Georgia Trend Daily – Feb. 29, 2024
Feb. 29, 2024 Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
Play ball: Columbus OKs $50 million Double-A Braves baseball bet on 1920s Golden Park
Tim Chitwood reports that after hours of debate before a packed crowd, the final score was 6-4 as Columbus Council voted to play ball. Council approved a $50 million upgrade to the 1920s Golden Park baseball stadium the Double-A Braves expect to use on opening day in April 2025.
Feb. 29, 2024 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Georgia Trend 2024 Legislative Guide
Ben Young writes, Georgia Trend’s Legislative Guide provides contact information for legislators and other elected officials. For updated information and a full list of committee assignments, go to Georgia’s Elective Officials or georgiatrend. com/special-sections.
Feb. 29, 2024 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
GSU economics forecast: Slowdown, but no recession this year
Michael E. Kanell reports that despite buffeting from high interest rates, lenders’ caution and some corporate cost-cutting, Georgia’s economy will avoid a recession this year, but will slow significantly before accelerating in 2025, according to the quarterly prediction by the Georgia Economic Forecasting Center. The state will add 37,400 jobs in 2024, less than half the expansion of last year, said Rajeev Dhawan, director of the center.
Feb. 29, 2024 GlobalAtlanta.com
Atlanta Draws Focus in Dutch Push to Boost Black Business After Slavery Apology
Trevor Williams reports, as the Netherlands tries to turn its official remorse over its historical role in slavery into action, Atlanta is in a prime position to capitalize on the country’s efforts to help Black-owned firms go global. When Dutch Ambassador Birgitta Tazelaar visited the African American history museum in Washington upon taking up her posting last year, she was confronted by a display noting that 6 percent of enslaved persons who crossed the Atlantic were transported on Dutch ships.
Feb. 29, 2024 Savannah Morning News
Leaders seeking to solve housing shortage
Evan Lasseter reports that the state’s planning and budget projects Chatham County’s population will increase to 375,339 by 2060. That’s about a 25% increase starting from 2022. Given the area is already at a near 10,000-unit housing shortage, a central question facing local leaders is how to shrink the gap amid a booming population.
Feb. 29, 2024 GPB
Georgia prisons are full and understaffed. Families of the incarcerated want that message heard
Grant Blankenship and Sofi Gratas report, there are now almost 51,000 people incarcerated by the state of Georgia. That’s the highest number in 15 years. Meanwhile, the number of Georgia correctional officers is at its lowest this century, and reports of violence inside Georgia prisons have continued to spike since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Feb. 29, 2024 Savannah Morning News
Preservationists push expansion of historic rehab tax credit program as crossover day looms
Evan Lasseter reports that as Thursday is crossover day in the Georgia General Assembly, state and local historic preservation groups are pushing legislation to expand the state’s historic rehabilitation tax credit program. The program allows individuals to reduce their tax burdens by 25% of qualified expenses to rehabilitate historic properties.
Feb. 29, 2024 Rome News-Tribune
Federal Judge Recommends Mediation For Bordeau Metals Case
Adam Carey reports that a federal judge recommended mediation for a case filed by Bordeau Metals against Floyd County. Bordeau is suing the Development Authority of Floyd County as well as a separate entity, the Rome-Floyd County Development Authority, along with Floyd County and Floyd County Manager Jamie McCord.
Feb. 29, 2024 Georgia Recorder, Marietta Daily Journal
Chair of House Committee aims to end subminimum wage for workers with disabilities
Evelyn Farkas reports that eight Georgia community rehabilitation providers are legally paying subminimum wage to 245 workers with disabilities. State legislation that has advanced out of the Industry and Labor committee aims to eradicate the practice.
Feb. 29, 2024 The Brunswick News
Advocates: Okefenokee mining moratorium good, but bill is flawed
Michael Hall reports that a bill before the General Assembly that would place a three-year moratorium on the type of mining a company hopes to conduct near the Okefenokee Swamp has good intentions, but it doesn’t do enough for the long-term protection of the swamp, environmental advocacy groups say. As written in the bill, the moratorium would be meaningless, says Alice Keyes, vice president for coastal conservation of the advocacy group One Hundred Miles.
Feb. 29, 2024 Capitol Beat News
Murder of nursing student prompts crackdown on illegal immigrants
Dave Williams reports that Georgia lawmakers are expected to pass legislation this week targeting illegal immigration following the arrest of a Venezuelan man in the U.S. illegally for the murder of an Augusta University nursing student in Athens. A law aimed at “sanctuary cities” – where law enforcement authorities do not seek to arrest and prosecute illegal immigrants – has been on the books in Georgia since 2006.
Feb. 29, 2024 WABE
‘We have so much to lose’: Georgia LGBTQ advocates fight several bills moving through Capitol
Melissa Feito reports that Georgia’s LGBTQ advocates are raising concerns over several bills advancing through the statehouse this session. They filled Liberty Plaza across from the state Capitol in Atlanta on Tuesday for “Pride to the Capitol,” a rally and lobbying day organized by the Human Rights Campaign, Georgia Equality, the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition, SPLC Action and other partner organizations.
Feb. 29, 2024 Georgia Recorder
Georgia Democrats push for state laws protecting reproductive rights following Alabama court ruling
Jill Nolin reports that Georgia Democrats are pressing their Republican colleagues to protect access to in vitro fertilization after the Alabama Supreme Court recently ruled that fertilized eggs are children under that state’s law. “Georgians need certainty to know that that level of terror will not be inflicted upon them,” said Sen. Elena Parent, an Atlanta Democrat who is the lead sponsor of the bill and the Senate minority caucus chair.
Feb. 29, 2024 Capitol Beat News
Georgia House passes bill suspending tax exemption for data centers
Dave Williams reports that the Georgia House of Representatives has passed a bill that would call a temporary halt to a sales tax exemption the state has been using since 2018 to attract huge high-tech data centers. House Bill 1192, which passed 96-71, would suspend the exemptions for two years while a newly formed commission studies the impact data centers are having on Georgia’s power grid.
Feb. 29, 2024 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Votes set on immigration, religion and education at Georgia Capitol
Mark Niesse reports that a big day of heated debates and votes arrives at the Georgia Capitol on Thursday, a critical deadline for contentious bills on immigration enforcement, religious rights and sex education. Dozens of bills are scheduled for votes on Crossover Day, the General Assembly’s internal cutoff for bills to pass at least one chamber — either the state House or Senate.
