A Georgia State election board on Wednesday night voted to request that state Attorney General Chris Carr reopen an investigation into Fulton County’s counting of the results of the 2020 election.
The request comes after the board closed the matter in May, but voted to install an independent election monitor for the 2024 election, after an independent investigation found that the county likely scanned thousands of ballots twice in a recount of the 2020 election.
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The fiscal 2025 budget, which Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp recently signed, includes $9.2 million for the Child and Parent Services Program and pay increases for direct care workers.
According to a national organization of family caregivers, the rate increases lawmakers passed are $6 per hour for direct care workers helping people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and $3 per hour for direct care workers supporting older adults.
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Georgia officials approved $16.9 million in loans and grants for five transportation infrastructure projects across the state
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and the State Road and the Tollway Authority Board of Directors approved the funding from the Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank. The latest round of funding includes the fourth-largest loan amount in the program’s history.
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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a measure to create a new offense of unlawful squatting following widespread reports in Georgia and beyond of squatters taking over people’s properties
House Bill 1017, the “Georgia Squatter Reform Act,” defines the crime as entering and residing on a property without an owner’s consent. Anyone cited for squatting has three business days to provide proof of their authorization to be on a property, such as a “properly executed lease or rental agreement or proof of rental payments.”
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Centrist organization No Labels is struggling to find candidates to head its third-party “Unity Ticket” in November after deciding in early March to move forward with such a bid, NBC News reported Tuesday.
The group’s 800 delegates voted to advance a presidential run on March 8 after months of consideration, and detailed its nominating process on Thursday. However, various prominent Republicans and Democrats continue to rule out running with No Labels ahead of its April convention in Dallas, Texas, according to NBC News.
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The Georgia State House on Thursday voted unanimously to pass a bill that will accelerate the tax cuts previously passed by the Georgia General Assembly in 2022 alongside bills aimed at lowering property taxes and increasing child tax credits.
HB 1015 will reduce the Georgia state income tax rate to 5.39 percent, effective retroactively to January 1, amending previous legislation that established a flat income tax in Georgia that would be set at 5.49 percent in 2024. Active legislation mandates the income tax rate be decreased by 10 basis points annually until it reaches 4.99 percent, which could be achieved in 2028 if the bill becomes law.
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The Georgia State Senate passed a bill on Tuesday that will strike the need for the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission (PAQC) to have its rules reviewed and approved by the Georgia Supreme Court, which would allow it to immediately begin investigating prosecutors, including embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Introduced by Senator Randy Robertson (R-Cataula) in early January, SB 332 would amend the 2022 law establishing the PAQC to strike the requirement for the commission to have its standards and rules reviewed and adopted by the Georgia Supreme Court. It now goes to the Georgia House, and if passed, would become law as soon as it is signed by Governor Brian Kemp.
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C.J. Pearson, who is running in the February 13 special election to fill the seat in the Georgia State House vacated when former Representative Barry Fleming accepted an appointment to a judgeship by Governor Brian Kemp, told The Georgia Star News the political attacks about him are due to his strident conservatism.
Political operatives and organizations connected to Kemp are reportedly “taking aim” at Pearson with political advertisements claiming his previous work for Prager University and prior support for Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in 2016, when Pearson was himself just 13-years-old, are proof he does not share Georgia’s values.
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Governor Brian Kemp allowed Georgia’s moratorium on state gas and diesel taxes to expire on Tuesday night, after first introducing the moratorium in May and renewing it six times since then.
In 2022, Georgia’s gas tax was 29.1 cents and the diesel tax at 32.6 cents, but that’s going up on Wednesday to 31.2 cents and 35 cents, respectively. As of January 10, before the taxes took effect, Georgia’s average gas price was $2.808, below the national average of $3.270, according to AAA Gas Prices.
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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has signed an extension of the state’s motor fuel and locomotive fuel tax.
The governor also extended the supply chain state of emergency. The tax suspension and state of emergency run until Jan. 10.
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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a measure that opens the door to $636 million for state and local governments to bolster their opioid treatment and prevention efforts.
The money is part of a $26 billion multistate opioid settlement with the nation’s three major pharmaceutical distributors — Cardinal, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen — and opioid manufacturer and marketer Johnson & Johnson.
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At his March 26, 2022, rally in Commerce, Georgia, President Donald J. Trump namechecked Buckhead City and told the tens of thousands of his supporters there that Bill White was one of his best and oldest friends.
White told Neil McCabe of The Star News Network that the key factor driving the residents to leave Atlanta is the need for them to take over their own affairs, especially as the neighborhood suffers its current crime wave, and the Atlanta mayor does not provide the law enforcement officers they need.
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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp reiterated his opposition to mask mandates in schools Wednesday.
Mandates “don’t work,” Kemp told Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt during an on-air interview.
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