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Georgia Today: Possible Medicaid cuts; Child care tax credit; Postmaster General DeJoy to step down
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On the Thursday, Feb. 20 edition of Georgia Today: Georgia Democrats sound the alarm over possible cuts to Medicaid; lawmakers advance a measure that may make child care slightly more affordable; And as Postmaster Louis DeJoy prepares to step down, Sen. Jon Ossoff looks to the future of the post office.
Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Thursday, Feb. 20. I'm Peter Biello. This podcast has the latest reports from the GPB newsroom. If there's something you think we should cover, send us an email. The address is GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. On today's episode, Georgia Democrats sound the alarm over possible cuts to Medicaid. Lawmakers advance a measure that may make child care slightly more affordable. And as Postmaster Louis DeJoy prepares to step down, Sen. Jon Ossoff looks towards the future of the post office.
Jon Ossoff: I'm urging the Postal Service Board of Governors to hire somebody competent who can restore excellent service to my constituents, and I'll continue to hold them accountable.
Peter Biello: These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.
Story 1:
Peter Biello: Democrats say if you are on Medicaid, your care may be in danger. Republicans are weighing billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, jeopardizing health care coverage for some of the 80 million U.S. adults and children enrolled in the safety net program. Georgia's Democratic congressional delegation says possible cuts to Medicaid will endanger those who depend on it, and among those people are seniors. Georgia Representative Hank Johnson says more than 60% of nursing home patients are on Medicaid.
Hank Johnson: These are places and people who we depend on to take care of our elderly, many of whom are suffering from dementia.
Peter Biello: Both Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff joined the chorus of those issuing warnings, saying cuts to Medicaid would harm newborns, seniors and Georgians living in poverty. Medicaid is one of many of President Donald Trump's targets as part of a broader effort to cut government spending.
Story 2:
Peter Biello: A bipartisan group of lawmakers is trying to make it more difficult to impose the death penalty on someone with an intellectual disability. Members of the House Judiciary Non Civil Committee yesterday voted to advance a proposal that would create a pretrial hearing focused solely on whether a defendant is intellectually disabled. As it stands now, juries must decide simultaneously whether someone is guilty and intellectually disabled. Michael Admirand with the Southern Center for Human Rights testified yesterday that a pretrial hearing simply gives the courts an option to consider these questions separately.
Michael Admirand: Capital cases have scores of pretrial hearings. They take years to bring to trial. There's a pretrial hearing on everything under the sun: forensic evidence, jury panels, witness statements, you name it. This is the one issue where you can't even have an option of a pretrial hearing. And it just doesn't make sense.
Peter Biello: The bill faced some opposition from district attorneys who said the creation of a new pretrial hearing would bogged down an already lengthy process.
Story 3:
A new Georgia bill would provide compensation to property owners if their local governments don't enforce bans on homeless encampments or sanctuary laws that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Georgia House Republicans passed the bill to allow property owners to file claims of lost property value or incurred expenses. Opponents say the bill would lead to more frequent incarceration of unhoused people and prompt frivolous lawsuits. A better solution, they say, would be to address the root cause of homelessness: a lack of affordable housing. Proponents say local governments simply need to enforce state and local laws.
Story 4:
Peter Biello: The Georgia Senate passed legislation yesterday that would increase the tax credit for family child care. The bill's chief sponsor, Brian Strickland, says it's meant to help parents stay in the workforce as child care costs increase.
Brian Strickland: While there's more work to be done to help our working moms and dads, Senate Bill 89 recognizes that as a legislature, we believe that families shouldn't have to choose between having a career and being a parent.
Peter Biello: Senate Bill 89 also would create a state income tax credit for families with children younger than 7, as well as let employers claim a larger credit for investing in an onsite child care center. It passed unanimously.
Story 5:
Peter Biello: Health insurance by law must cover all health care issues equally, including mental health. That's so-called mental health parity. Advocates gathered at the state capital yesterday to draw attention to the issue. GPB's Ellen Eldridge reports on Mental Health Parity Day.
Ellen Eldridge: The Legislature passed Georgia's Mental Health Parity Act in 2022. Since then, the Carter Center and mental health care advocates have remembered the day by visiting lawmakers and also holding insurance companies accountable for keeping the state law. Laura Colbert is with Georgians for a Healthy Future. She says it's not enough that the bill passed.
Lauren Colbert: Parity is about both policy and practice. So it's not just what's written down for an insurance company. It's about how, then, when somebody calls and, you know, needs their coverage, that the practice meets that same policy.
Ellen Eldridge: Colbert says you can file a complaint if your behavioral health needs are not being met by your insurance provider. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldridge.
Story 6:
Peter Biello: The U.S. Senate has confirmed Kelly Loeffler, a Georgia businesswoman and former senator, to lead the Small Business Administration. The Senate approved Loeffler on a 52 to 46 vote yesterday. At SBA, Loeffler will oversee an entity responsible for helping businesses satisfy debts, payroll and other expenses during times of disaster. Loeffler co-chaired Trump's second inaugural Committee and served in the Senate during the last year of his first term.
Story 7:
Peter Biello: The Georgia Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing for this spring in a legal fight over property rights in a historic Gullah Geechee community. GPB's Benjamin Payne reports.
Benjamin Payne: The high court will convene in April to review a controversial decision made last year by a judge in Coastal Georgia's Macintosh County. In that case, Judge Gary McCorvey canceled a ballot referendum while early voting was already underway. The referendum in question centered around Sapelo Island. It's home to one of the nation's last remaining communities of Gullah-Geechee people: descendants of enslaved West Africans who worked island plantations along Georgia's coast. In 2023, McIntosh County commissioners rezone Sapelo Island to allow for the construction of larger homes. But the few dozen Gullah-Geechee residents on Sapelo criticized that rezoning, saying it would open the floodgates to commercial development, effectively raising property taxes and pricing them out of their ancestral land. And so last fall, advocates organized a referendum to bring back the original zoning code. Here's Gullah-Geechee activist Georgetta Grovner speaking to GPB on Sapelo Island last September when early voting was underway.
Georgetta Grovner: It's a lot at stake. It's our culture, our heritage, our home. People that want to come and change our lifestyle that we live here on Sapelo. It's wrong.
Benjamin Payne: McIntosh County sued to stop the voting on technical grounds, winning over Judge McCorvey. The Georgia Supreme Court agreed to take up the case on appeal. Justices will hear oral arguments in Atlanta on April 16. For GPB News, I'm Benjamin Payne.
Story 8:
Peter Biello: U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is stepping down. In a letter on Monday, Postmaster DeJoy asked the Postal Service Board of Governors to begin looking for his successor. One of his critics, Georgia's Sen. Jon Ossoff, welcomed the news.
Jon Ossoff: I'm urging the Postal Service Board of Governors to hire somebody competent who can restore excellent service to my constituents, and I'll continue to hold them accountable.
Peter Biello: DeJoy said he would be, quote, "as helpful as possible" in facilitating a transition.
Story 9:
Peter Biello: The Albany Museum of Art expects to break ground this year on a move downtown. The $35 million project is expected to double the museum's size and change the complexion of downtown Albany. Museum CEO Andrew Wulf says moving downtown into a historic building will benefit the museum and the city. That's why he's asking city and county officials for funds to help the museum with the move. He spoke recently with GPB's Orlando Montoya about the museum, the move and the future of downtown Albany.
Andrew Wulf: We are celebrating our 60th anniversary this year and we have been at our current site since 1983. We have outgrown our current site, which is kind of in a semi suburban, semi-urban location. And so by moving downtown into the city center, we will anchor a new historic arts district. We will spark the revitalization that has been very grindingly coming along over the last several years. And we will be in a stunning adaptive reuse building that was once a 1960s department store. This isn't the first time a department store has been transformed into a an accredited art museum. For example, the South Carolina Museum of Art in Columbia was a Macy's, and it's almost like a perfect shell for a future museum because most department stores don't have windows and they're just large, cavernous spaces that we can divide up into galleries and classrooms and office spaces, sculpture gardens.
Orlando Montoya: You mentioned the Columbia Museum of Art and how that building was an adaptive reuse from a department store as well. They —they're known for their simply "wow factor" rotating exhibits. The Telfair Museum in Savannah, I know, is known for their 19th century impressionism, the Carlos Museum in Atlanta, known for their ancient art. What can I tell people that Albany Museum of Art is sort of known for?
Andrew Wulf: Well, our main collecting areas are in 19th-, 20th- and 21st-century American and European art, mostly paintings. And the other half — well, really the lion's share of our collection — is sub-Saharan African. We have over 1,000 objects in that collection, and it's considered one of the most complete sub-Saharan African art collections in the Southeast. A lot of our energy is focused on up-and-coming Southeastern artists, often artists of color. But that doesn't mean that we're not a general art museum. We have shown Renaissance paintings, we've shown Baroque work, you name it.
Orlando Montoya: I'm interested in the revitalization and the arts district concept. It sounds not like just a museum. It sounds like, I don't know, maybe there's going to be, you know, other developments along with it that will pertain to — to making this worth taxpayer dollars.
Andrew Wulf: Yes, exactly. The city of Albany has worked really hard to kind of do what we're doing. They're securing a historic district, much like we did, securing historic site status for the future art museum. We will be one of the anchors for that new arts district. And we also hope that that will draw many more investors into the downtown area. I know there are already two boutique hotels coming in to the downtown area, one that is truly adaptively reusing an old hotel from the late 1800s. So it's really kind of a turning of the tide, returning to the roots of the city. And we all believe, all of us who believe in these projects, that we can revive the heart of Albany. It's truly a beautiful downtown. We're just a block from the Flint River, and our arts partners would include the Albany Civil Rights Institute, the Ritz Cultural Center and the Artesian Alliance, not to mention Theatre Albany, the Albany Symphony and the Albany Area Arts Council. So we will all be within just a few blocks of each other. Kind of, in a way, this is the kind of genesis to what I imagine will take years, if not — maybe not decades, but years to really fully revive our historic downtown sector.
Orlando Montoya: Thanks so very much. Good luck.
Andrew Wulf: Thanks, you too sir.
Peter Biello: That was GPB's Orlando Montoya speaking with Albany Museum of Art CEO Andrew Wulf.
Story 10:
Peter Biello: A former Georgia poll worker, has pleaded guilty to threatening a central Georgia precinct and lying to the FBI about it. Nicholas Wimbish of Milledgeville was employed as a poll worker before last year's November elections at the Jones County Elections office when he got into an argument with a voter. Wimbish then drafted a letter ostensibly from that voter threatening to bomb the polling place. The FBI later found the letter on Wimbish's computer. He's scheduled to be sentenced May 13. He faces a maximum of five years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release and a quarter-million dollar fine.
Story 11:
Peter Biello: The parent company of Georgia Power, Southern Company, missed Wall Street expectations slightly for the fourth quarter. The company reported fourth quarter earnings today of $534 million. On a per share basis, that's new income of $0.49. Expectations were $0.51 per share for the year. The company reported profit of $4.4 billion.
Story 12:
Peter Biello: This final note before we go. Beyoncé has added a fourth and final Atlanta show to her Cowboy Carter tour, setting yet another record. The 35-time Grammy winner announced a July 14 performance at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The new gig will set a record for the most performances at Mercedes-Benz. That's according to Billboard. Beyoncé has already added several shows to her tour lineup to include additional performances in London, Chicago, Paris and Atlanta due to high ticket demand.
Peter Biello: And that is all the news that's fit to squeeze into the podcast today. We do appreciate you tuning in. Remember to check GPB.org/news for all the latest updates. We're always posting new stories there. And remember to subscribe to this podcast because we will be back in your podcast feed tomorrow afternoon. Again, feedback's welcome at GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. And we do love hearing from you. I'm Peter Biello. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you tomorrow.
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For more on these stories and more, go to GPB.org/news
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