs.” Rep. Barry Loudermilk, whose congressional district is home to a future Qcells facility, praised the company’s solar panel production as a “win for our state” and a “great source of jobs.”

Rep. Buddy Carter has noted that “countless American companies” have used the tax credits to make “major investments” in clean energy. His constituents alone stand to benefit from 11 new clean energy projects representing nearly $7.9 billion in investments and 7,400 new jobs announced after these tax credits were signed into law.

If Washington Republicans move forward with a GOP tax bill that repeals these clean energy tax credits, it’s their districts that will lose jobs and private investments: Three out of four clean energy projects that were announced or boosted following the passage of these tax credits have gone to House districts held by Republicans.

This is especially true in Georgia: 80% of the projects, 94% of the total investments and 75% of the proposed new jobs and investments are in congressional districts represented by Republicans.

By repealing clean energy tax credits to give a tax cut to the wealthy and well-connected, Washington Republicans could cause Georgia to lose up to 42,000 jobs in communities desperate for new jobs and investments. If the president and congressional Republicans were serious about bringing American manufacturing back to the United States, as I am, they would protect these tax credits.

Politics has a way of trying to make easy stuff complicated. I’ll tell you what’s not complicated — 51 new projects worth $28 billion all across our state and up to 42,000 new jobs.

Georgians are smart enough to know who is actually looking out for them. Now, it’s up to Georgians to ask their Congressional representatives: When the GOP tax bill comes up for a vote, are you going to protect good-paying Georgia jobs?

Attorney General Chris Carr (R-Cobb County) campaigned in Valdosta, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr visited Jessie’s Restaurant & Catering on Wednesday to meet with local residents and potential supporters as he prepares to run for governor.

In his address, Carr emphasized Georgia’s position as a national leader in business, crediting policies made under Gov. Brian Kemp and Republican leadership. Carr pointed to his own experience in economic development, where he helped promote jobs through trade, tourism, and manufacturing, as preparation for leading the state through its next chapter.

“The modern Georgia on four pillars: agriculture, manufacturing, trade, and military,” Carr said. “Communities like this one have played a major role in that, and now it’s about building on that success and planning for what’s next.”

Carr highlighted crime as a pressing topic, noting the state’s expanded enforcement efforts and partnerships with local law enforcement. He called for continued investment in public safety, stressing that every Georgian, regardless of background, deserves to feel secure.

“I don’t care your race, your gender, your religion, or where you’re from—you deserve to be safe in this state,” Carr said, referencing the Georgia Constitution and his office’s focus on criminal prosecution.

He closed by inviting attendees to connect him with others who might support his campaign and encouraged continued financial backing. Once the event wrapped up, Carr stayed behind to chat, answer additional questions, and lay the groundwork for his bid for Georgia’s highest office.

Bulloch County Commissioners will not rollback the property tax millage rate fully, according to the Statesboro Herald.

Looking again at the Bulloch County government’s tentative fiscal year 2026 budget during a Thursday, May 15 work session, county commissioners and key staff members commented that a full rollback of the millage rate to offset property value inflation would come at too high a cost to county services and personnel.

But they heard that dipping too far into the carried-over balance – which serves as a rainy-day fund – could also be risky in a county sometimes affected by more than one hurricane in a year and where heavy rain frequently damages Georgia’s largest network of unpaved roads. To some apparent relief, the conservative-leaning commissioners also heard from a tax appraiser that a rollback may not matter that much this year to homeowners, since a new state exemption that pegs increases in assessed values to the lower national inflation rate will provide as much relief. (That law, however, won’t provide relief on commercial, rental or agricultural real estate.)

“About two weeks ago, after our last budget meeting, I sat down and had a conversation with [Chief Financial Officer] Kristie [King] and I asked her to do something. Based off of the projected deficit that we had in our budget of about $7.8 million, which roughly equates to about 10 percent, I asked her to go through … and  cut our budget by 10 percent,” Bennett said.  “And then yesterday when we sat  down and we talked, there’s some things that I looked at and she presented to me, and I’m just not comfortable doing them.”

“Quite frankly, the majority of our budget in this county goes to fund four essential functions: law enforcement, fire and EMS and public works, and I am not comfortable with the idea of cutting any of those services and compromising the safety of the people of this county,” he continued.

King estimated that a full rollback would result in revenues of $66.59 million, and thus a $4.5 million shortfall of revenues compared to expenditures. With some one-time costs and a $500,000 contingency also taken from the fund balance, a $5.3 million reduction in fund balance would be needed to balance the budget with the full rollback, she estimated.

Brunswick City Commissioners are considering their FY 2026 budget, according to The Brunswick News.

On the agenda [for Thursday’s meeting] is a preliminary approval of City Hall’s 2025-2026 fiscal year budget and five alcohol license requests.

City Manager Regina McDuffie presented a preliminary draft of City Hall’s budget for the fiscal year 2025-2026. The proposal comes in at around $23.9 million, a 5% increase over the current year’s budget.

The city operates on a fiscal year that runs from July 1 of one year to June 30 of the next.

The higher budget is supported by a projected 10% increase in property values, a $400,000 increase in sales taxes, higher building permit revenue and municipal court fines, she said.

Property taxes make up about 30% of the city’s revenue, while sales taxes account for just under 50%. The remainder is from a variety of other revenue sources.

The budget encompasses 236 employees, three of whom are in new positions.

The Floyd County Board of Education will hear details on a proposed budget for FY 2026, according to WRGA News.

First Reading of the Floyd County School System’s Fiscal Year 2026 Budget is slated for a first reading on Monday.

The budget projects local property taxes at $48,087,922, other local sources at $5,664,890, and state sources at $74,775,598 for $128,528,410 in total revenue.

The projected beginning fund balance on July 1 is budgeted at $49,024,473.

Total expenditures are $129,561,457 and the projected ending fund balance for June 30, 2026 is $47,991,426.

New regulations on shrimping will expand the harvest season, according to WTOC via WALB.

New regulations are splashing into the shellfish industry here in Georgia this summer, ones allowing commercial farmers to harvest oysters during previously restricted warmer months.

In the past, farmers were unable to harvest oysters between the end of May and beginning of October.

With new regulations in place, farmers can continue working through those previously restricted months.

Local oyster farmers say this change is great, but there’s still a catch.

An extended season but reduced operating time is part of this new deal for the area’s Oyster Farmers.

The summer southern heat is a breed ground for potentially harmful Vibrio bacteria which in the past has halted the harvest.

To reduce the risk of contamination and allow for year-round harvesting, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources established strict time and temperature controls.

Tybee Oyster Company owners Laura and Perry Solomon say they want their product to be safe, but one challenge they’ve run into is tight turn around times for harvest-to-refrigeration.

Laura says they have to sprint in order to get everything done in just two hours.

“We’re fortunate that our facility is close to the boat house, but you know, for farms that have to travel a long distance that travel time is built into your harvest-to-refrigeration time,” said Solomon.

Other states like South Carolina and Florida have a longer window of time to complete their daily harvests. Which poses the question as to why Georgia can’t follow suit.

Local oyster farmers say the new regulations are a step in the right direction for the industry, but they’re also hoping more changes are on the horizon.

Whitfield County eliminated the Deputy County Administrator job and the person who held it, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.

County commissioners referred questions to county Human Resources Director Jacqueline Carlo, citing a policy of not commenting on personnel.

“After a careful review of our operational structure, organizational culture and future priorities, the Board of Commissioners and administration made the difficult decision to eliminate the deputy county administrator position,” Carlo said in an email. “This decision was part of a broader effort to align our resources with the evolving needs of our county and those we serve. Keeping with our long-standing policy, we do not discuss personnel matters publicly. We can, however, confirm that this position was eliminated.”