A proposal to rename a Reidsville state park after the Senate’s longtime budget chairman began moving through the chamber Thursday.
A Senate committee backed a measure sponsored in the chamber by new Senate Appropriations Chairman Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, to rename Gordonia-Alatamaha State Park after Jack Hill.
Hill, a Reidsville Republican who guided the state budget through the Senate for nearly 20 years, died April 6 at his office while the General Assembly was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. His death was not related to COVID-19, officials said.
His longtime wife, Ruth Ann, died about three weeks later.
Hill was sworn into the Georgia Senate in 1991 as a Democrat. A retired grocer, Hill switched parties after the 2002 election, helping shift Senate power to the Republicans. He was rewarded by being named chairman of the Senate budget committee.
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