Georgia Trend Daily – March 7, 2025
March 7, 2025 Georgia.gov
Gov. Kemp Signs AFY25 Budget – Delivering Hurricane Relief, Tax Refunds, and Major One-Time Investments
Staff reports that Gov. Kemp, joined by First Lady Marty Kemp, Lt. Governor Burt Jones, Speaker Jon Burns, House and Senate Appropriations Chairmen Tillery and Hatchett, constitutional officers, and members of the Georgia General Assembly, on Thursday signed the Amended Budget for Fiscal Year 2025.
March 7, 2025 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Economic Growth Along the Shore: Coastal Georgia
Rachel Wallenstein reports that tourism is booming in Georgia, with a record-setting 171 million visitors spending $43.6 billion in 2023. And the coast of Georgia is reaping the benefits. In the past five years, St. Marys, the Golden Isles, Tybee Island and nearby Savannah have experienced a significant increase in tourism, and have avoided major damage from hurricanes and flooding, thanks in part to careful planning.
March 7, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Another large indoor farming operation is up and running in Georgia
J. Scott Trubey reports that BrightFarms, an indoor grower of produce, has begun shipping leafy greens to customers from its new greenhouse operation in Macon. The company, which opened the first phase of its greenhouse complex at the end of last year, grows lettuce and makes salad kits for grocery customers, including Food Lion, Walmart and divisions of Kroger.
March 7, 2025 GPB
Emory University plans to curb spending, staffing as fed research cuts loom
Rebecca Grapevine reports that Emory University is joining a growing list of top research universities that plan to freeze or limit hiring because of concerns about federal research funding cuts. President Gregory Fenves announced the new policies in an email to the Emory faculty and staff sent on Wednesday.
March 7, 2025 Augusta Chronicle
Augusta University is celebrating, and there’s nearly 100 million reasons why
Joe Hotchkiss reports that Augusta University will get almost $100 million in state funding for a new facility to change medical research results into solid medical solutions for patients. Gov. Brian Kemp officially signed the state’s mid-year budget of more than $40 billion Thursday, which includes $99.8 million to help fund construction of a new $146.2 million translational research building at AU.
March 7, 2025 The Brunswick News
City responds to DOJ lawsuit over The Well
Taylor Cooper reports that City Hall has filed a response to a lawsuit brought against it by the U.S. Department of Justice alleging violations of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) in its attempts to shut down The Well, a daytime shelter and hospitality center for the homeless. The DOJ announced its intention to sue in December.
March 7, 2025 Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, GPB
How much will renaming Fort Moore back to Benning cost? What taxpayers need to know
Jordyn Paul-Slater reports that whether it’s replacing signs or updating documents, changing Fort Moore back to Fort Benning involves extensive planning and funding. The original renaming of Fort Benning to Fort Moore cost $4.9 million, according to the Naming Commission’s August 2022 report.
March 7, 2025 Athens Banner-Herald
This small Georgia city is considered the state’s most ‘charming town’ by HGTV
Vanessa Countryman reports that Georgia has many small unique towns, filled with different history and culture, and many arguably have stated opinions about which is the best. Cartersville, a small town sitting in Bartow County, has been recognized by this HGTV as the most charming in Georgia.
March 7, 2025 The Current
Hyundai fails wastewater standards
Mary Landers reports, for months, the companies building Hyundai’s electric vehicles and the batteries to power them have trucked millions of gallons of wastewater from the manufacturing facility in Ellabell to private treatment facilities, both in Georgia and beyond state lines. That’s after Savannah city authorities found excessive levels of heavy metals from the plant’s wastewater that violated its permit, according to city officials and documents.
March 7, 2025 Georgia Recorder
Georgia senators OK bills to limit THC content in beverages, expand access to medical cannabis
Maya Homan reports that three bills changing the way Georgia regulates hemp and medical cannabis have cleared the Senate ahead of Thursday’s Crossover Day deadline. The votes on the bills are some of the only ones this session that didn’t fall cleanly along party lines, with Senate Republicans divided over expanding medical access to cannabis and members of both parties split over new regulations on recreational hemp products.
March 7, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Georgia Senate moves to enhance criminal penalties for teens who threaten schools
Ty Tagami reports that legislation that would enhance criminal penalties for students who threaten their school passed the Georgia Senate Thursday. Senate Bill 61 was pushed by Republicans and passed 33-22 in a party-line vote.
March 7, 2025 State Affairs
Crossover Day: What’s in, what’s out – for now
Beau Evans reports that lawmakers in the Georgia General Assembly advanced bills to cut state income taxes, install panic buttons in schools and strengthen the potency of medical marijuana on the pivotal “Crossover Day” in the 2025 legislative session. They also backed a series of bans on roadside pet sales, drinks containing hemp and the adoption of “diversity, equity and inclusion” policies in schools.
March 7, 2025 Georgia Recorder
Dozens of bills make the cut as Georgia lawmakers hit home stretch, DEI ban dies
Ross Williams, Jill Nolin and Stanley Dunlap report that lawmakers passed a heap of bills by a key legislative deadline Thursday, signing off – again – on an accelerated income tax rate cut and a plan to slightly expand the state’s medical cannabis program while attempting to ban THC-infused drinks. But by the end of the day, many high-profile proposals were left on the cutting room floor, for now.
March 7, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Georgia House passes two tax relief measures
Dave Williams reports that the Georgia House of Representatives passed two tax relief bills Thursday, one unanimously and another that proved controversial. House Bill 112, which cleared the chamber 175-0, would provide $1 billion in one-time income tax rebates to Georgia taxpayers.
March 7, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sports betting and DEI: Bills that died on a wild Crossover Day in Georgia
Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell, Patricia Murphy and Adam Beam report, the biggest news from Crossover Day isn’t what passed, but what didn’t. After all, the bills that crossed over on Thursday still have a long way to go before becoming law.
