Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle had it out with Delta Air Lines a few weeks ago, helping to kill a tax break that was worth $40 million a year to the air carrier after it had severed ties with the National Rifle Association.
But Cagle’s apparently a fan of aviation.
A Channel 2 Action News investigation showed Cagle took 68 trips over the past five years at a cost to taxpayers of more than $250,000. That included 37 times when the pilot flew to Gainesville, Cagle's hometown, to pick him up rather than make the lieutenant governor go through a metro Atlanta airport — kind of like Uber for the skies.
Cagle said his office books the trips and he tries to be a “very good steward to the taxpayer.”
This being an election year, and Cagle being a leading GOP candidate for governor, there is a campaign angle.
Channel 2 also looked at another Republican in the governor’s race, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp. He identifies as a car guy.
Kemp says he prefers to drive his green Suburban rather than fly at taxpayers’ expense. He took nine trips over the past five years at a cost of about $36,000.
“Anyone who abuses this privilege for personal or political purposes should be punished and forced to repay Georgia taxpayers,” Kemp said.
Cagle points out that his job and Kemp’s job bear little similarity.
Kemp, Cagle said, plays an administrative role, which appears to be a way to say Kemp needs to stay behind his desk. Cagle then described his own job as “far more taxing.”
Questions are flying: Now that Tom Price has paid about $60,000 to cover expenses for the numerous charter flights that eventually cost him his job as secretary of health and human services, one of his apparently frequent travel companions is the one facing questions.
Kellyanne Conway, a counsel to President Donald Trump and his campaign manager in 2016, reportedly accompanied Price on many of his private flights.
U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, is urging his GOP colleagues on the committee to issue a subpoena for more information.
Price did not pay for the total cost of his flights — which amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars — only his share.
Nobody v. Running: Qualifying earlier this month generated more contests than can be found on the Game Show Network. Interest ran high as candidates signed up to run for the Legislature and launch bids for governor, lieutenant governor, what have you.
But the judicial branch gets a big ho-hum. It feels like the same old familiar faces.
In the Georgia Supreme Court, everybody is running solo. Even Court of Appeals Judge John Ellington, who is seeking a promotion to the state’s top court, is already a winner because he’s the only runner in this race. Ellington, who was appointed to the bench by Democrat Roy Barnes, is guaranteed a six-year term.
Incumbent Justices Michael Boggs, Britt Grant, Harold Melton and Nels Peterson will all be back, campaign-free.
At the next level, there’s only one contest for a spot on the Court of Appeals bench — to fill the seat Ellington is giving up. Former prosecutor Ken Hodges is running against attorney Ken Shigley.
No challenger could be found for Charlie Bethel, Stephen Dillard, Yvette Miller, Brian Rickman and Clyde Reese.
Add a waiver to that waiver:Andy Miller with Georgia Health News reports that a substitute version of Senate Bill 31 offered this past week at a meeting of the House Health and Human Services Committee carries language intended to help Cancer Treatment Centers of America dodge an in-state patient cap at its Newnan hospital.
The state waived certificate-of-need requirements for the hospital, built in 2008, on the condition that it limit the number of Georgia patients it serves. Surrounding hospitals feared that the CTCA hospital would poach well-insured patients, leaving public and nonprofit facilities to take on a larger load of underinsured patients.
The new version of SB 31, sponsored by state Sen. Matt Brass, R-Newnan, would bring an end to that condition on CTCA. Brass said the chain of hospitals wants to see its business in Georgia grow. "We're telling them, 'No,' " he said.
The committee did not take a vote on the substitute.
No, but also no: When DeKalb County commissioners voted to give themselves a 60 percent raise, state Sen. Fran Millar, R-Atlanta, responded quickly by amending Senate Bill 430 to require that whenever a county commission votes for a bump in pay, that it be delayed until those commissioners' terms end. "Nobody should get a raise during the middle of their term," Millar told the House Governmental Affairs Committee.
DeKalb Commissioner Nancy Jester voted against the pay raise, but she’s also giving Millar’s amendment a nay.
In a Facebook post, she explained why:
(1) The pay raise would stand. (2) The pay raise would happen at staggered times resulting in only men getting the raise in 2019 while EVERY WOMAN serving on the Board would not. (3) All of the lady commissioners would make 62% of what their male colleagues are paid while doing the same job.
Face-to-face politicking: U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson of West Point and his challenger in the May 22 Republican primary, Philip Singleton, once talked about finding a job for Singleton in Ferguson's office.
There’s some dispute about who asked for the meeting. Singleton had already filed to run against Ferguson when they agreed to the get-together.
Singleton says Ferguson spent much of the time trying to persuade his opponent not to run. Still, Singleton described the encounter as positive.
“I left that meeting open to the idea of working with the congressman instead of running against him to fill the major gaps, with the impression that he was open to addressing the issues I had pointed out (in his platform, including health care and the Syrian civil war), and that he wanted to bring me on to strengthen his team,” Singleton said in a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
But a few days later, Ferguson sent a text to Singleton informing him that, in this case, he would not be able to be a job creator. He said he had no room in his budget for anything more than an unpaid adviser.
Singleton says he felt duped, that the talk about a job “was a ploy.”
And so the race is on.
Worried that it was hurried: U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia, was one of only 10 lawmakers to vote against the STOP School Violence Act, which would reauthorize $50 million annually in federal grants to support school security efforts.
The bill would fund training for local law enforcement and school officials, and it would pay for metal detectors and other physical improvements at schools. It would also fund federal teams to help school districts handle safety threats.
Johnson’s objection was that the legislation was being rushed through the process without any committee hearings.
“Unintended consequences baked into the law can come back to haunt innocent students who may fall victim to the anonymous reporting systems, which could cause wrongful suspensions and expulsions while disproportionately impacting minority students,” he said.
Candidates, endorsements, etc.:
— Taryn Bowman, a Republican running for the Smyrna-based seat that state Rep. Rich Golick is vacating, has received an endorsement from University of Georgia football great Herschel Walker. Walker's wife, Julie Blanchard, is also backing Bowman. Matt Bentley is also running in the May 22 Republican primary.
— Jester endorsedstate Sen. David Shafer's campaign for lieutenant governor. Jester, who will serve as state co-chairwoman of the campaign, said her decision to back Shafer was not affected by the sexual harassment complaint a lobbyist filed against him earlier this month. Shafer has denied any wrongdoing.
Capitol Recap
Here's a look at some of the news that broke this past week at Georgia's General Assembly, with a side of other political news. Find more by subscribing to Politically Georgia.
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