Georgia Today: House passes fiscal budget for 2024; New voter registration system; Baby turtles

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Friday, March 10. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, the Georgia House passes its version of the fiscal year 2024 budget. A new voter registration system was launched yesterday, and we'll explain why you may not have noticed. And Zoo Atlanta is celebrating two tiny new additions. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Peter Biello: The Georgia House has passed its version of the fiscal 2024 budget. The $32.5 billion budget includes increased funding for education, more funding for mental health services, and a raise for law enforcement officers, as well as state employees. It also includes funding for $1.25 million state police post in Buckhead to address safety concerns. And it also increases funding for the HOPE Scholarship. But it doesn't fully fund the scholarship as Gov. Brian Kemp proposed. GPB's Sarah Kallis has more.

Sarah Kallis: The House version of the budget covers 95% of in-state college tuition costs under the HOPE Scholarship, with a "B" average. Kemp suggested fully funding it. Georgia high school students with the Zell Miller Scholarship, which requires a higher GPA and standardized test scores, get a full scholarship.

Speaker: Students who've been working towards the Zell Scholarship deserve to have their hard work acknowledged in a higher payment.

Sarah Kallis: Rep. Stacey Evans says the cut was unnecessary.

Stacey Evans: We are going to deprive the students of this state that have earned HOPE because we want to treat the Zell Miller scholars a little bit better.

Sarah Kallis: The House version of the budget now goes to the Senate, where it will likely undergo more changes. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis at the state capitol.

Story 2:

Peter Biello: Several state and local elections officials gathered at the Capitol yesterday to celebrate the official launch of the state's new voter registration system. GPB's Stephen Fowler reports on the Georgia Registered Voter Information System, or GARVIS.

Stephen Fowler: As a voter in the state, you probably won't notice much difference with the new system, but that's by design. The GARVIS system will be easier for local elections offices to use, especially for more accurate absentee ballot processing and streamlining the check-in process for those who vote in person. It's one of many technology and infrastructure updates Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has made since taking office in 2019, including the largest-ever rollout of a new voting machine system at the start of 2020.

Brad Raffensperger: And now, in only 15 months, we have executed the largest, fastest rollout of a top-down statewide voter registration system. That's the largest and fastest in American history.

Stephen Fowler: Georgia has nearly 7.9 million registered voters on the rolls. For GPB News, I'm Stephen Fowler.

Story 3:

Peter Biello: The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia announced yesterday Stuart Rayfield as the new president of Columbia State University, the first woman to serve in the position. Rayfield spent a decade as professor and administrator at CSU before leaving the campus in 2016. She currently serves as the university system's Chancellor for Leadership and development. She'll start her new job July 1.

Caption

Savannah Police Chief Roy Minter

Credit: City of Savannah

Story 4:

Peter Biello: Embattled former Savannah Police chief Roy Minter is closer to becoming the U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of Georgia. GPB Benjamin Payne reports.

Benjamin Payne: The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved President Biden's nomination of Minter to lead the Marshals Service in Georgia Southern District, which includes Savannah, Augusta and Brunswick, among other areas. The Marshals Service is the oldest federal law enforcement agency and is tasked with protecting federal courts, serving arrest warrants and transporting prisoners. Minter resigned his post last summer as Savannah's police chief. During his tenure, more than 70 police officers filed a complaint with the city's human resources office, alleging Minter made threats to officers, showed favoritism towards others, and failed to adequately equip the force. However, no actions were taken against him. Minter's nomination has taken unusually long as he was first nominated last May. Most Republicans on the Judiciary Committee voted against him. All Democrats voted in favor. Minter's nomination now heads to the full Senate. For GPB News, I'm Benjamin Payne in Savannah.

Story 5:

Peter Biello: Georgia Power is giving customers a one-time credit on their March bills. The company says the credits are based on its business performance and will vary depending on customers' energy use. The announcement comes a month after a rate increase started hitting customers bills and a week after the company asked for another rate increase to offset higher fuel costs. If the second rate hike — if the second rate hike is approved, the average residential customer could see bills jumped by $17 to $23 per month starting in June.

Story 6: 

Peter Biello: Georgia Democratic Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff say they've secured $1.5 million in federal grants for Georgia airports. The grant was awarded Wednesday by the FAA's Airport Improvement Program and will be administered by the Georgia Department of Transportation. The funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law is meant to modernize these airports by updating existing runways, constructing a new hangar and additional taxi lanes, and adding fencing to enhance airfield safety. Recipients of the funding include Cook County Airport in Adele, Hazelhurst Airport in Hazelhurst, Jenkins County Airport in Millen, Ware County Airport in Waycross, and Elbert County Airport in Elberton.

Story 7:

Peter Biello: Georgia's overall job market stayed strong in January. State Commissioner of Labor Bruce Thompson reported yesterday the unemployment rate stayed level from December to January at 3.1%. The number of workers on employer payrolls in Georgia rose by 17,000 from December, setting a new record at nearly 4.9 million.

Caption

Author Ilyon Woo describes the daring escape of an enslaved Georgia couple in a new book.

Story 8:

Peter Biello: An enslaved Macon woman disguised herself as a free man. Her husband pretended to be his slave, and they both boarded a train for freedom. That is the story Ilyon Woo tells in her book Master, Slave, Husband, Wife. GPB's Orlando Montoya spoke with her about it.

Orlando Montoya: How did you first learn about the Crafts and what about their story attracted you as a writer?

Ilyon Woo: Well, I was drawn to the Crafts through their own words, through their own story. The Crafts are known for this incredible escape that they made. But it didn't stop there. Even once they achieved this nominal freedom in the free states, they continued to tell their story on the road. They were — became media sensations and they were really inventive as storytellers. And eventually, 12 years after they escaped Georgia, they wrote and published an incredible narrative called Running a Thousand Miles to Freedom. And that was my first point of contact with the Crafts.

Orlando Montoya: Well, let's go back to the beginning, perhaps. What was life like for the couple in Macon?

Ilyon Woo: So this is the interesting thing. Oftentimes, when you have popular imaginations of slavery and enslaved people, there's imaginings of these large plantations and cotton plantations. That wasn't the reality of enslavement for William and Ellen Craft. They were urban, to begin with, and they were both in what they would call positions of relative privilege. Ellen was a skilled seamstress. William was also a skilled artisan. He was a very talented cabinetmaker. And so he, too, had more movement and more ability to earn wages, for example.

Orlando Montoya: How did Ellen's work as a domestic worker prepare her for this trip?

Ilyon Woo: I think, in so many ways. First of all, she had access to news and information, being inside the household and being so in such close proximity with her enslavers. She also had the opportunity to study the movements of and the behaviors and the language of these enslavers. And in fact, from childhood, she had to really learn what those markers were because she was so desperate not to be mistaken for a child of the household. So she had to learn and internalize those lessons of what did a master look like? How did a master move and how did they speak in contrast to an enslaved person as herself?

Orlando Montoya: Have you counted up the number of times that their disguise could have been revealed on this trip?

Ilyon Woo: I don't think I've counted because there were so many of them. I mean, it's just — at every possible turn. It was a a story that, even though I knew what was going to happen, I was kind of at the edge of my my own seat as I was writing it, because it really seems impossible that they're going to make it with all the — really, all the challenges they face on the road.

[untranscribed section]

Orlando Montoya: Was there ever a moment when you thought that this book could be done as a work of historical fiction by, for example, inventing dialog?

Ilyon Woo: Well, I'm sure it could be. I think it could make a fabulous play. I think there's so many different ways to interpret this story, and I hope there'll be other artists and filmmakers and musical writers who will jump in and do that. But for me, that was never a possibility. I guess I wanted to honor the Crafts by presenting everything I could factually and not putting myself in there by imagining anything.

[untranscribed section]

Story 9:

Peter Biello: And finally, two critically endangered bog turtles hatched at Zoo Atlanta earlier this month. The tiny turtles measuring no more than four and a half inches as adults are threatened by shrinking habitat, collection, and illegal trade. That's according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The species is found only in the eastern U.S. The Zoo Atlanta hatchlings both enter the world weighing less than half an ounce with shells roughly the size of a quarter.

Peter Biello: And that is it for this edition of Georgia Today. Thanks, as always, for choosing us to help you stay informed about your state. We've got lots more news coming your way next week. So the best thing to do now is to subscribe to this podcast if you haven't already. That way we'll pop up in your feed with all the latest stories from the Peach State. If you've got feedback, let us know. The best way to send that is by email. The address is GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. And if you like this podcast, leave a review. That helps other people find us. I'm Peter Biello. Have a great weekend. We'll see you on Monday.

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