This past week, due to the winter storm, budget hearings did not continue as previously planned. The Governor shared his prepared remarks with the committee and state agency heads joined virtually to share the Governor’s recommendations for their budgets.  

The Governor’s budget highlights include: 

• $614.7 million in hurricane Helene relief in the amended FY 2025 budget. Hurricane Helene damaged over 212,000 homes across the state, cost the agricultural and timber industries $5.5 billion in in losses, and took the lives of 34 Georgians. Relief fund recommendations include:   

• $50 million to cover insurance costs to damaged state buildings  

• $200 million to GDOT to cover the cost of debris removal, infrastructure repairs, and sign placement  

• $99 million to GDOT to cover the cost of suspending the gas tax during this time and a total of $244 million to reflect updated FY25 projected motor fuel revenue collections  

• Called for another tax cut acceleration of 20 basis points which will cut Georgia tax collections by $7.5 billion over the next decade  

• Transportation funding: 

• $530 million in new investment for freight and logistics infrastructure projects 

• $250 million in additional funding for local maintenance and improvement grants 

• $60 million in new funding for the Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank’s competitive grant and loan program to support local transportation infrastructure projects  

• Water Infrastructure funding: 

• $250 million for the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority for water infrastructure grants and loans  

• $501 million for the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority for surface water investments in the coastal region  

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Data centers are back in the news. This week the PSC voted to allow Georgia Power to bill firms utilizing more than 100 megawatts of electricity under new terms and conditions than other conventional customers. Public Service Commissioner Bubba McDonald stated that the PSC will likely look at taking more actions towards data centers to “protect ratepayers” this year. We expect legislation regarding data centers to be introduced at some point this session.  

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This session the House adopted a rule limiting House members to the introduction of only 10 bills, though Chairmen can introduce an additional 5 if the subject matter is pertinent to their committee of jurisdiction. This is to help alleviate some of the internal resourcing issues the General Assembly has with the bill writing arm of the legislature—Legislative Counsel. One of the benefits of this new rule is to force House members to focus on true priorities, which is why we’re excited to see Rep. Kasey Carpenter introduce legislation to make cornbread the official state bread—though the biscuit lobby has been quite vocal about their concerns.  

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ACEC Georgia has/had a busy week! Our QBS legislation has been introduced by Senator Ed Setzler (SB 51) and Representative Matt Reeves (HB 152). Once the legislation becomes available online, we will share the links!