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Georgia Today
Senate committee releases plan to eliminate income tax; Atlanta Falcons shake-up
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Welcome to the Georgia Today Podcast. Here we bring you the latest reports from the GPB newsroom. On today's episode, a Republican led Senate committee releases its plan for eliminating Georgia's income tax the owner of the Atlanta Falcons shakes up the team's management and four Chatham county nonprofits will share a grant created from the sale of a Savannah hospital. It is for the most vulnerable of our citizen population here in Chatham County. Today is Wednesday, January 7th. I'm Peter Biello and this is Georgia Today. A Republican led committee in the state Senate today released its plan for eliminating Georgia's income tax. The panel, led by the chamber's chief budget writer, Vidalia, State Senator Blake Tillery intends to advance the proposal in the General assembly that begins next week. GBB's Sarah Kalis reports.
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Tillery says during this legislative session he will introduce a bill to make the first $50,000 of income for single fil and $100,000 for joint filers tax exempt. Additional income would be taxed at just over 5%. He says the state will compensate for the loss in personal income tax revenue by reducing some tax breaks like the one for data centers.
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What this plan says is let's take 10% of those credits and let's use those to reduce the state income tax further.
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Tillery says the plan includes steps to eliminate the income tax entirely by 2032. Senate Democrats raise concerns that the loss in revenue could affect the ability for state agencies to change their budgets. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallas at the State Capitol.
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Voters in a metro Atlanta statehouse district have chosen a former prosecutor, Republican Bill Fincher, to head to the General Assembly. Fincher defeated tech industry consultant Democrat Scott Sanders in a special runoff election yesterday after Canton Republican Mandy Ballinger died of cancer in October. The district leans heavily gop, but Democrats were hopeful after a special election flipped a statehouse district in the Athens area from Republican to Democrat last month. The GOP controlled state Legislature will convene next week with several vacancies due to resignation and several newcomers recently elected because of death or resignation. 4 Savannah area nonprofit health care groups will share nearly a million dollars from a trust created by the sale of Savannah's nonprofit Memorial Health University Medical Center. The 2017 sale to the nation's largest for profit healthcare system, HCA, shocked many in the community. Chatham County Hospital Authority Trust Chair Joyce Roche says this is only the second time the trust has made awards drawing on earnings from a $25 million initial investment. It is for the most vulnerable of our citizen population here in Chatham County. She says the trust will issue more awards in partnership with United Way of the Coastal Empire when there's enough earnings to make them. The organizations receiving funds are Curtis V. Cooper Primary Health Care Hospice, Savannah JC Lewis Primary Healthcare and Medbank Foundation. All the funds are required to support indigent care. A new study from University of Georgia suggests turkey hunters may be causing turkey mothers to have more daughters. GPB's Grant Blankenship explains researchers looked at.
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Eggshells from four sites in three southern states to learn about how many dads were represented in a Clutch of Turke. PhD candidate Aaron Ulrey says they expected the young, called poults, to have been about half male and half female. But at some nests there were more females. And so she tried to figure out what was going on.
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If there aren't a lot of food.
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Resources available during some years, if maybe it's colder out during the winter, none.
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Of that panned out. But something else did.
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Was it unhunted or hunted population?
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Where hunters and hens competed for toms, there were more female young. The upside? More females means more eggs and better odds against hunting. The downside? Turkey hens struggling to find partners. For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Macon.
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A Georgia resident is claiming the historic nearly $1 billion November 14 Mega Millions jackpot, the Georgia Lottery said today. The winning ticket was bought in Noonan, south of Atlanta, and represents the largest ever lottery prize in the Georgia.
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How does AI even work? Where does creativity come from? What's the secret to living longer? TED Radio Hour explores the biggest questions with some of the world's greatest thinkers. They will surprise, challenge and even change you. Listen to NPR's TED Radio Hour wherever you get your podcasts.
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Temperatures will be unusually warm throughout Georgia this week. Athens, Atlanta and Columbus stand a good chance of breaking warm weather records on Friday with expected highs in those areas in the low to mid-70s. Those highs will be roughly 15 to 25 degrees above seasonal averages. This warming is likely going to be followed by a disruption of the polar vortex, which by next week will bring arctic air across North America. Temperatures in Georgia are expected to drop next week. The polar vortex is usually the keeper of cold, locking it into the polar regions when strong. But when disrupted, the cold air can escape, cooling the air across the mid latitudes. This current disruption has the potential to lock in colder weather into early February. The Atlanta Falcons have been disappointing fans with losing records for the past eight seasons, and after the Falcons wrapped up their recent season, owner Arthur Blank announced a significant shakeup first, coach Raheem Morris and general manager Terry Fontenot were shown the door. And then Blank said he'd create a new president of football operations position that would report directly to him. How might these moves transform the Dirty Birds into the winning team fans expect? With me now for the answers to life's persistent football questions is John Nelson of GPB Sports. John, thank you very much for being here.
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As always, my friend. Good to see you. We'll see if we can tackle this toughest of tough questions when it comes to tackle.
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I love it. So, John, what is going on with the Atlanta Falcons front office here? What can we glean from all these personnel changes?
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I think that it was just that point of no return. You have an owner in Arthur Blank who has an incredible amount of faith in the people that he brings in that they can do the job that he anticipates, that they can do it well, and you end up with the results. And you had faith in Raheem Morris. Raheem Morris comes back as head coach. He was an interim a couple of seasons back. But then you have Terry Fontenot as your general manager. And the seasons that have happened, you would end up with a team with the Falcons that would claw their way back into close to being at.500. It would be a team that would have an awful start and then they would have this run when they're not in any manner, way, shape or form going to be close to a playoff berth. And then you see all this hope. It's like they start out slowly, then pick up momentum and then they finish just short. And you're trying to flip that script. It's like, okay, can we get the end of the season be the beginning of the season? Can we have folks be healthy? Can we figure things out? And it's been this way ever since 1966 at points.
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Woof. Okay, so it's not uncommon for the coach and the general manager to be fired after losing or several losing seasons. But this is a new president of football operations position. Arthur Blank says it's going to be someone outside the organizations, possibly former Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan. How's this position going to differ from what it's essentially replacing the so called head of football operations. Does it differ?
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That's the thing. Is what is it going to be? Is it going to be the on the field overseers? You have your athletic overseer. Are you the grand exalted poobah of everything football where you're looking over everything that goes on in the administration and the front office. And the front office then relays everything down to the team level. So it might be just someone who's been there before that you can kind of sit there and look at things both on the field and off the field and have that, you know, have that blending of ideas where you know something about one part, you know something about the other part. And so that way I'm going to be on top of everything and I'll look at what's going on athletically. And when it comes to picking up folks and free agents and cap and all these kinds of things, I would hope that that grand exalted poobah of football has a lot of folks in their Rolodex and in speed dial to sit there and reference things. Because if you're dealing with economics, you're dealing with playoffs, you're dealing with players, you're dealing with contracts, you're dealing with cap, you're dealing with health and welfare, all of those different things. You've got to know a lot about it or you've got to have someone that you can reference quickly to come up with those answers. If you don't.
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On the Matt Ryan question, some news outlets are reporting that he's going to be interviewing for the role. So how exciting might that be for fans who remember his days as a player for the Falcons?
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I would think that it would be incredibly exciting because he knows what it's been like to get into the postseason. So he knows what it's like from a player perspective. He knows what it's like from a roster assembly idea, having the tools around you. But then what about the players that are there now? Obviously there's a big question at the quarterback position with an injured Michael Pennix, with a Kirk Cousins, who you got to bring his salary down a little bit. Are you bringing in another draft pick? Are you going to be drafting that way, number one in the 26 draft? Do you try and have a stopgap? Do you do it in 27? Are you looking at somebody like a Trinidad Shambliss? Are you looking like a Mendoza out of Indiana? I think those are the immediate questions.
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Other news worth mentioning. Greg Beatles is moving to a different role. President and chief executive of the Falcons and he's going to oversee business operations. And Beatles replaces Rich McKay, who's moving on to a role where he's going to oversee things like Mercedes Benz stadiums, role in the World Cup. So overall though, how do all these moves translate into a winning strategy? One would think that it's really about having the smartest coach who can make the most of the talent he's got on the gridiron.
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When you have an individual in the front office, they can give you the tools that you're looking for. I would look at the success and the increased levels of success that are wanted by Falcons fans. You focus on general manager, head coach, roster assembly over there. Then you have the, the administrative part that can help you in understanding, okay, we can do this. We can't do this. It's chemistry, it's economics, it's health and welfare, all these things that we were talking about just a little bit ago. But having that extra voice that has that added part of experience and a new voice. Sometimes having a Rich McKay in the Falcons administration is invaluable because, I mean, he's on the competition committee. When you have someone like that that can have that kind of influence in the National Football League, he's invaluable. But sometimes having a newer voice, a fresher voice, a fresher perspective may help you in that regard, to help you with economics and player acquisition and figuring out what you need to do to get that extra edge to get into the postseason.
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All right, fresh perspective. Thank you for yours, John. Appreciate it.
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Anytime, my friend.
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Ask GPB's John Nelson. And that is a wrap on Georgia Today. Thank you so much for tuning in. Make sure you come on back tomorrow. Subscribe to this podcast so you Remember, and visit gpb.orgnews for updates to the stories you heard today and for the latest headlines. If you have feedback for us, send it to us by email. The address is Georgia todaypb.org I'm Peter Biello. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you tomorrow.