February 2, 2021 9:44 AM
Morning Reads for Tuesday, February 2
Good morning! That’s right, woodchuck chuckers! It’s Groundhog Day! I’ll never forget Groundhog Day 1983, since that’s the morning when my third sister was born. She’s an ARNP on the Brain Tumor team at Seattle Children’s Hospital. We’re all very proud!
Meanwhile…
- The GAGOP dropped a legislative package that will make it harder for busy suburban women, the elderly, the disabled, and the military to vote – and also Democrats.
- I’m pretty sure they mostly just want to make it harder for Democrats to vote. Those other folks are just collateral damage. Surely this plan will work out well for the GAGOP! Just like Kelly Loeffler’s candidacy went totally, exactly, according to plan! Trust the process!
- Issues with the unemployment claims backlog at the Georgia Department of Labor may jeopardize Georgia’s AAA bond rating, the jewel in our state’s economic crown.
- GAGOP kind of obsessed with Stacey Abrams running for Governor in 2022 (not saying they don’t have their reasons; but they are indeed obsessed.)
- Senate GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell pronounces Georgia’s own MTG as a “Cancer” on the GOP. (He’s not wrong.)
- An in-depth look at how COVID-19 is impacting the 2021 Legislative Session, including details on its long-term impact on one of my colleagues, a paramedic who served on the front lines of the fighting the virus in his hometown.
- There’s no reprieve in sight for DPH employees hoping for a break in the next few months.
- What’s next for the 32 out of 33 GSP troopers who were fired following a cheating scandal last year.
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I imagine the film industry will be on the first list if the bill is passed.
State lawmakers want check on return from Georgia’s billions in tax breaks
A proposal that would bring new scrutiny to special-interest tax breaks that cost the state treasury billions of dollars every year has cleared the state Senate.
The measure, sponsored by Sen. John Albers, would allow the chairs of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committee to each request an economic analysis of up to five tax credits every year. The bill easily cleared the chamber Monday with a unanimous vote and now heads to the House…
Occasionally, though, they do attract the critical eye of the state auditor, as the film tax credit did last year when auditors uncovered millions of dollars in tax credits claimed for ineligible expenses. The state’s tax credit for film productions costs about $1 billion annually.
Albers said after Monday’s vote that tax credits up for renewal could undergo analysis before lawmakers are asked to continue them, although not all tax credits have an expiration date. The committee chairs would decide which tax credits are analyzed.
https://georgiarecorder.com/2021/02/01/state-lawmakers-want-check-on-return-from-georgias-billions-in-tax-breaks/
i suppose if there is waste fraud and abuse that needs to be cleaned up, but the film industry is responsible for lots of jobs for tax paying georgians and lots of ancillary services like housing and feeding out of town crews and even more ancillary things like increased enrollment in film classes at places like scad and georgia state and acting classes and agents located locally for folks trying to break into the industry…i’m not sure how to quantify those things but i’d imagine they are quantifiable…
The Department of Labor is in obvious need of help. The unprecedented load caused by Covid is definitely a consideration, however oversight is needed to discover where the shortcomings are and how they can be shored up. This department is only going to require more resources in the future as many retail, hospitality and even airport jobs are likely to disappear permanantly. Being retired I have no need of their services though I have second hand knowledge of incompetence run amuk within this department. The legislature and the executive need to get on top of this now.
Kemp’s budget only has a $900,000 increase for Public Health with $200,000 of it going to license tattoo parlors.
You really think Kemp will do anything? He is a do-nothing governor. His plan is to not make any waves and run for US Senator. He has a Perdue plan- get in the Senate and become richer.
I do not think he has any convictions whatsoever, it’s all look good and take no stand except what the pollsters tell him to do.
One barely positive from the Covid is that it is showing us who cares and who ducks from responsibility.
This came out today, it is the same story they said last spring. I can understand their dilemma but no action by the governor yet.
Author: Katelyn Sabater (13WMAZ)
Published: 7:31 PM EST January 27, 2021
Updated: 7:31 PM EST January 27, 2021
MACON, Ga. — Many Central Georgians are frustrated with the lack of response from the Georgia Department of Labor over unemployment benefits.
13WMAZ spoke with the Director of Communications for Georgia’s Department of Labor, Kersha Cartwright, to understand what is going on.
“When everyone is calling to try and see when they’re going to get their payments, that call volume is huge, and we’re trying to get those returned,” said Cartwright.
Cartwright said they’ve built six different systems over the past year to try and ease some of the delays.
“We had a system that was built for 3% unemployment rate when all of this started — much lower than what we’re dealing with now,” she said.
According to the state’s Department of Labor, the unemployment rate is now 5.6%.
Cartwright said it wasn’t only that the system wasn’t ready for this boom of claims, but the number of employees they originally had were not ready either.
“We’re dealing with employees that were hired for a much lower claim volume,” she said.
Cartwright said they’ve recently hired close to 400 people, and are adding a calling center to help answer questions in the near future.
“It’s a lot. People are very worried, but we’re working seven days a week to get people their money as soon as possible,” said Cartwright.
https://www.13wmaz.com/article/news/local/that-call-volume-is-huge-the-department-of-labor-explains-the-delayed-response-to-people/93-d94a36cc-8e69-4a3d-b4da-635046e16155
I mean, folks were on here just a little less than a year ago saying they needed to beef up staffing then. So much for a stitch in time.
I think the legislature may be tuning the budget better- I hope anyways.
Because what we’ve tended to see for a few administrations now is the Gov asking each agency to give budgets with across-the-board % cuts. Like deciding to cut an inch off of each fingertip when only one finger has the gangrene. Maybe that’s a gross analogy, and the better one is the scalpel versus the axe? Either way, it’s inefficient and ineffective. Btw, it’s also like saying we can be color-blind, and just distribute resources without concern of the distribution of real problems.
Government’s job should be to solve problems that otherwise can’t be solved effectively or efficiently. Direct the resources to where the problems are. And it’s not just Public Health and Labor that have prominent problems now, but also DBHDD (where I think they are boosting the budget some already), DFCS, sure there is more. God speed.
And I’m still mysified by the facination with drop boxes. How is a box next to the election board’s building with multiple cameras focused on it an evil? How is a public mailbox without video security considered more secure?
I tell you what I didn’t see in this cycle that was typical in the past: Persons of color waiting in lines in South DeKalb and Fulton long after 7pm on election day. Chalk that up to whatever reason you want. If that optic returns, Republicans will not live it down.
Lin Wood is amazing:
“Georgia election officials opened an investigation Tuesday into whether L. Lin Wood, a prominent attorney who has promoted conspiracy theories about the presidential election, voted illegally in November.
The secretary of state’s office confirmed the investigation after Channel 2 Action News first reported that Wood had moved to South Carolina.
Wood told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he has lived in Georgia since 1955, and he said he was a legal resident at the time of the Nov. 3 election. Wood said he announced Monday he had changed his residency.”
https://www.ajc.com/politics/pro-trump-attorney-lin-wood-faces-allegations-of-illegal-voting/R3VERR2T4BBR7EHJIQ7XMZRZLE/