Sunday Solutions — Feb. 11, 2024
Good morning! We’re taking on history today in a big way — after all, Georgia knows how to celebrate a birthday: free museums and historic sites, new name for an old square, shooting catfish, tax exemptions, firearms safety, and cornbread. Eat up.
Welcome, Taylor Square
On Saturday, Savannahians celebrated the renaming of the square at Abercorn and Wayne streets to Taylor Square. It’s first of the city’s 22 squares to honor a Black person, a woman or a former enslaved person. Susie Baker King Taylor was born into slavery in Liberty County in 1848 and left at a young age to become a teacher to Black students and a nurse in the Union Army. She was the only African-American woman to publish a memoir of her wartime experiences before she died in 1912.
Visual journalist Jeffery Glover covered the story from the celebration. Read his story and see photos from the event.
They’ve been busy
Last week the Georgia House passed three bills that would give a bit of tax relief to citizens by rolling back the income tax rate earlier than planned, doubling the homestead tax exemption, and raising the state’s child-tax deduction to $4,000. Now the bills sit with the Senate. Various bills to support the state’s mental health care system got hearing time in committees.
But our elected representatives had other work, as well:
• Senate Bill 379 would create the “School Chaplains Act.” This measure would allow school systems to designate school chaplains who can operate with counselors or in lieu of counselors but are not required to be certified professional personnel. In their role, chaplains can provide support, services, and programs as assigned by the local superintendent.
• S.B.473 was introduced to protect the privacy of personal data. The “Georgia Consumer Privacy Protection Act”applies to data that could be associated with a person, and it also stops cities or county governments from accessing that data from a source without a court order. If passed, it would restrict what data collectors could do with the information and allow consumers to view, correct, or delete files. It’s been assigned to the Senate Science and Technology Committee.
• House Bill 1171 could restore sales-tax exemption for clothing and school-related supplies, setting the window for the last two weeks of July annually. It’s assigned to the Way & Means Committee. This measure arrived a day after the Senate passed a bill to provide an annual five-day sales-tax holiday for firearms, gun accessories, gun safes and trigger locks. The firearms bill, which moved to the House for consideration, was co-sponsored by Coastal Georgia senators Ben Watson and Billy Hickman.
• House Bill 1173 was introduced: It would legalize shooting catfish with a bow and arrow.
• House Bill 1048 passed the House and would designate cornbread as the official state bread. If the biscuit lobby feels left out, HB 1034 sets the fourth Friday in November as National Sugarcane Syrup Day so they’ll be able to sop while feeling some measure of success. The two bills move to the Senate.
Show us your stuff
Want to test your skills? Our weekly quiz gives you the opportunity to test your news knowledge with a few short questions related to stories we published earlier in the week.
Leaderboard 2/4/24:
First Place (10/10): Peaches
Second Place (9/10): Nigel
Third Place (7/10): SG Mark, Bill
Overall Leaderboard:
First Place – Peaches
Second Place – SG Mark
Third Place – Sandy B
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Click here for this week’s challenge.
Get out! Super Museum Sunday is here.
One day a year, we don’t have any excuses for not learning a little Georgia history. Today is that day. From noon to 4 p.m. today, more than 100 museums and historic sites are open with free admission. It’s part of the Georgia History Festival, organized by Georgia Historical Society. Here’s a link to the full list of places you can go today. Then, you’ll be ready to help Georgia turn 291 on the real birthday, Monday, Feb. 12.
Get out, part 2: Let’s read: The Savannah Book Festival starts this week, and the free festival day is Saturday. You’ll be able to wander Telfair and Chippewa squares to meet dozens of authors and find new reads. Here’s the schedule for the day. Want to get prepped for it all? The Current’s staff has reviewed a few of the books represented Saturday at this link.
Enjoy!
Your second cup: Rights and responsibility
A story dominating this week’s news brings to light a point about firearms safety when an owners feel there’s no threat evident: Safe storage and training. A Michigan school shooter’s mom was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter because she didn’t take reasonable steps to lock up the family’s firearms. The dad faces those same charges. The 19th has a look at why the verdict could spark a new movement to mandate safer storage of firearms as all rights require some responsibilities. Numerous bills in the Georgia legislature to mandate safer storage have failed, and a tax holiday proposal for firearms and accessories got a late amendment to include gun safes and trigger locks. Has the time come for a more holistic look at training and keeping guns out of irresponsible hands? Here’s the story.
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Savannah dedicates Susie King Taylor Square
By Jeffery M. Glover
City celebrates first square to be named after African-American and a woman.
Georgia environmental regulators issue draft permits for strip mine near Okefenokee
By Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder
Twins Pines Minerals LLCs planning a 582-acre demonstration mine about three miles away from the refuge, where it plans to strip mine Trail Ridge for titanium, staurolite, and zircon.
Georgia senators debate state pullout from accrediting American Library Association
By Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
Georgia’s top librarian said the Georgia Public Library Service is already not affiliated with with the ALA and a dean at the state’s only university offering a graduate library studies program said cutting ties with the only accrediting body for degree programs in library and information science could cost millions in tuition.
House bill seeks to limit film tax credit, add criteria for break
By Dave Williams/Capitol Beat
Legislation comes from Joint Tax Credit Review Panel, formed to examine the various tax incentives Georgia offers and determine whether the state is getting a healthy return on the lost revenue.
Georgia lawmakers send governor bill that aims to add misdemeanors that require bail for jail release
By Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder
The measure adds theft, criminal trespass and other offenses to the list of misdemeanors that require a cash or property bond after a second charge.
Georgia House panel endorses bill to force social media political messenger disclosures
By Stanley Dunlap/Georgia Recorder
Georgia House panel endorses bill to force social media political messenger disclosures
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