Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for September 26, 2025

William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, invaded England on September 28, 1066.

On September 27, 1779, John Jay, who previously served as President of the Continental Congress, was appointed minister to Spain to seek Spanish support for the revolution.

General George Washington led continental troops into the siege of British forces under General Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia on September 28, 1781.

On September 28, 1863, two Union generals lost their commands after the Confederates routed federal forces at the Battle of Chickamauga.

On September 28, 1889, Georgia Governor John B. Gordon signed legislation designating January 19th a state holiday in honor of Robert E. Lee’s birthday. In 2015, Robert E. Lee’s birthday and Confederate Memorial Day were stricken from the Georgia calendar.

President Franklin Roosevelt made his ninth visit to Warm Springs, Georgia on September 27, 1927.

On September 26, 1928, future President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke in Atlanta on behalf of Democrat Alfred Smith’s campaign for President.

The first televised debate between major party candidates for President took place on September 26, 1960 between Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon.

Kennedy emerged the apparent winner from this first of four televised debates, partly owing to his greater ease before the camera than Nixon, who, unlike Kennedy, seemed nervous and declined to wear makeup. Nixon fared better in the second and third debates, and on October 21 the candidates met to discuss foreign affairs in their fourth and final debate. Less than three weeks later, on November 8, Kennedy won 49.7 percent of the popular vote in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history, surpassing by a fraction the 49.6 percent received by his Republican opponent.

September 27 is a red-letter day for the Atlanta Braves and pitcher John Smoltz. The team won a record 14th straight Division Championship on this day in 2005. Smoltz set a team record for regular season wins (24) on September 27, 1996 and extended his team record for strikeouts hitting 276.

On September 27, 2002, Smoltz set a National League record with 54 saves.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

The Trump Administration approved a one-year extension for Georgia Pathways, the state’s work requirement for Medicaid eligibility, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Valdosta Daily Times.

Georgia’s unique approach to Medicaid was set to expire this month, but the state just got a one-year extension from the federal government.

The Pathways to Coverage program, which requires recipients to prove that they work, volunteer or take classes 80 hours a month, will now run through 2026, with modifications intended to increase the number of people who are covered.

As of May, 23 months into the program, there were 7,463 enrolled, well short of the state’s initial projections of 47,000, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services observed in its extension notice to the Georgia Department of Community Health Tuesday.

To “streamline” compliance and expand coverage, Gov. Brian Kemp’s administration asked for and received permission to amend the program. Rather than requiring recipients to report monthly about their work and other qualifying activities, they will report annually.

And two new qualifying categories were added: parents of children under age 6 do not have to work or engage in other activities if the child is enrolled in Medicaid; and childless, able-bodied adults can meet the requirements by complying with other programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Kemp’s office said the extension “further validates” Georgia’s approach to Medicaid, which will soon be a requirement in every state under new federal law.

A recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that Georgia spent two-thirds of implementation costs on administration rather than on medical assistance, with more than half of the $80 million going to contractors.

Kemp blamed the administration of then-President Joe Biden for driving up costs by obstructing implementation. Kemp praised President Donald Trump.

“Unlike the previous administration which chose to sue, obstruct, and delay, President Trump and his team have worked alongside us to improve Georgia Pathways and ultimately deliver a better program to Georgians who need it most,” Kemp said in a statement Thursday. “We look forward to continuing that partnership in the months ahead.”

The Trump Administration’s Federal Aviation Administration is pulling grants from the Atlanta Airport over DEI programs, according to Atlanta News First via WTVM.

The world’s busiest airport has lost millions in federal funding for upholding its diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, policies, according to officials.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has lost $37.5 million in federal funding.

In a letter between Hartsfield-Jackson and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the federal agency said it would not participate in several airport projects “due to the refusal or inability of the city to sign (its) standard grant offers.”

Those projects, which included taxiway pavement replacement, terminal restroom renovations and a safety project for the north airfield, are worth over $50 million in costs.

In response to the FAA, the city said while it is “able and willing to accept grant funds in accordance with federal law,” it would not sign a grant offer that requires it to agree to “DEI and certain other provisions.”

While that funding is gone, the City of Atlanta could recoup approximately $19.6 million in future federal funding if policies are amended, officials told Atlanta News First.

In a statement, a spokesperson from Mayor Andre Dickens’ office said the city is “confident that the airport will be able to pursue alternative funding to advance these projects without impacting customers or airport service providers.”

“Federal funding for the airport, while important, represents less than 10%, approximately $1 billion over the next six years of the airport’s total capital program over the same period,” the spokesperson said. “The city is currently evaluating all options to ensure alignment with our long-held values, local policy and federal law, and we are confident that the airport will be well-positioned to receive federal funds in the future.”

Eliminating DEI initiatives has been a focal point for President Donald Trump and his administration since taking office for the second time. In January, Trump signed a slew of executive orders targeting DEI.

From the AJC:

In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring all who do business with or receive money from the government agree not to “operate any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws.”

In April, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent a letter to all recipients of federal transportation dollars underlining this point.

Anyone who receives money from the DOT, which oversees the FAA, is “prohibited from engaging in discriminatory actions” based on “race, color, national origin, sex or religion,” he wrote.

Based on the Supreme Court’s decision banning affirmative action in college admissions, he argued, any program “designed to achieve so-called ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion,’ or ‘DEI,’ goals, presumptively violates Federal law.”

“Adherence to your legal obligation is a prerequisite for receipt of DOT financial assistance,” he said.

But according to correspondence between the FAA and Atlanta airport leader Ricky Smith reviewed by the AJC, Hartsfield-Jackson pushed back on the FAA and tried to modify that template to exclude the DEI language.

Paragraphs to this effect were inserted into the FAA’s fiscal year 2025 grant template for all recipients.

But according to correspondence between the FAA and Atlanta airport leader Ricky Smith reviewed by the AJC, Hartsfield-Jackson pushed back on the FAA and tried to modify that template to exclude the DEI language.

The State House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee on Medical Marijuana and Hemp Policies heard testimony in their public meeting in Macon yesterday, according to 13WMAZ.

Emotional testimony from parents of children with autism and family members of cancer patients filled a Mercer University meeting room Thursday as Georgia lawmakers heard pleas to expand the state’s medical cannabis program.

The House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee on Medical Marijuana and Hemp Policies listened to presentations and public statements from about a dozen citizens, all advocating for passage of expanded access legislation. The committee made no decisions or recommendations during the session.

Among those testifying was Jennifer Conforti, whose 14-year-old daughter was diagnosed with a congenital brain defect and profound autism. When her daughter developed severe self-injurious behaviors at age 3, Conforti said she turned to medical cannabis as a last resort.

“I was able to get her off of her pharmaceuticals and only on cannabis, and she’s been taking cannabis every day for the last 11 years,” Conforti said after the hearing.

Micah Gravley, who authored Georgia’s 2019 medical cannabis cultivation law as a state legislator, shared how his father’s recent cancer diagnosis has reinvigorated his advocacy efforts. His 74-year-old father is undergoing preventative chemotherapy that has caused weight loss, lethargy and loss of appetite.

“To see the weight loss and to see just kind of the lack of energy and the loss of appetite, it was really concerning as someone who worked very hard during my time in the legislature to help people like that,” Gravley said.

Gravley criticized Georgia’s current law, which requires patients to have “severe or end stage” conditions before accessing medical cannabis. He argued patients should be able to use cannabis immediately upon diagnosis rather than waiting for their condition to worsen.

“If I get diagnosed with something and I know that medical cannabis can help, I wanna be able to take that immediately,” Gravley said. “And so I think that there’s some room, a lot of room for clean up, in our current law.”

Both Gravley and Conforti emphasized that Georgia’s restrictive law forces patients to seek potentially dangerous alternatives. Gravley warned about the risks of unregulated products, particularly amid the fentanyl epidemic.

“You don’t know where it is. You don’t know what how it’s been processed. You don’t know what how it was produced,” Gravley said of street cannabis. “You don’t know if there’s heavy metals or bacteria, you know, any number of things, God forbid fentanyl.”

Despite having 33,000 patients registered in Georgia’s medical cannabis program, Gravley said the number should be much higher based on the prevalence of qualifying conditions in the state.

“We should have 150,000 plus because we know there’s more than that in our state that have these diagnosis,” he said.

Conforti, who founded a nonprofit that builds communities for adults with disabilities, said most parents in the special needs community remain unaware that medical cannabis dispensaries exist in Georgia.

“When I tell them that we have dispensaries in Georgia, I don’t think any one of them has said, “Oh yeah, I’ve been to one,’” Conforti said. “99.8% have no idea we even have dispensaries in Georgia.”

Conforti advocated for removing restrictions on THC percentages and qualifying conditions, arguing that cannabis benefits depend on individual patients rather than specific diagnoses.

“I don’t think there should be limits on THC percentage. I don’t think there should be limits on qualifying conditions,” she said. “I think that many conditions can qualify depending on the individual.”

For Conforti, who admitted to breaking the law by making cannabis in her kitchen before it became legal, the issue remains deeply personal. Her daughter’s diagnosis completely changed her life’s trajectory.

“Everything has completely flipped for me,” she said. “Her life has really brought forth a lot of courage out of me that I didn’t even know I had.”

The study committee was formed after neither House nor Senate versions of medical cannabis expansion legislation passed during the most recent session. Committee members plan to gather testimony statewide before making recommendations for the 2026 legislative session.

Thursday’s meeting was led by Chairman Mark Newton, a physician from Augusta, and held in the President’s Dining Room at Mercer University. The hearing was open to the public and livestreamed.

From Atlanta News First via WRDW:

Currently, patients suffering from a list of 17 conditions ranging from end-stage cancer to seizures, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, PTSD and chronic pain, among others can access the state’s program, and only in the form of THC oil and edible products.

Lawmakers on Thursday debated expanding the list of conditions to include conditions like insomnia, non-PTSD anxiety, depression and fibromyalgia.

“There’s so many people who are not end-stage, but they can benefit from these medications,” said Dr. Elmore Alexander with US420DOC, a Georgia collective that is certified to prescribe medicinal marijuana cards. “Which is a little limiting for physicians because we have patients that have all types of conditions.”

Alexander would like to see lawmakers expand not only the list of conditions included in the state’s medicinal program, but also the methods available to people who need marijuana as treatment.

“We’re very limited in Georgia because we only have tinctures and edibles,” he said. “Some people actually need vaping or smoke in order to be able to utilize this product.”

Thursday’s meeting of the House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee on Georgia’s Medical Marijuana and Hemp Policies in Macon was strictly a hearing, and no action was taken. But lawmakers will have HB 220 to consider when they arrive back to the General Assembly later this year.

The bill, which was pulled from the House floor on the last day of the most recent session, would expand the conditions included in the state’s medical marijuana program and allow for inhalation.

People who have been advocating for expanded marijuana policy in Georgia for years are happy to finally see movement, and lawmakers are looking to expand the number of people who can take advantage of it.

“A lot of folks will laugh at what Georgia has to offer,” said Corey Lowe, executive director of Peachtree NORML, a marijuana policy advocacy group. “We don’t get to pick our condition, no one gets to choose. So I don’t feel like the lawmakers should choose what conditions this medicine helps.”

Lowe’s daughter Victoria also suffers from chronic seizures and relies on THC oil to quell them. Even with Lowe’s years of advocacy, she was only recently able to get Victoria a medical marijuana card.

Of the estimated 600,000 people in Georgia who could qualify for one, Alexander said only about 33,000 have one.

“I have already cried more with this particular specialty that I’m going through than when I was going through family practice,” he said. “These are the patients who are at their end. They don’t have any other alternative. Modern medicine is failing to give them the type of support that they need. Cannabis, they’re finding out, is working.”

Three state legislators held a constituent meeting in Tifton, according to the Tifton Gazette.

State Reps. Jaclyn Ford and Angie O’Steen, as well as state Sen. Carden Summers met with their Tift County constituents the morning of Sept. 24 for a legislative breakfast event, sharing with them the work they’ve done and planned to do in the House and Senate on behalf of the local community.

City, county, and other local officials and stakeholders turned out for the event, eager to hear the updates on the state legislative process and show a bit of appreciation to their representatives, while affiliates of other state and federal legislators like the Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and U.S. Rep. Austin Scott also made an appearance.

District 170 Rep. Jaclyn Ford took to the stage first, expressing her optimism regarding the path ahead for the state of Georgia in regards to the policies and reform passed in their last few sessions.

This included the full funding of K-12 education, as well as a major investment into early learning, Hurricane Helene relief, expanded access to healthcare including greater maternal health programs in rural areas, and the passage of tort reform, increased penalties for fentanyl trafficking, and an upgrade to 9-1-1 systems to allow first responders to react to crises quicker and more effectively.

Ford reported that the House would also be organizing Blue Ribbon study committees to examine items and issues such as insurance rates, healthcare, and student attendance.

Feeling that Ford had effectively outlined their accomplishments and their colleague across the assembly would speak on a similar topic, District 169 Rep. Angie O’Steen instead elected to enlighten her constituents on the process of writing a bill and having it signed into law, gained from her first year as a legislator, as a means of helping the Tiftarea community better understand the legal procedure.

O’Steen discussed the various steps that a bill would need to take along the legislative process, such as meeting and deliberating upon the bill in a committee and putting it up for review by the Rules Committee, as well as the myriad of pitfalls the bill could be trapped in, as it would need to be passed by the House, Senate, and signed by the governor before becoming a law and could be denied at any point along that process.

She encouraged the community to pay her and the House a visit themselves during their next session to receive a personal account of the legislative process.

State Sen. Carden Summers was the last of the three legislators to speak, fittingly sharing his and his colleague’s plans for policies and programs moving ahead.

Summers asserted he would be working towards election reform and the retention of younger demographics for rural areas, wanting to ensure county residents would be able to vote in the elections of cities they lived nearby or owned property in and feeling that the state needed to work harder to attract young adults to rural communities like Tift County.

He stated that he planned to propose bills that would allow county residents to vote in city elections, provided they owned property within the city and lived in the county, and create an income tax relief plan for state citizens aged 18 to 29 who elected to live in rural parts of the state.

The state senator also announced his intentions for a bill that would impose a felony charge and $3,000 fine on protestors blocking a city or county street or a federal or state highway, reasoning it would serve to discourage protests from obstructing traffic.

Summers encouraged his constituents to reach out with any concerns or questions, asserting that they could call, message, or email him whenever they needed to reach him.

State Rep. Emory Dunahoo (R-Gillsville) announced he will not run for reelection, according to AccessWDUN.

District 31 State Representative Emory Dunahoo (R-Gillsville) said on WDUN’s “The Martha Zoller Show” Wednesday morning, September 24, that he will retire at the end of his term, which expires at the end of 2026.

“I have been blessed for several years to represent my constituents, and through health problems and different things the last few years, I’ve prayed about it,” Dunahoo said. “It’s not my seat. It’s a seat for the constituents of Georgia. It’s a seat for what’s right. I hope I’ve represented it well…It’s time to let somebody else step up and run for my seat.”

Dunahoo first won the District 25 seat in the State House of Representatives in a 2011 special election. His district changed multiple times due to redistricting, first to District 30 and then ultimately to District 31 in 2022.

Dunahoo was set to face opposition in the May 2026 Republican primary from former Jackson County Commissioner Chad Bingham.

“It’s a little emotional,” Dunahoo said. “When you truly serve the people, it’s not about what can I do for me. It’s not what can I do to push my agenda…I’ve always looked at it that way.”

Dunahoo will serve in the 2026 legislative session before retiring.

From the AJC:

He also said politics under the Gold Dome can be opportunistic and frustrating.

“Some of my colleagues do very little,” he said. “We have hard workers that take this serious, and then we have people that want to move to the next level. That’s all they want to do, and it’s a pathway to get there.”

“I’m sharing that because I’m tired of it,” he said.

Zoller said Dunahoo was “tireless” in his push for a “Fair Tax,” which would abolish all the federal personal and corporate income tax system and replace it with a federal retail sales tax.

“I mean, we didn’t get all the way there, but I think we’re making progress,” she said.

Dunahoo was also an early advocate against including transgender girls in girls’ sports.

“I would stand up at our caucus meetings and say, ‘Do we not understand the difference between boys and girls?’ It was crickets. Nobody else stood with me,” he said. “Then all of the sudden, it changed. Now everybody’s on the front line. They’re all shouting.”

Georgia House District 31 covers parts of Jackson County, including Jefferson and the edges of Commerce. The area is heavily Republican, supporting President Donald Trump with about 80% of the vote last year, and Dunahoo ran unopposed.

In his last session next year, Dunahoo vowed to work hard for his causes.

“I will push the envelope a little bit more this session. I fear nobody,” he said.

Hyundai announced their Bryan County Metaplant will be able to manufacture 500,000 vehicles by 2028, according to the Savannah Morning News.

Hyundai Motor Company recently unveiled Phase 2 production goals for Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America, saying it is on pace to manufacture 500,000 hybrids and electric vehicles by 2028 at its plant in Ellabell.

HMC made the announcement last week, saying the additional $2.7 billion investment will create 3,000 direct and indirect jobs in Georgia. Hyundai’s initial investment, which was announced in 2022, was $5.5 billion.

A press release by HMC states that HMGMA will produce a, “Mix of 10 hybrid and EV models.”

Michael Stewart of Hyundai Motor North America provided a statement regarding the impact to the market once the EV tax credits go away. According to reporting by USA Today, the incentive, which was first implemented in 2009, provided a tax credit of $7,500 for new electric vehicles and $4,000 for used EVs. But due to Congress passing Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, credits will expire Sept. 30.

Some Gwinnett County property owners received property tax bills omitting a homestead exemption, according to the AJC.

An exemption that significantly lowers property tax bills for many Gwinnett County homeowners was mistakenly omitted from some bills, which are being corrected, the tax commissioner’s office said late Wednesday.

In a news release, the tax commissioner’s office attributed the error to a property tax software contractor and said 0.1% of Gwinnett property owners were affected, a proportion that places the number of erroneous bills in the hundreds.

The incorrect bills were missing the “value offset exemption,” which freezes the assessed value of an owner-occupied home on Jan. 1 after the date of purchase. The freeze only applies to the county government portion of the tax bill and not to school or city taxes.

The exemption is especially beneficial to longtime homeowners, whose county government tax bills have remained flat in recent years even as property values skyrocketed. For example, the owner of a home assessed at $125,000 in 2002 and $325,000 this year would pay county government taxes as if the property was still assessed at $125,000.

The assessment freeze has saved many homeowners thousands of dollars in the past four years while home values spiked, according to sample tax bills Gwinnett County released earlier this year.

The county is supposed to automatically grant the value offset exemption to homeowners with homestead exemptions. Both exemptions apply to homes that are their owners’ primary residences. According to U.S. Census Bureau data from last year, Gwinnett County has more than 350,000 housing units, about two-thirds of which are owner-occupied.

“Your requests have been heard, and I am working to ensure issues like this will not happen again,” Gwinnett County Tax Commissioner Denise Mitchell said in an open letter to affected taxpayers.

Columbus City Council announced their legislative priorities for the 2026 Session of the Georgia General Assembly, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

Columbus Councilors debated topics including gun control and public safety as they worked this week to determine which issues they want the local delegates to push for in the 2026 legislative session of the Georgia General Assembly.

Local elected and appointed officials meet annually in the Hometown Connection and Legislative Agenda meeting, which will be Oct. 15, to present legislation they feel is important to Columbus residents.

This agenda that will be presented next month is “like a draft” that gives elected officials preparation time and things to consider, Davis said.

Still, the legislative agenda helps local officials push for action on issues they feel are important,

Councilor Toyia Tucker of District 4 told the Ledger-Enquirer. “It’s almost like a lobbying arm from the county,” she said. “They lobby for legislation for us.”

If the local delegation gets legislation passed in the General Assembly, then, depending on the type of legislation, it would be approved by the governor or added to the ballot for Muscogee County residents to vote on next year.

Several of their priorities include revisions to state gun laws, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

In the wake of last month’s fatal shooting at Shirley B. Winston Park, Columbus Councilor Toyia Tucker of District 4 sponsored a resolution requesting that the Georgia Code be amended to prohibit the carrying of firearms and other dangerous weapons in recreation centers/facilities owned and run by local governments.

The resolution was part of a list of issues the Columbus Council debated during the Sept. 23 council meeting to determine what they want local delegates to push for in the 2026 Legislative Session of the Georgia General Assembly.

“Columbus has suffered incidents stemming from the use of dangerous weapons and firearms in its public recreation centers to include one recent fatality,” says the resolution. “Many of the programs at these public recreation centers are attended by minors who are of school age.”

State law prohibits weapons in school safety zones and government buildings where weapons screening is in place, but this doesn’t allow for a no-weapons policy in recreation centers owned by the Columbus Consolidated Government.

The council unanimously approved Tucker’s resolution with an amendment to make it clear that the weapons ban could apply to only the buildings and not the surrounding grounds and parks.

Councilor Walker Garrett of District 8 agreed with preventing weapons from being allowed inside recreation centers, but he cautioned that the rule could be expanded to ban them from the surrounding grounds and parks.

He raised concerns that the proposed rule would prevent people from carrying firearms for safety when out for a jog or spending time with their kids at baseball fields or parks.

“I like the idea of the concept,” Garrett said. “But I do have very serious concerns that this is only going to affect people who legally carry their firearms, and it’s not going to do anything to protect us against people who illegally carry them in and do want to cause harm.”

The Chatham County Sheriff’s Office launched a human trafficking team, according to the Savannah Morning News.

Chatham County has the 4th highest rate of human trafficking referrals out of Georgia’s 159 counties. And the state of Georgia is ranked the 6th highest in the country.

“This issue, which is a reality, trickles down from state to state and ultimately from county to county,” said Chatham County Sheriff Richard Coleman. “There are not a lot of resources out there that directly address this issue of human trafficking, but that does not mean that we have to sit on the sidelines.”

Sheriff Coleman said he’s received several phone calls about the human trafficking issues in town, telling him, “It’s going on here in Chatham County. Will you listen? Will you get involved?”

Chatham County’s new unit intends to identify, investigate and disrupt human trafficking operations throughout the county and neighboring jurisdictions.

From WSAV:

The team is building a regional response network with local agencies like The Rape Crisis Center, Juvenile Courts, DFCS, and the Coastal Children’s Advocacy Center. They’re also partnering with the FBI’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force to track leads, tips, and digital threats statewide.

“Sheriff Coleman is trying to do a lot of new initiatives to make Chatham County a safer place to live. This is not the kind of crime that you investigate and then once you put somebody in jail, it’s over. You’re dealing with victimization and you’re dealing with needing to make sure those resources are in place to fully protect,” said Jason C. Heckman, an Investigator for the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office.

Officers in the unit will undergo intensive training, including a 40-hour course on interviewing child victims. The initiative makes it clear: traffickers in Chatham County will face unprecedented enforcement.

The unit has been in the works since January, when Sheriff Coleman stepped into office. The Chatham County Sheriff’s Office has since been in touch with GBI, the FBI, and the state attorney, and the U.S. Attorney’s office. They tell WSAV this new unit has been a very large initiative in law enforcement.

Savannah City Council voted to accept $146 million dollars in state funding for water treatment, according to WTOC.

Savannah’s city council approved $146 million in state funding for its water treatment plant.

The goal is to strengthen Savannah’s water supply, and later, create a new water system between Effingham, Bryan, and Chatham County.

These upgrades aren’t just fixing old pipes but are improving the city’s water base to accommodate the rapid increase in water usage.

The city says that data estimates that usage will grow from around 50 million gallons to 80 million by 2028.

WTOC spoke with the chief of Savannah Water Resources after the vote to learn about how the first phase of this plan helps them and the city.

“We’ll be able to distribute the water, that finished water, from the site in a more effective way so that as those peaks hit us at certain times – especially during the summer and in irrigation type issues – that we’re more able to respond to those demand peaks that hit us,” said Ron Feldner, chief of Savannah Water Resources.

The money comes from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority. It’s a loan the city will repay through its water and sewer utility revenues— meaning no immediate new taxes or budget changes.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources announced they successfully protected 65 gopher tortoise colonies, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

The state Department of Natural Resources announced Wednesday that the Georgia Gopher Tortoise Initiative has reached its goal of permanently protecting 65 viable tortoise populations. No. 65 is an easement that will conserve over 250 tortoises and their pineland habitats on 1,210 acres just south of Cordele.

The goal is aimed at making sure the gentle, dome-shelled turtles that dig long burrows in sandy south Georgia survive for future generations, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources said in a press release. Reaching it is testament to the initiative’s work to keep tortoises in the state off the federal Endangered Species Act list, according to DNR Commissioner Walter Rabon.

“We’re incredibly proud of the success of these conservation efforts. Avoiding federal listing not only helps protect wildlife, it also prevents potential economic impacts for our state,” Rabon said. “This collaborative approach has shown great promise as a model for successful wildlife conservation in the future.”

Started in 2015, the initiative has grown to nearly 30 agencies, conservation organizations, companies, foundations and private landowners. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is a member, said in its 2022 decision not to list tortoises in the eastern part of their range that partnerships helped conserve the species, even documenting populations that weren’t known about.

For Austin McKinney of Newnan, signing an easement with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service last month benefiting tortoises on his land made sense. The rolling tract on the Turner/Crisp County line has been in the family 100 years or more. Its forests are rich in groundcover, longleaf pine and outcrops of a unique sandstone called Altamaha grit. Bird dog field trials are held here annually.

Habitat loss has threatened to put all gopher tortoises on the Endangered Species Act list. Those in Louisiana, Mississippi and western Alabama were listed as threatened in 1987. And until 2022, tortoises in Georgia and the rest of the species’ range had been a candidate for listing for more than a decade.