Georgia Trend Daily – March 27, 2024
March 27, 2024 Georgia Ports authority
Georgia Ports Authority Board approves $65M for Ocean Terminal
Staff reports that the Georgia Ports Authority has approved contracts totaling $65.6 million for container yard work at the Port of Savannah’s Ocean Terminal, a 200-acre facility just downriver from GPA’s main container port. “We’re very pleased with the progress on improving Ocean Terminal’s container handling capability,” said GPA President and CEO Griff Lynch. “We’re on track to see greater container capacity by late 2027.”
March 27, 2024 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
South Metro Atlanta | Sophisticated Growth
Randy Southerland reports that South Metro Atlanta is in the midst of a transformation. The area has long been known for warehousing and logistics, but a convergence of factors is opening new avenues for growth and development in movie studios as well as residential, retail and commercial development.
March 27, 2024 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Job cuts, facility closures ahead as UPS charts future path
Kelly Yamanouchi reports, after a sharp decline in revenue and profit last year, Sandy Springs-based UPS is charting a path to return to more than $100 billion in annual revenue and improved profitability. A key tactic UPS is turning to is cutting jobs and using more automation to move packages, in an effort to reduce costs, improve efficiency and grow in the future.
March 27, 2024 Macon Telegraph
Georgia on shortlist for more domestic manufacturing facilities, jobs in this industry
Brittany McGee reports that Georgia is on a shortlist of states considered as potential sites for creating a national network of bioindustrial manufacturing pilot facilities. In October 2020, the U.S. Department of Defense awarded $87 million to BioIndustrial Manufacturing and Design Ecosystem (BioMADE), a nonprofit organization aiming to increase domestic bioindustrial manufacturing.
March 27, 2024 Marietta Daily Journal
Cobb County Stormwater Fee Vote Delayed Amid Deluge of Opposition
Jake Busch reports that the Cobb Board of Commissioners seemed poised to approve a countywide stormwater fee before a room packed with more than a hundred residents Tuesday evening. That is, until Commissioner Jerica Richardson, whose district was battered by flash flooding in September 2021, expressed hesitancy to support the fee Tuesday evening after nearly four hours of public comment, interruptions, presentations, discussion – and more interruption.
March 27, 2024 Dalton Daily Citizen
State Senate bill would create harsher penalties for pimping, pandering
James Swift reports that the Georgia House Committee on Judiciary Non-Civil favorably reported a proposed piece of legislation on March 21 that, if signed into law, would create more severe penalties for those convicted of pimping in the state. Senate Bill 36 is a carryover from 2023.
March 27, 2024 WABE
Debate over Flint River fishing rights leads to legislative action on rivers
Marisa Mecke reports, on a sunny, cold morning, the Flint River in Upson County, Georgia, is wide and shallow, coursing over rocks and branches. Allen Ragsdale, a fishing guide on the river, says this pass of the river, Yellow Jacket Shoals, has become one of the state’s most controversial water stretches.
March 27, 2024 GPB
‘Lawmakers’: Day 39 sees a flurry of bills and goodbyes before Sine Die
Sarah Kallis and Tristan Smith report, on the next-to-last day of the session, Georgia Sen. Valencia Seay (D-Riverdale) took a moment before the chamber’s mad dash began to say farewell as she retires from the Senate. The Senate then took up the business of passing bills, with 82 pieces of legislation on its rules calendar.
March 27, 2024 The Brunswick News
Rep. Townsend’s kratom bill passes Senate
Hank Rowland reports that State Rep. Rick Townsend’s kratom legislation passed the Senate 49-3 Tuesday, but it will have to go back to the House. HB 181, introduced by the St. Simons Island Republican in 2023, will return to House for approval of modifications enacted on the Senate side.
March 27, 2024 State Affairs
Thursday is Sine Die: Do-or-die deadline for bills this Legislative session
Jill Jordan Sieder reports, this is the last week of the 2024 Georgia General Assembly’s legislative session and Thursday is expected to bring a last push for dozens of bills to cross the finish line by the end of Sine Die (pronounced “sigh-knee-dye”), the 40th and final day of session.
March 27, 2024 Rome News-Tribune
Tax Credit Restrictions Clear General Assembly and Hufstetler’s Property Tax Cap Gains Momentum
Diane Wagner reports that the Georgia Senate gave final passage Tuesday to the Tax Expenditures Transparency Act of 2024, which sets up a stricter review process for targeted tax breaks. The Senate also cleared a second initiative sponsored by Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, that caps property tax increases, although that one will need to go back to the House.
March 27, 2024 Savannah Morning News
Omnibus student athlete mental health bill passes Senate with anti-LGBTQ tack-ons
Maya Homan reports that an omnibus bill affecting transgender students, limiting sex education in public schools and giving parents greater insight into school curriculum passed in the Georgia Senate on Tuesday. A five-part bill that originally addressed mental health issues among student athletes, HB 1104 passed in a 33-21 vote along party lines.
March 27, 2024 Georgia Recorder
Legislature sends proposed law to governor’s desk to assure Georgia renters livable homes
Jill Nolin reports that a proposal to increase protections for Georgia renters is now in the governor’s hands after receiving a final vote in the House Tuesday. The bill, sponsored by Dalton Republican Rep. Kasey Carpenter, sailed through the House a year ago before stalling in the Senate.
March 27, 2024 Capitol Beat News
Okefenokee bill clears Georgia House
Dave Williams reports that legislation declaring a three-year moratorium on the type of mining being planned near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge sailed through the Georgia House Tuesday. The bill now moves to the state Senate.
March 27, 2024 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
PG A.M.: With Sine Die looming, House-Senate clashes take shape
Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell, Patricia Murphy and Adam Van Brimmer report that the marathon second-to-last day of the state legislative session kept lawmakers in session until nearly midnight Tuesday and revealed key differences between several House and Senate bills, with little time left to resolve them. The state Senate passed the $36 billion budget, which now goes to a conference committee to hammer out several disparities with the House-approved budget.
