Georgia Trend Daily – March 7, 2022
March 7, 2022 Capitol Beat News
Georgia tax collections post slight increase in February
Dave Williams reports that state tax collections rose 1% last month over February of last year, keeping alive a string of consecutive increases in revenues that goes back eight months. The Georgia Department of Revenue brought in more than $1.95 billion in taxes in February, up $19.8 million over the same month a year ago.
March 7, 2022 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Assessing Georgia’s future
Mary Ann DeMuth reports that on February 22nd and 23rd, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce hosted its second annual Future of Georgia Summit in which industry leaders and experts led discussions about topics critical to maintaining Georgia’s status as the best state in which to do business.
March 7, 2022 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Spirit Airlines to open Atlanta crew base
Kelly Yamanouchi reports that Spirit Airlines plans to open a crew base in Atlanta this summer, adding more than 100 pilots and 200 flight attendants based at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Miramar, Fla.-based Spirit is the third-largest carrier at the Atlanta airport, behind dominant carrier Delta Air Lines and No. 2 carrier Southwest Airlines
March 7, 2022 Savannah Morning News
GSU Economic Monitor: As tourism rebounded, local employment surpassed pre-pandemic levels
Zoe Nicholson reports that Savanah’s economy ended 2021 on several high notes. The local labor market surpassed pre-pandemic levels, with tourism and hospitality employment numbers recovering faster than industry experts forecasted, according to Georgia Southern University’s Economic Monitor.
March 7, 2022 Saporta Report
Norcross racing to quadruple number of public, affording housing units at one site
David Pendered reports that Norcross Housing Authority plans to demolish a 1960s-era housing project to build an apartment complex that is to more than quadruple the number of units of public housing, market-rate workforce housing and affordable housing units.
March 7, 2022 WSB-Radio
Atlanta-based Coca-Cola facing backlash over not pulling Russian operations
Staff reports that many Western companies have faced intense pressure to pull out of Russia. Atlanta-based Coca-Cola is one that has not. On Saturday, some Atlantans gathered in Centennial Olympic Park to rally for a boycott of Coca-Cola.
March 7, 2022 Georgia Health News
$35 insulin cap is popular and bipartisan, but Congress may not pass it
Michael McAuliff reports that Democrats in the Senate are primed this month to make their first attempt at salvaging one of the most popular elements of President Joe Biden’s stalled Build Back Better plan — the proposal to cap insulin costs at $35 a month.
March 7, 2022 Savannah Morning News
Sen. Ossoff campaigns for Tybee beach renourishment
Nancy guan reports that United States Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia) paid a visit to Tybee Island on Friday to continue his push for the Tybee Island Storm Risk Management Act, a federal bill that aims to protect the island’s coastline from growing storm surge, sea level rise, coastal flooding and other impacts of climate change.
March 7, 2022 Valdosta Daily Times, Ga.Fla. News
Ga. Senate passes mental health co-responder act
Asia Ashley reports that an effort to establish a statewide co-responder model as part of mental health reform in Georgia was unanimously approved Thursday in the Senate. Building on the success of local programs currently in operation, the “Georgia Behavioral Health and Peace Officer Co-Responder Act” would create a partnership and collaboration between behavioral health professionals and law enforcement to act as a team in responding to potential mental health-related emergency calls.
March 7, 2022 GPB
Senate bill targets homelessness by stripping funds from cities, banning permanent housing
Jill Nolin reports that a bill in the Georgia Senate would ban local governments from using federal dollars to build permanent housing for homeless individuals and further financially penalize cities that have a higher-than-average homeless population. It would also make it a misdemeanor to take shelter on state property.
March 7, 2022 Capitol Beat News
Kemp education bills clear Georgia House
Dave Williams reports that Georgia House Republicans put their stamp of approval Friday to much of GOP Gov. Brian Kemp’s education agenda. Voting along party lines, the Republican majority passed bills guaranteeing parents’ involvement in their children’s education, protecting free-speech rights on Georgia’s public university campuses and prohibiting the teaching of “divisive concepts” in the state’s public schools.
March 7, 2022 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Jolt: Ukraine war getting used for gun, voting rights arguments in Georgia
Patricia Murphy, Greg Bluestein and Tia Mitchell report that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has quickly become a mainstay of the political back-and-forth in Georgia. But not in the way you might expect.
