Appropriations: Economic Development 1.27.26
Video Transcript
Duration: 166 minutes
Speakers: 16
Alright. Good afternoon.
We'll go ahead and call to order the subcommittee on economic development appropriation subcommittee,
to order. We are awaiting, several other members coming from
the caucus meetings, but, but we'll go ahead and get started.
So because we got a a tight afternoon and, a lot of meetings piling up this afternoon. But we're gonna start with word of prayer from, brother Mac Jackson.
Thank you. Chairman,
father, in the name of Jesus, as we come before you, we ask for your wisdom, your guidance,
as we do the business of this great state of Georgia.
We thank you for the privilege, Lord, of being here today. In Jesus' name, amen.
Thank you, sir. Amen.
Alright. Well, we're gonna start with,
commissioner of agriculture,
Tyler Harper, if you'll come on, commissioner.
I'm ready. I'm ready to go.
I know I don't have my school, so you couldn't have saw me. I apologize.
Again, it's still in the school. You moved you moved quick, for the commissioner there.
I'll return it over to you, commissioner. Thank you for being here today. Yes, sir.
Thank you, mister chairman. Appreciate the members of the committee and appreciate your our work together,
as we, do the the work of the people
of our great state, especially in when it comes to our state's number one industry, which is agriculture and, the work
resources
to do the job that our team does,
every single day. So I'm just gonna dive right on into this,
really quick.
And,
just,
go over a few things. As always, some of this we we went over during the joint
appropriations committee meeting, but number one industry, but a lot goes on with agriculture, and there's a lot of indirect industries that are tied to what we do every single day.
And what our agency does to ensure that that industry's successful, as I always say, if the if the agency that oversees the number one industry isn't isn't,
doesn't have the resources to do the job it does, It's hard to ensure the number one industry is successful every single day. So that's what our team, works to do.
And we do that with,
22 different divisions,
over 70 different licenses that we issued, 88,000 licensed entities throughout the state.
We have about eighty twenty split on our funding, as y'all know,
and there are a number of agencies and entities that are administratively
attached to the department, as y'all know that that funding passes through us to those, and you'll hear from some of them,
later today.
Y'all heard me talk about the rural center at the joint meeting, but everything is going well here.
They are completely integrated under the Department of Agriculture now. They are utilizing
facilities
in our Tifton location. We also have the Ella J office in North Georgia,
and and we are hitting the ground running with that and look forward to the work that we're gonna be able to do,
through that.
In relation to the block grant,
honestly, unfortunately, there's really no update since we spoke last week.
The only update I can really give you is is everything is in USDA's hands. We're waiting on them.
And matter of fact, the last two meetings we had scheduled with them were canceled by them.
So we're still waiting on them to get back with us on finalizing
our block grant, so we can get that those dollars out to our farm families.
But,
on our side, when it comes to the Department of Agriculture, we're ready to go. We got the website up and running, farmrecovery.com.
We have the, applications ready to go live.
We're just waiting on that final thumbs up and,
from USDA
and, really ready to go to work to get that $531,000,000,
out the door.
So we talked about the Farmland Conservation Fund the other day as well.
We actually have
a follow-up meeting on the application,
tomorrow afternoon,
to finalize that so we can get those applications out the door to start protecting farmland,
in our great state, and we look forward to doing,
that. As a follow-up to what we talked about, the other day, as many of you know, we have a second confirmed case of high path avian influenza,
since we met last in, in Walker County also.
Another broiler breeder operation, a broiler farm.
And so that is the second confirmed case in our state in the last,
less than two weeks. Our team is currently deployed up there and have been since that first outbreak in Walker County and been working overtime to get that done. That said, the winter storm, winter storm firm, obviously,
halted some of those operations. We pulled our team out for safety purposes,
but they were redeployed,
early this morning, to continue working on getting that addressed.
We have it as
as I said the other day, it's completely contained.
We're just finalizing,
c and d on the site and hope to be wrapping that up very soon there in Walker County. In relation to the winter storm really quick,
I just wanna say
specifically,
that,
this this storm was the first time where we had a multi agency partnership. I wanna publicly thank,
director Johnny Sabo as as well as commissioner Walter Rabin.
Our three agencies
worked in conjunction with each other, had a multi agency unified command
based out of the Georgia Forestry Commission office in Macon during the entire winter storm event.
And our three agencies partnered together to address the issues that Georgians were facing during the storm and helping ensure that, that that was taken care of. And I think this is a perfect example of how our our entities work together to ensure that we're doing the job,
that Georgians ask us to do and protecting Georgians when they need it, especially in tough times like this. And so it was an awesome,
example of how our agencies work together under the unification of the State Operations Center in GEMA and the work that they do. And at the Department of Agriculture, we're proud to to play a part in that as ESF eleven lead,
through the State Operations Center and our work that we do through emergency management. And part of the reason is we've talked about,
the focus we have had at the agency on focusing on our efforts to build out our emergency management capability
to respond
to those issues and events that affect our foreign families and consumers of this state. High pathogenic influenza be an example.
The yellow legged hornet being another example. The cotton jasset, the spotted lanternfly, a winter storm, a hurricane, a tornado.
And so we continue to focus our efforts to ensure that we're addressing those issues. I meant to mention this the other day when we hit on the yellow legged hornet really quick. Every one of those dots that you see on that screen, and there's a lot of them, are traps.
Those are traps that we have deployed as an agency
to ensure that we're monitoring where that hornet is and ensuring that we're catching it. As you can see, we have on the, West Side,
there is a line of traps, and that basically is that border to ensure that nothing is moving out of that Savannah region as we continue to work through that. Our hip program,
region as we continue
to work through that. Our HIP program, as I discussed the other day,
we have, over the last year, we have really ramped up our efforts. You know, October 24 is when the law went into effect,
and we have really been working to address this issue.
We have done over 1,100
inspections,
over 1,200 violations.
The most significant violation that we find, as I mentioned the other day, is no COAs.
But we also find issues related to warning labels
and, food and candy resemblance,
among other things. Every one of those dots on the right side that you see and if you zoomed in, there would be more dots that will populate, obviously,
But that is a licensed entity through the Department of Agriculture,
to sell product in our state. And that those are the entities that our inspectors
are going in every day to address the issues,
related to this program.
Obviously, thanks to your help, we've been able to get
some of that funding.
About a little over $1,000,000 is what we get for our hemp program.
This past year, it, it brought in a little over $2,000,000,
to the state. We get about half of that to run the program.
We have five inspectors. Those five inspectors,
civilian inspectors are the ones that did the over 1,100,
inspections. We have, two license coordinators that work to address the licensing side to ensure that we're bringing in that money.
And we have, as I mentioned the other day, we have of the almost 1,200 inspections, 81 of those were transferred,
to law enforcement for criminal investigation.
27
related to issues related to under 21 sales. And in some of those cases, we have actually,
either executed search warrants or,
taken proper action and taken people to jail if they deserved it. It. So, depending upon the outcome of that particular,
case. In relation to,
the farmers markets,
you have,
or should have or will have, I know we, offered
copies of these, the George Agricultural Trust Fund report. If you walk through that report, I'm not gonna walk through it. I'm just gonna talk about it real briefly and say this. That report will give you,
insight into what's going on in our farmers markets, the work that we're doing as an agency to invest in those,
in addition to the funding that you allow us have allowed us to to operate with. And thanks to the help of the governor,
the last couple of years to invest specifically in infrastructure here in Atlanta.
But, I'm our team done a really good job of putting this report together,
and I just encourage you to look through that report. It'll give you some insights,
specifically,
into our farmers markets and the work that we're doing there to ensure that, we're we're maintaining them. But that that said, obviously,
with the funding that we get, including,
the funding that we get through the trust fund, it's not enough to keep up with the ongoing maintenance issues that we have at our farmers markets across the state.
But but the funding that you have given us, we have invested wisely, and we'll continue to do that, to ensure that those markets are accessible,
to our producers.
Getting into,
the specific budget line items. In the governor's budget and I appreciate the governor and their work with us and OPB and others,
and their staff,
and and obviously in in the work that we've done with them in in
in in laying out the issues that we have as an agency and and them funding,
those needs.
They have included, funding for,
new software for our food safety safety division.
They've included a little over a million dollars,
related to some,
funding,
issues that we have, brought up to them related to, obviously, retention of the positions, but also to offset some of those costs that we have incurred,
realignment for COLAs,
that we, that we have asked for to help address the issue where we,
were not made whole on those, in prior years,
and then the one time salary supplement that the governor is funding for all agencies in that $2,000,
fund.
And, additionally, in the administration budget, the governor included our ask for the $450,000
for laptop
replacement agency wide,
as well as our cost of living adjustments, and then the $2,000,
in additional funding.
And,
in relation to
marketing and promotion, as y'all know, last year, you included $200,000
for a Georgia grown program for specifically to to to to,
push and highlight Georgia grown wood.
This has been a a remarkable partnership, again, between us and the Georgia Forestry Commission and director Sabo and his team, as well as others that have collaborated
together to promote Georgia grown wood products. And, the governor has increased this from 200 to six sixty. We're proud of that increase and think this is an awesome opportunity to highlight,
one of, our
our proud, commodities here in our state, which is our forestry industry. We're the number one forestry state in the nation. And I think this is a perfect time for us to to promote this,
specifically to help us bring in,
new businesses, a new opportunity for our forestry industry as the number one forestry state in the nation.
And so we, we appreciate that and support that ad. Again,
other adjustments for COLAs, the $2,000,
increase, and then same thing for,
the Center for Rural Prosperity
and Innovation or the Rural Center, the $2,000,
one time ad.
That said, mister chairman,
in relation to what our asks are, we appreciate everything from the governor and their help with OPB,
but this lays out our our asks.
Number two and three, we'll talk about in f y twenty seven.
That was the governor included some funding for both of those in, in f y twenty seven. So we'll forego discussing those,
obviously, we'll have deeper conversation about that when we get to the big budget.
But, in relation to the little budget,
we have some ongoing and one time needs. Some of this was funded in the governor's budget, and we are,
significantly
appreciative of it.
But we wanted to bring, forward the other one time and continuing asks that we have because of reduction in funding that we have seen as we discussed in the joint appropriations committee meeting the other day. The shortfalls in the COLAs and also our software needs that we have as an agency.
You know, every so often we have to upgrade that software or we have to renew that software, and those things cost,
money to do so, and we don't have any ongoing funding to provide,
to, to to do that with. And so our ask is to receive that funding for those particular programs, and those are laid out on that, on that sheet that each of you should have that one pager as well as here on the slide show related to the different divisions that need that additional funding,
and the and the reasons for the cola and the
deficit that we have seen in our especially in our meat inspection program, but also in food safety and meat inspection as well in the federal for shortfall as well as the federal cut that we received in those particular,
programs.
In relation to,
our department, as I said earlier,
we're we have over 88,000 licensed,
entities now. That is a 33%
increase since I walked in the door.
And we've only increased our employment by about 12% in that same time period.
This is a, so if you're doing the math, that's about a 15%
increase in workload on our employees,
agency wide.
This is just a snapshot. As I said, we have over 22 different divisions. When you add in our programs, it gets to over 50 different programs that we, as an agency, oversee. This is just a snapshot of four of those,
and and kind of the issues that we see there with vacancies and and,
and and the federal cuts and other things that have impacted us as an agency, specifically in food safety and meat inspections. Those were actually cuts that were happened in the last year, the Biden administration,
that hit us to the tune of almost a million dollars.
But,
but when you look at that, you know, our fuel team,
you know, 41 folks. It takes four the 41 folks to check about a 117,000
pumps. We have almost 200,000 in the state, and they're adding new ones every day,
among other things. And as I mentioned the other day in our meat inspection program,
due to lack of of staffing, we've had to, unfortunately,
decline,
the ability to to open up new establishments in our state,
because of that.
That said, mister chairman, you asked specifically about turnover rate in our last meeting.
And so as an agency, when you look at our consumer protection division,
alone,
it's about,
right after I walked in the door, really, after the first six months, this is starting in f y twenty four,
Our our turnover rate in f y twenty four,
was 22%
for our,
consumer protection division,
21%
as an agency.
F y twenty five,
thanks to y'all's help in the in the work that we've done together in increasing salaries and that that investment that y'all have made,
we went from that to a a 13%
turnover rate,
to FY twenty six. We're now at a at a little over 11%
turnover rate agency wide, 12%
in consumer protection. But even with that, mister chairman, I we still have issues,
because we're still having to,
decline licenses for entities. We'd still lose meat inspectors to to federal agencies. It takes us eighteen months to train
a meat inspector. We lose,
food safety inspectors to other state agencies.
So it is a continual battle that we have as an agency, but definitely something that we have with your help, we have helped,
slow,
slow the bleed, so to speak, and we appreciate y'all's help in helping us do that. But our continued work together,
so
and,
and so that is the the the the
the ask for for the Department of Agriculture for amended fiscal year '26, mister chairman.
If there are,
I do have one thing to add, but from one of our attached agencies, I can pause on that or go right into that if you would like me to.
Alright. Go go ahead. Go go ahead, Trevor, if you would. It is really quick. As you can imagine with the,
ongoing HPAI
outbreak, doctor Zavala and our team at the Georgia Poultry Lab are working overtime.
And due to the winter storm, they have been,
completely inundated
with a lot of samples, and so she was not able to be here today and asked if I would mention their,
their ask, which is the 293,000
for a lab information management
system.
The the, that was the I I believe that was what was,
included.
The range that was quoted for them was 300 to 500,000. And, obviously, if you have any other specific questions for that, I'm sure doctor Zavala would be more than happy to answer those.
But I told her that we would mention that since she was not able to be here to present that in person. So
with that, Mr. Chairman, I'll be happy to answer any questions that y'all may have and,
discuss any issues,
concerns, or or,
anything related to our specific ask,
for a f y '26.
Well, thank thank you, commissioner, and, thank you for the great work the department does. We understand that, obviously, you cover the largest industry in the state of Georgia. Very important, and a lot of work has to be done and more work is to be done.
Two questions for you somewhat similarly related.
The,
on the federal shortfall
of $1.11100000.0,
do we have any idea what USDA's anticipation
is and and actually reimbursing the state for that? So I will say this. The the Trump administration has been working to,
increase the,
reimbursement back to the states or,
increase the funding to the states specifically for some of those programs
however, we haven't got any specifics on that as of yet,
and we're waiting to get that that information. But regardless,
those,
those specific shortfalls have, definitely been,
something that we as an agency,
that's been made it difficult for us,
to operate,
and and it and it cuts into our state funding and other areas that we would be able to utilize,
those funds to continue to bring all additional employees and and,
things,
such as that. The other thing that I'll mention, mister chairman, that that we we've talked about before as well
is, the last couple years,
we appreciate the pay raise.
But as you know, the state,
a lot our our meat inspectors are fiftyfifty. Our EPA
funded employees are 70 fivetwenty five or eightytwenty. Food safety
is in that seventy five twenty five or eighty twenty range, depending upon the position.
So,
we only get 50% of the funds,
put in put in our budget, to fund those pay raises for those employees. Well, as you can imagine, as a state agency,
I'm not going to give an employee that's standing side by side with another employee a different
pay raise. We're gonna treat them the same. And so that eats into our budget significantly.
We continually
ask the federal government for that increase in our reimbursement rate to ensure that we can cover that pay raise. But, unfortunately,
in my three years, we have yet to get that reimbursement.
We ask every year. We constantly have that communication with USDA, but we've yet to get that funding.
And so every year, we're still shorted
any of those dollars,
to cover those,
additional pay raises that we're currently covering or trying to cover within our own budget,
which creates,
you know,
budgetary issues from us as an agency wide
in in being strategic in how we address the issues that we face every single day, especially when it comes to hiring more,
staff and ensuring that we're able to meet the mission that we've been asked to do.
Thank you for that. Any questions from members of the committee?
Mister Jackson.
Thank you.
Thank you, commissioner, for the great work that you do for this great state of Georgia.
You mentioned the,
Center for Rural
Innovation and Prosperity
being under ag now. And,
Dean Green and I chaired the, Rural Development Council,
and we work closely with doctor Bridges and, Scott Blunt.
I didn't hear what was in the budget this year for the Rural Innovation Center. So,
the budget for the Center for Rural Prosperity Innovation was, last year.
The legislature
included a little over $2,000,000
in our budget. That is a continuation in our budget this year. It's a little over $2,000,000
that's included for the rural center budget,
that, that the rural center will utilize to operate.
And, the new executive director is Charlie Fivash.
He's hit the ground running, and,
the remainder of the staff has stayed the same. But obviously to you,
to y'all, to the cochairman,
anything that we as an agency can do or director five Ash can do, we wanna be a resource, and and please lean on him, as you have the rural center in years past.
But that the the funding for the rural center is a continuation from last year, with the exception of the, dollars 2,000
supplement
supplement for the the state employees. Thank you. Representative Gilliard.
Thank you, mister chairman.
Well, you know, I didn't attend the
the the Wild Hawk supper, but you've got a big plate of of food here, commissioner.
Thank you for your service and your great leadership.
When you were going over,
the repairs for the farmers market, it was, near and dear to my heart. As a freshman,
when we came up with the legislation for the Farmers Oversight Committee.
The house and the senate came back, and we had someone do a study about the Farmers Market. Your hands are full because you're trying to renovate outdated and antiquated,
you know, property.
I just want to make a recommendation that moving forward in the future, we give you what you need
either to take those farmers' markets to the next level
or to do something
different. If something is not working,
then we've got to try something else. But to,
keep having you have to bandage those outdated, antiquated buildings, we've got to do something different. So I want to thank you for your leadership and,
just hope that we we can move forward to assist you in that manner. Thank you, representative Gilliard. I I appreciate that, and I would agree with those those comments.
Thank you, representative Gilliard.
Commissioner,
we talked just briefly about it, and you you mentioned in your comments the number of,
facilities
that you have not been able to issue a license for because the lack of an inspector to to inspect.
Can you talk a little bit more about that and which where we need to go, likely in the '27 budget,
to make sure that we are covering all areas of agriculture that need,
need covering? So I will, speak to that kinda in two ways, mister chairman.
One, there are some,
entities and licensed entities that we as an agency are currently taking a real serious look at and seeing is there a way that we can bring in and utilize technology
to help us do the job that we're asked to do every single day to be more efficient, more effective,
and,
and be able to still execute the mission that we've been asked to do. That said, there are certain jobs, though, that you cannot do that with. It requires a person. It requires an individual. And in most cases, it requires a person with a a specific level of knowledge and understanding of that particular
subject area to do that job.
Obviously, meat inspection is is a perfect example of that.
That takes a a physical individual.
For us as an agency, you know, it gets into
ensuring that we're able to to work to recruit and hire the best,
when it comes to that and even in some cases to retain.
As we'll talk about in f y twenty seven, you know, every year we've talked about needing vehicles. Well, for my employees, that is their office. And whenever they have a vehicle that has 200,000
miles on it,
among other things and has other maintenance issues, that becomes a a morale problem for staff. So it's little I think in in in the long term, mister chairman,
it's it's,
ensuring that we have the funding and the resources to hire the right people when it comes to salaries, ensure that we have the resources to to equip them appropriately,
every single day when they go out and do their job.
And,
and and at the same time, when it comes to those stresses we have when it comes to federal funding, if we could have a serious conversation about, you know, look, at the end of the day, if we can get reimbursed from the feds,
if we could if we could be covered until we get that reimbursement back from the feds, that would help us
have more flexibility,
as an agency to ensure that we're able to hire the best, retain the best, and and at at the same time, equip the best to do the job that we ask them to do every single day.
Thank you, commissioner. And I look forward to continuing that conversation as we get into the '27 budget. So thank you for the great work that you and your team do. Any other questions from members of the committee?
One last thing, mister chairman. The third sheet you have is,
hurricane Helene. I meant to mention this a second ago. It is a list it is a it is a a map of the counties that are eligible to apply for that block grant. And as I said earlier, farmrecovery.com
is where you can find out more
but thank you, Mr. Chairman. Appreciate this committee and look forward to our continued work together. And just on that note, commissioner, that map very much mirrors USDA's
federal declaration map.
That is, that is correct. Yes, sir. Those are the counties that were declared,
by the federal government as to be the counties that were under the under the disaster.
Yes, sir. That is a reflection of the same maps that were used for other
other coverages,
for other disaster programs.
So you're calling Thank you, commissioner. Thank you, mister chairman.
We're gonna deviate from the,
agenda just for,
for a moment. Georgia Humanities, miss Mary, if you'll come on forward. I know you had a special guest with you,
that we were that was here earlier,
first lady of this house, miss Dale Burns, and she stepped out for a moment, but wanted to acknowledge that and,
turn it over to you.
Thank you so much. Chairman Meeks and members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Economic Development. Thank you so much for your time.
My name is Mary Warren, and I serve as president of Georgia Humanities. And I'm very grateful to OPD and governor Brian Kemp for his budget recommendations supporting
Georgia Humanities' America two fifty programming.
Georgia Humanities is now in its fifty fifth year of service to the people of Georgia.
For more than half a century, our mission has been to bring history, culture, civic learning, and civil dialogue
directly to communities and their citizens across the state. We have a statewide mission, and particularly those that do not always have access to large cultural institutions.
Throughout that history, we have been care we have been careful stewards of public funds,
consistently leveraging state investment through matching funds, partnerships,
and private support to ensure every dollar goes as far as possible for Georgians. And in this past year, as we lost federal funding, we really stepped up our fundraising,
and year over year, we brought in 10 times the funding,
through philanthropy.
As our nation approaches America Two America's Two Fiftieth Anniversary, Georgia anniversary, Georgia Humanities is uniquely positioned to help ensure this moment is not only commemorated,
but meaningfully
experienced, especially in rural and small communities.
We're agile,
fiscally disciplined,
and experienced in creatively deploying partnerships.
We had over 200 partnerships and 300 volunteers in the last year, allowing us to move resources efficiently into communities so they can host their own America two fifty celebrations
grounded in local history
appropriations would fund should we receive them specifically for America two fifty.
First,
community based America two fifty grants.
We are deeply grateful for the state's long term investment in Georgia humanities grant programs,
which have proven to be one of the most effective ways to strengthen local capacity.
Over time, every dollars, every state dollar invested through our grants program has been matched three to four times, depending on the year, locally,
multiplying the impact of public funds while empowering
communities to take ownership of their own programming.
Second, the Georgia Sec Circuit. And I'm very excited that this is a,
legacy program for America February.
I remember 1976,
and I was very excited to take part of that. Many of the tiny little historical societies that exist across Georgia and across the nation were founded in 1976,
and Georgia Humanities wants a legacy program,
similar to that that will go beyond America February.
So the Georgia circuit is a new statewide America two fifty program
that brings Georgia centric public programs on the American Revolution and on our state's history,
culture,
and civic spirit over the last two hundred fifty years directly into communities across Georgia, connecting residents with curated historians,
storytellers,
artists, and educators.
And, of course, the theme would change from year to year moving on.
Third, our Museum on Main Street program, which brings professionally curated
traveling museum exhibits
to small and rural communities
which might not otherwise have access to this level of cultural programming.
Our upcoming exhibition,
Voices and Democracy
in America,
offers a historical exploration of America's great experiment with democracy,
beginning with the revolutionary era and tracing how democratic ideas and institutions
have developed and endured since 1776.
While we're proud to bring high quality,
nationally developed ex exhibits to rural Georgia, we're even prouder of the capacity building that surrounds them. We support local scholars, encourage constructive civic dialogue,
and help communities tell their own democratic
stories so they are stronger long after the exhibit departs.
This is not simply commute cultural programming.
It's community development
and civic infrastructure.
We also integrate America Two Fifty into our year long educational work through National History Day Georgia, and we're a model across the country for this program that is across all of the states.
It reaches in our state about 15,000
Georgia students annually and something like a thousand to 1,500
teachers annually, so we teach the teachers.
This year's theme,
Revolution,
Reaction, Reform in History,
invites students to engage America two fifty not as a single moment, but as an ongoing civic experiment that continues to shape their lives today.
So America two fifty is a once in a generation opportunity.
And although we anticipate we are going to get our federal funding restored at some level, We don't know how much, and we're pretty sure it won't be on time to support these events.
With the governor's recommended investment, Georgia can ensure a statewide,
locally grounded, and fiscally responsible approach to commemoration,
one that reaches every corner of Georgia and leaves a lasting
legacy of civic learning and community engagement.
Georgia Humanity stands ready to deliver this work with the same care, accountability,
and statewide reach that has defined our service for more than five decades.
Thank you so much for your time. I respectfully request your support of the governor's recommendation,
and I would be happy to answer any questions.
Well, thank you, Mary, for being here today. And and, again,
your guest that was with you, miss Dale Burns, was in attendance to support,
miss Mary and the and the comments that she has made. Any questions from members of the committee?
Seeing none, thank you very much for being here today. I appreciate it.
Mr. Steven Shep, Georgia Ag Expo Authority.
And ladies and gentlemen, if anyone, if you're staying on the back wall would like to come have a seat, please, please do so.
Alright. Thank you for being here today. Thank you, mister George.
Members of the committee, we're happy to be here. I have with me Laurie Dowd, our CFO.
We'll go through a short presentation. If you have any questions afterwards, we'd love to love to hang around and answer them.
Great to report you today. The the Georgia National Fairgrounds and AgriCenter is
operating at at full speed. We weren't affected by the storms. Thank goodness.
But we're,
we're at we're at we're at full throttle.
Our calendar is is very busy,
and booked. And I I wanna start off,
just sharing a little bit,
of the points of our mission, what we do.
Basically, we were built to support agriculture,
to get young people involved in agriculture,
to boost the state's economy,
and to host the state fair.
And as we go through this presentation,
I think we're we're checking all those marks.
Good news. The Georgia National Fair two thousand and, the thirty sixth was
06/12000
visitors came to see us. Of most importance, 47,756
corn dogs were sold,
during the Georgia National Fair. There were, we had a lot of people there. It was it was a it was a great event.
Inside the gates during the Georgia National Fair,
1,500,000.0
in in sales tax was generated.
Again, that doesn't include fuel,
means to get there,
any spending that went on outside outside of our gates. So,
very very successful fair.
Active projects that we currently have, our facility is
36 years old.
So we've been heavily involved with,
lighting upgrades, entry doors,
HVAC,
anything that you can expect from
a facility that's that's 36 years old and is heavily
used.
Several new projects coming on,
and we're we're just about,
through with,
the the GAE 21,
MRR money.
We've we've held on to that money for a long time.
Trouble getting vendors and also price increases. So,
we've been dealing with that as we move forward.
Sometimes putting some of our operation,
operations money into that to to get those deals done, but our staff is doing a very good job in getting the whole facility upgraded.
Brand new coming in February 2027 is it will be the new, small species barn and arena.
We had,
probably 2,000
pigs this past two weekends ago at the Georgia National Fairgrounds. They were piled on top of each other.
This new
new barn and arena,
will will give a chance to, to spread out and and hopefully,
have a much more enjoyable experience,
at a livestock show for the exhibitors and visitors as well. So we're looking forward to that.
F y twenty 2026,
we received,
$1,150,000.
Reeves Arena,
Heritage Hall for, upgrades
to boilers and HVAC.
We've, we've got those under contract and they're underway.
F y twenty six, I wanna thank you all for the $900,000
appropriation,
that's given to us. Of course, you know, it offsets that $2,600,000
cost,
to host all the youth events, youth agriculture
events, and equine events, in the state of Georgia.
This year's ask,
currently,
what was put into the governor's budget is another 2.5 approximately 2,500,000.0,
for,
HVAC
replacements.
Again, 36 year old units,
that were taken out and totally redoing.
The 2.5 made it into the governor's budget. We're very grateful,
working with OPB.
There were additional we were asked to put this in priority. We do have some paving and sealing issues that, we'd like to deal with as well as equipment and some upgrades to to some other buildings. But,
this this list puts everything in priority.
Our impact our economic impact throughout the year is about a $133,000,000.
That's,
goods and services that are sold in the state of Georgia because of our operation.
We're we're very proud of that. We didn't just come up with that number. That's the Carl Vinson Institute.
They came in and did that study for us.
Alright. The fun thing and I wish the humanities lady was still here.
America two fifty. We're gonna celebrate it in a big way,
but we've got two specific events that we've
pulled out. First of all, the Georgia National Fair.
I already think that we are the most patriotic fair in the country, but we're gonna go
above and beyond.
We do have the Smithsonian's
Smithsonian's
Museum on Main Street voices and votes. It will be there all eleven days of the Georgia National Fair.
We're looking,
looking forward to that. We're partnering with the
Department of Agriculture. This year's theme will be Georgia grown, America Two Fifty.
Everything we've we've we coordinated with Robins Air Force Base for a c one thirty flyover
last year to kick off America two fifty. Now the government shut down right before that happened. So,
we were out of luck, but,
we're looking forward to a big year.
It's kind of a new show that we're we're doing to celebrate America two fifty.
Currently, we have the what we call the Georgia,
national fair Georgia National Antique Ag Show, which demonstrates
the last,
well, probably the first fifty to a hundred years of agriculture.
For America two fifty,
we're billing this show as mules to microchips.
We're partnering with the Department of Agriculture,
the UGA, University of Georgia, and the Grand Farm that is currently across the street,
from
the fairgrounds.
And the go the mission is to demonstrate
a mule plowing next to an autonomous tractor that can plow twice as much. So,
we're doing everything we can to keep this event free to the public.
We'd like, we we see it as an educational opportunity to demonstrate
just how far agriculture and the American farmer have come in the last two hundred and fifty years.
With that, mister chairman, it concludes
my presentation available for any questions.
Thank you, sir. Any questions from members of the committee?
Dean Green.
Thank you. Thank you for the ideas,
surrounding the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary.
But keep in mind,
Georgia
was one of the 13 signers there, and Georgia needs to be emphasized every time you do that 02/1950.
Yes, sir. Absolutely.
Any questions?
Well, Steven, thank you for being here today. Alright. Thank you. Appreciate all the work you do and appreciate you being here today and, all the work that the, the export authority does in promoting agriculture and youth leadership with our with our, students coming in. Thanks for what you do. Appreciate
it. Mr. Mitch Adaway, George Soil and Water
Conservation Commission.
Welcome, sir.
Thank you, mister chairman, members of the committee. I appreciate the,
the invite and the opportunity to, give some updates on Georgia Soil and Water
and quickly go over,
what's in our small budget for this year.
Start on the updates in our conservation department. These are our five regional offices across the state that,
work closely with the 40 local soil and water conservation districts across the state.
This fiscal year, we started doing something new with them,
due to a staffing and workload. Usually, the overview is where we work with the local municipalities about their
erosion and sediment control department
has been done,
with that ENS department. We've spread that out to them, and I'm happy to report they hit the ground running and have conducted 20 of those, so far this fiscal year,
along with conducting,
50,
almost 60 outreach events that are mainly focused on ag, agriculture,
conservation efforts, and work with the youth. So they we get them at a young
early age, and they start to understand the importance of, conservation and the state's natural resources.
We've kicked off, local issue and authority. These are your local,
municipalities
focused training events. We hold one big,
erosion day in Athens every year where we have over 300 people. But we also thought that we might be better served
as far as educational purposes. If we get these personnel that are, at the local level that are in room
of
ten, fifteen, maybe 20 people at the max, that they're more apt to to ask questions and understand
what what we're trying to push across as, as a state agency and make sure they're they're understanding that. Started the first one of those a couple weeks ago and have about half a dozen more on the books throughout the summer. Look forward to those.
These these staff members are also managing,
a little over $2,500,000
to assist private landowners with conservation efforts on their property.
One of the, unique ones that we have going on, and I think I might have touched on this last time I had the opportunity to get in front of the committee, is
a feral hog effort,
where we are
using different types of fencing to fence out ag ag fields to see if that we can add that to another tool to the tool belt or toolbox for these ag producers with their feral hog issues.
So far, we have
worked with 22
ag producers in Southwest Georgia and have installed almost 250,000
feet of fence. So we look forward to see the results we have as planting season is coming up quickly in those areas, and we'll hopefully see some positive results on that.
Watershed dams.
Last year,
mister chairman, the, the committee saw
saw the need to, for the first time ever, have us, some maintenance funds for these dams as a line item.
That was a $150,000.
At that time, I was reporting, I thought we could hit maybe 60 to 65 dams with that money. Happy to report that we found a way to kind of work with our federal partners at USDA
to expand that.
We've, increased that through their funding by $200,000
and increased the amount of dams that we were able to affect by about 20.
So, appreciate your effort on that, the committee, and look forward to continuing that.
One last thing I'd wanted to mention in that area is we have four dams that are in the planning and design phase. That's the last steps before we get to construction.
One of those is in Cherokee County. The other three are in Forsyth County.
We're not ready yet to have a dollar amount for a bond request on those projects, but
this time next year, we feel that we will be. Just wanna bring that up to the committee's attention.
And lastly, our erosion and sediment control
department.
As you know, we we run the certification program where individuals
little over 12, almost 13,000,
certifications issued this year, which is about our our
average. And for the plan reviews,
last fiscal year, we'd
reviewed,
over 4,200
plans. This year so far, we've reviewed 2,000,
which puts us, I think, we're targeting about 4,000 by the end of the fiscal year.
Last time I had the opportunity to be in front of the committee, I believe the question was asked about the amount of plants that are an acre or less. So
ran some of those numbers, and 10% of those are less than one acre. So we don't have a lot of plans that are less than one acre. But what I found was interesting when I increased that search to up to 10 acres, 75%
of our plans
are 10 acres or less.
And moving forward, the next time in front of this committee, I'll have it broken down by three to five acres as well.
So we can kinda save that.
This is more of a big big budget f y twenty seven topic, but I wanted to go ahead and just throw it out there as it's a it's a big need,
for the agency. You just heard me talk about the plan reviews.
I have to ask
for currently a little over a $100,000.
This would provide an additional reviewer
and raises for current positions.
The reason for the addition is we're understaffed for the volume of plans.
The raises would hopefully help address the over 140%
turnover rate we've seen in that department in the last three years.
And those employees are leaving us with about an eighteen month average tenure. It takes
six
to nine months to to have somebody fully trained to review these plans.
So basically, we're we're getting nine months out of an employee before before they're they're moving on.
To touch on our
small budget edition, we can be found on page 16 of your tracking document, thirteen point eight point one.
And in there, you'll find the $2,000
supplement,
our staff that we are very appreciated.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That's all I have. Be happy to take any any questions.
Thank you, for those comments. And and again, just want to reiterate what you had already mentioned in terms of your turnover rate of obviously,
142%
and the significant
work that you guys do with reviewing these plans and the need to try to work on that. So as we, as we move forward with the 27 budget, look forward to working with you,
to try to address that need
in, in some way. Thank you. Thank you, mister chairman. You know, there's due to a lot of the the good work that many agencies in here do, Georgia's have been a desirable place
to to come move to, to live, work, and play. So we just want to make sure we can do our part to keep it that way. Alright. Thank you for that. Any questions from members of the committee?
Seeing none, thank you for being here today. Yes, sir.
Alright. Public service commission.
Mister Reese McAllister, come on down.
Good afternoon, mister chairman. Thank you for being here today. Chair floor is yours. Good to see you again. Can't believe it's been two months since we did since we did this, but, time flies by. So,
wanna thank you for allowing us input in the budget process today. On behalf of the entire Public Service Commission staff, we wanna thank you for what you put in our budget for f y twenty six to help with retention
for many of our employees, and we'd like to thank you and the governor as well for the, onetime salary supplements that have been proposed as well. So as you know, the PSC
has a complex mission of energy regulation.
Finding and retaining skilled staff is an ongoing challenge, and your work with our budget goes a long way in helping us fulfill our role for the citizens of Georgia.
As we shared back in November,
Georgia, like many states, has seen an unprecedented load growth on the power grid.
As recently as 2022,
at our, previous IRP, Georgia Power is predicting load growth of 400 new megawatts, only 400 megawatts over seven years.
But the most recent predictions
show low growth in the range of 10,000 megawatts.
To put that in perspective, Georgia Power currently deploys about 22,000
megawatts statewide today,
and Georgia Power is effectively seeing our a 45%
growth increase from that number.
So this new low growth, it, brings challenges and opportunities.
In December,
to meet that need, the PSC approved a generational investment in our energy infrastructure.
We approved this in a way that will protect existing rate payers,
from the needs of new large load customers, specifically
data centers, the, the word that is very popular today here on the Hill and in the media. So, and our hearing room has become ground zero, it seems like, for the data center issue. But I'd like to state clearly,
the PSC does not approve
or certify data centers.
It has no say in the approval of site selection for data centers, nor does it monitor data center construction.
The PSC's mission is to ensure that Georgia Power can meet the needs of its customer base and prevent cost shifting from one customer to another.
This mission is critical to the economic development of the state, and our decision in December falls directly in line with this mission.
I have with me today our utility director. Thank goodness, mister Bond. Tom Bond's here. So if you have any questions regarding low growth
or our efforts to prevent cost shifting, mister Bond will handle those questions, thankfully, not me.
As far as the amended,
FY twenty six budget, the PSC request help for the construction monitoring,
process for this new Georgia power low growth
the annual state appropriation for the PSC is is relatively small compared to other state agencies, but the decisions of the commission impact the entire state.
In the governor's proposed, AFY 2026
budget, the PSC would receive about 13,300,000.0
in state funds.
Because we're a small agency, even small changes in the energy sector can place large burdens on our staff.
And as we said previously, it's a 45%
increase in just the energy load alone, and this massive increase in energy load caused by data centers is going to have a significant workload for the PSC.
Specifically, the PSC must monitor new construction as Georgia Power's infrastructure expands.
Right now, we have three new units that are under construction at Plant Yates and Newton.
We'd also have expansion at three other plants that will begin this year as well with five additional units to help generate the needed, energy load growth. The PSC is charged with ensuring that Georgia Power spends money prudently
when constructing this new infrastructure.
Ensuring prudent spending
on construction directly corresponds to lower rates charged by Georgia Power for their rate payers.
The PSE is already shorthanded on staff for construction monitoring.
We have one person, so that's pretty short staffed.
And,
on, construction monitoring, qualified construction monitors can take time to train.
To meet the workload, we plan to promote
from within our own staff and begin cross training immediately because of the need. We then plan to back fill the existing,
positions that we've, opened up for this purpose.
To adequately monitor Georgia Power's upcoming construction projects, the PSC needs one engineer
at a salary of 85,000,
144,500
after it's been trued up for fringe benefits,
and a new financial analyst at a salary of 75,000
or 127,500
after true up for fringe benefits,
for a total of 272,000
to fully fund both positions.
As we met with OPB,
last October and as we met with you in November, we mentioned that we might have a request coming. We didn't know at that time we were in hearings, and those hearings have been concluded. So this is why this need exists.
As construction moves forward on other projects, the PSC is likely to ask for more construction monitors, but those it monitors, but those additional ask can wait
at least until another budget cycle. And our conclusion, as always, the Public Service Commission and PSC staff work hard to remain good stewards of the people's money. We welcome any questions or comments on funds that have been appropriated,
on our request for future funding on PSC construction monitoring,
and also on infrastructure expansion. So any questions?
Thank you for
that presentation.
Couple of things. Can you update us on the,
pipeline
inspectors
that we've put in the budget over the last couple of years and how that's working? Yes, sir. We've been able to fill all those positions as we've stated pre prior. It's it's hard to find qualified people many times when we get them trained.
The industry comes and,
takes advantage of our training that we've invested and hires them away. So right now, of all the positions you've approved, they're filled. And, we're examining right now the, possibility of needing more, but our our most recent audit from the feds got us a a much better score. So we're very satisfied there and still working to improve that program. Great work there. And do you are you,
in a position to talk about whether or not the current salary for those positions is enough
to retain those positions rather than getting them hired, trained, and losing them to somebody else? I think, mister Baum would agree. We've said that we've put in place a structure based on training because every time they they get a level of training, we increase their salary, which has helped with retention
for those individuals. We we're always open to increasing that. But for right now, I think, mister Bond, as the utility director, would be satisfied with that with that salary structure.
Okay. Thank you, sir. And then on the, request for the,
amended 26 budget,
the additional,
engineer
and,
financial analyst,
what do you have an estimate of the equipment cost for those two positions or anything they may need?
They're not, they're not,
they wouldn't need, you know,
equipment other than,
you know, computers.
We, we already have a car that they can use to go to the sites. It would require going to the construction sites fairly regularly.
And it's three different plants, so And we have a fourth one that's already under construction, so it it does require a bit of driving, but we're not asking for a vehicle because we already have one that's available for them to use. Okay. Thank you. Any questions from members of the committee?
Alrighty. Thank you, sir. Appreciate y'all being here today. Thank you, man. Give our best to the chairman.
Alrighty. Mister John.
Department of economic development.
Thank you, mister chairman. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Thank you for being here today. Thank you.
So,
name is John Moffitt with the Department of Economic Development,
and, we are the sales and marketing team for the state of Georgia.
And all our previous, speakers have talked about all the successes Georgia's had, and we couldn't do without all their help and all the partnerships that we have with our other agencies. We have World Congress Center here. We have community affairs, and we work very closely with all of them.
Just a couple highlights of last year, just to give you some of the successes
that we had last year. Tourism, $82,000,000,000
in total economic impact,
which is a tremendous amount. A 174,000,000
people in total visitation.
Trade, 53,000,000,000
in exports. So that's we broke the 53,000,000,000
50,000,000,000 mark for four years in a row. That's a record.
Global commerce, 26,000,000,000
in investment. You notice these numbers are all in billions, which is incredible.
And over 23,000
jobs in the private sector.
Centers of innovation,
441
companies served.
Now those of you who don't know about the centers of innovation, they work mostly with small businesses
who are
looking to take their business to the next level. So they are a connecting point from a small business to the research
universities around the state like Georgia Tech and others like that. And so we help those small businesses be able to make those connections with those research facilities
to be able to make that transition to the next step for them in their business operation,
whether it's manufacturing
on a line or something like that or something with plastics and things of that nature.
The,
film department,
245
productions last year, including 13 feature films and 42 independent films.
I know mister Wilson, the commissioner, good friend of mine, talked about Stranger Things, and it was incredible because they spent eight hundred and four days filming in Georgia last year, hired over 3,700
Georgians,
and
$298,000,000
in crew payments.
So all that money is going to Georgians.
The arts, which is another great
example of how we help small businesses,
$5,000,000
in grants last year to the arts.
And they go out there and they hit all areas of the state. They're not just in the metro area. The arts is out there helping out small businesses throughout the state.
When we look at our
26 amended budget,
one of the items in there in the department of administration is $3,000,000.
That money is going to be used
for, as you can see,
tourism, promoting tourism, update edge agency marketing, and enhance recruiting efforts.
As far as the tourism piece goes, we're working hand in hand with,
World Congress Center this year. We have a little event called the,
FIFA
World Cup,
and we're trying to capitalize on that, not only as the visitors are here, but also when they leave to remember Georgia.
So on that, we're using a lot of those funds for that. We're also using some of those funds for web enhancements.
The web enhancements we'd need to transition over are gonna help with search engine optimization,
advancements in,
analytics and things like that so we can keep track of things. We can do research and see what people are really looking for and what the advancements need to be.
We're also looking for, as we stated in that, agency marketing materials.
We're gonna be doing a ad in the,
Atlanta magazine. They asked us, we do an ad for the World Cup. We're gonna do that. And the nice thing about that is that's a memento piece, so people are gonna hold on to those things. And so when I look at that, they're gonna see Georgia all the time. They're gonna see our ad in there, and that hope that leads to, return visitation.
We're also, you know, looking for paid media, you know, group travel, things like that. We go out to trade shows. That's how we promote Georgia. We're not only promoting Georgia domestically, but we're internationally.
And I know the numbers are they say we're in 12 countries and this and that. We're probably in a little bit more, but what we have is we have 12 contracts, but some of the contracts include a couple countries. An example of that would be Chile, Argentina, and Peru. Those one contract. Colombia and Mexico,
So we're all around the globe promoting Georgia,
and we've had these relationships with these people for years, and it just shows how well we're doing because they wanna stay on with us. So that $3,000,000,
the other question was it is best used in admin,
and we feel that it's the best use in administration
in that bucket because the marketing team is gonna be using a lot of that spend. And they're pretty much housed in the admin program,
those positions, and they're gonna be spending that money. And so I know a question was would it be better suited in tourism? Actually, the best location is admin. That's why we requested that in administration.
Outside of that,
we're very grateful for the $2,000
that people are getting.
People don't realize,
some people may think that's a small amount, it's not a small amount. That helps tremendously with morale, and people are very excited about that. We talk about, you know, the economy and things like that, how payroll may have not been keeping up with inflation and things like that. So little things like that make a tremendous difference, and the people are very excited about that.
There is one item in here that I'd like to mention. I did mention it with Bailey,
on the
$2,000
for the, arts.
It's in the wrong program, so we would like have that move from special projects.
That group for special projects for transparency purposes was moved to a new program
to just show the grants that we have for arts. So that includes a $976,000
we have for state money for grants, plus the money we get from NEA.
So if you look at that on my sheet here, I think it's 23.4
special projects. We would like that 15,000 to move up to 23.3
because that's where the payroll is being paid for those people in that division, Georgia Council for the Arts.
After that, the the final items
here are in tourism,
and our friends over at the humanities who spoke about the $110,000
and we are working with them close hand in hand along with the historical society
on the, two fifty celebration this year. We're working on that. We wanna make sure that,
what we're gonna look to do is we're going to have our website
updates where all the communities, they can reach out to us and let us know what they're doing for that special day. This way,
anyone can look at our website and go, hey. What's going on in this location? What's going on in that location? And they can give us that information.
The other piece in here is the World Congress Center,
and Kevin and his team will be talking about that $10,000,000.
If you see that there, you see it's for the Super Bowl. And so that's, another item that if there's any discussion on that or questions, they could probably, without a doubt, handle questions a lot better than I can.
That's pretty much for our amended budget for f y twenty six.
Again, I wanna thank you all for all the help
you do for us because
economic development
is a team sport,
and it starts at the top. And
all our agencies, the governor, the house, the senate, you all know the importance of it. You help us as best you can in giving us the tools,
the right business environment here in Georgia. The weather doesn't hurt even though it was a little crazy the last few days, but it wasn't that bad. Where I came from in New Jersey, it was a lot worse, so we should be very thankful.
With that, sir, and the committee, that's our report. I'm glad to answer any questions. Thank you, sir,
for, for that presentation.
Back to '23,
1.2
on the 3,000,000. Do you anticipate that being
one third tourism, one third
agency marketing, one third recruiting efforts? How do you anticipate I We we Now you said it'll be spinning all three buckets, but how do you anticipate that 3,000,000 being divvied up? We expect they treat 1 and a half to 2,000,000 going towards the tourism and marketing with the World Cup and things like that.
Then we expect about 500,000
comparable to that
4
5 to 700,000
for the, website upgrades.
And our website upgrades, keep in mind, is all interchangeable. That's gonna help with $2.50. It's gonna help with the World Cup and things like that, plus going forward from that. Then the remaining money we're hoping is gonna work with our outside marketing materials for other agencies for other divisions within our agency and upgrades on that.
Alright. Any questions?
Dean Green.
Thank you. Thank you so much. We appreciate that very much.
Going back to the tourism thing,
how much does the state of Georgia take in for every $5 that
we take into?
I'd have to look at that. I that's pretty hard to,
I think, establish. I know years ago,
the department said for every dollar spent, you get a $7.62
return.
I don't know if that's the case. I I don't know. We'd have to I mean,
great question. But to get answers to that, it costs a lot of money to do that type of research.
And so we can dig into that and see if we can come up with a number, but I don't honestly have an answer for that right now. On every dollar that we spend, what the return is on marketing dollars is your question?
Yes. Yeah. We can look into that. I'm sure we have some ballpark. I just don't have it on hand right now, sir. Further question.
The state of Georgia
does a
the amount of monies that we give for
marketing
is very
low. Yeah.
I would like to see if there's a way,
and I believe that $5 is goes to the department
of
through the transportation
as we set it up years ago.
Mhmm. And I think it's
it's beyond the
$100,000
threshold.
I would like for us to look at some way
of looking at that monies
to be divided up into,
our tourism and marketing.
Yeah. I mean,
as the sales and marketing arm for the state,
we've gone through the recession of 08/00/2009.
We had cuts in '11 and '12 and '21.
Our marketing dollars
from o eight to now is 55%
less. We're at 18,000,000. We're down to 8,000,000 now.
So that gives you an idea of where we're at. Yes. It's time that we really took a strong look at that. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, Dean Green.
Mister Gilliard.
Thank you, mister chairman.
I'm related about the upcoming American
two fifty, the anniversary.
Is that gonna be grant privy to the different municipalities,
on those funds? Well, we don't have any grant funds for that. So we're working with humanities and historical society.
Humanities got an additional 110,000
in our budget for f, amended '26.
That's a pass through from us to them. I don't know about any granting what they're doing on that.
I mean, I don't know what kind of funding if they've received anything like that. Now if arts community are doing certain special things, our art grants could help with those types of issues.
And my second question, if you further yield,
always, is an attribute for tourism.
Savannah's number two in feature film.
Are there any plans,
you're talking about marketing, with all that's going on with the film industry,
to kind of do a reboot to to to re retain
other folk to come back to Georgia, is there any effort with our marketing dollars on that? Yeah. We're always trying to market. I mean, the nice thing about, you know, when we had the
film act,
a lot of these agencies and businesses that grew, they grew organically. They don't get the 30%,
you know, discount.
And so the you know, most most other states now have copy with Georgia. I mean, Georgia made a bold move back in 2007 and 2008 when people getting rid of those programs. Georgia said we're gonna institute this
new film tax credit, and it it was tremendous. I mean, we were talking, you know, at one point, you know, maybe,
you know,
$250,000,000
to, like, over $2,300,000,000.
We are having some issues with the Teamsters now, and that's driving a lot of things with the film industry. And,
you know, when
prices like that raise, it's hard to come in here, and they can go somewhere cheaper. So we're we're trying to work through some of those issues right now.
I appreciate it. Thank you.
Can't can't come to a committee meeting with us talking about how we're going to involve the rest of the state when it comes to the soccer games,
coming up. I know that the commissioner mentioned,
the efforts,
during the full committee joint hearings.
But, for the sake of the members who might not have been here, can you update us on where we are
with, with the thought process of bringing,
community leaders from around our state to Atlanta Mhmm. To interact with world leaders who were here,
during those games?
Well, like I said, the website, we're gonna work on that. We're working with the Georgia World Congress Center, and I think they can speak, but there's an activation center there. So what we're trying to do is create, like, an atmosphere at the World Congress
Center where people can come,
have set up about their communities, what their communities have to offer,
talking about watch parties and things like that to communities do to see these things. And all these things are gonna be on our website, how to go about it, what they need to do, and things like that, and any resources that they need or who to contact for that. Will there be an effort to
to communicate to those who are attending the business leaders that that is set up there for that that specific purpose?
So we'll be looking at the business leaders that are looking to come and the business leaders that we are currently
invested in and all business leaders for that matter. I mean, this is an opportunity,
I think, Kevin will say, I think we have this
audience for, like, thirty seven days. Right. And so we wanna make sure that on those off days that they have a whole Georgia to go look at. And so that's what we're hoping to do with these,
monies in our website is to really branch out and talk about that with the help from the World Congress Center and help any communities that they want, but also to really make that an event
where everyone can participate in and enjoy it.
Well, thank you for those efforts. We just wanna make sure that we don't miss the opportunity for rural Georgia to have an opportunity to come up and visit with, with with those who will be here and possibly recruit businesses to their districts as well. And we wanna make sure that it's return visits. Right. You know, we want them here, but we wanna say, hey. Come back. Right.
Thank you. Thank you for that.
Any other questions?
Any other questions? So thank you. Appreciate you being here today. Appreciate
it.
Mister Shane Hicks from g George Environmental Finance.
Thank you for being here today.
Mister Hicks, thank you for being with us today. Thank you for having us, mister chairman and members of the committee. We appreciate the opportunity to present on the amended budget.
My name is Shane Hicks. I'm the director of public affairs and IT for the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority, and I'm joined by Jamie Harden. He is our director of financial services.
Wanna mention we have had a change in leadership over the past few months. In November,
Governor Kemp, nominated and appointed, Trey Bennett to be our executive director.
Unfortunately,
Trey,
had a funeral to attend for a close relative and could not be in person today, so wanted to pass that along.
Along. The Georgia Environmental Finance Authority since 1986,
this is our fortieth year,
has financed more than 6,000,000,000,
in infrastructure projects for water and wastewater, stormwater,
all over the state of Georgia and we also manage several energy efficiency and renewable energy programs,
with federal funding.
We also monitor state fuels tanks to make sure they are staying up to date on all their compliance issues and as mentioned earlier,
we are the lead for ESF twelve, emergency support function twelve, with GEMA and Homeland Security
on energy and fuel. So our staff were busy this weekend, monitoring our power outages and fuel supply,
to make sure there are any urgent resource requests, we're able to get those power and and fuel,
services restored.
The amended budget is pretty straightforward,
for GEFA. We'd refer you to, line 16 8.
We have a $35,000,000,
appropriation recommended by the governor,
to support, natural gas infrastructure.
Last year, the
legislature passed senate
bill 13 and the governor signed it into law giving us the authority,
to finance natural gas infrastructure,
throughout the state.
We have a lot of local gas systems that I think as many of us realize are running into capacity issues with their natural gas infrastructure
and this is vital to support economic development, in the rural parts of our our state and so we are really excited about this program.
It is a natural fit to support what we've been doing for,
the last forty years on water and wastewater.
And so we, we're really appreciative of the governor's recommendation and and and the legislature's support, hopefully, as we go through the session for this 35,000,000 in financing.
With that, I'm happy to take any questions.
Well, thank you for, for being here today and and for that update.
On the,
35,000,000,
do you have adequate staff in place
to handle this new program or will additional staffing be needed in order to get this up and running? We are discussing the possibility of one additional staffer in our energy resources division to help manage this program.
And and with that I I presume that you're currently working on the guidelines that you will use to set forth a competitive process,
for the 35,000,000 the governor's added in the budget. Yes, that is correct. We're working on the framework. We hope to have something by this summer on how the program will work, to provide the low interest financing,
and then from there, we'll move forward to, you know, taking applications and and hopefully awarding some some projects.
Well, thank you, thank you for that update. Any questions?
Thank you. And thanks, to, to the employees who worked during the storm to make sure that, Georgia's needs were addressed. Thank you. I'll pass that along. Thank you very thank you very much.
Department of Community Affairs.
Commissioner Nunn.
This one.
Appreciate the opportunity to be with you, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee.
I'll be brief, as we I know you're running long in the meeting, and I'll just kinda dive in on the tracking sheet.
Christopher Nunn, Department of Community Affairs. Great to be with you all. Certainly appreciate your support. I won't go into the into depth just thanking you for the, the $2,000, but I echo what you've heard from from everyone else. That really does go a long way, and it, tells our employees,
that they are important and that they are valued.
And the great work that they do is,
is really,
is really second to none.
On 166.2
in your tracking sheet,
I will highlight a 50,000,000
ad for a one in one time funds for the state housing trust fund to address homelessness through matching funds for local governments and nonprofit organizations.
I don't think that, you have to look very far, no matter where you are in the state to appreciate there's been a that there is an increase in homelessness. I mentioned at the,
at the joint budget hearing,
this is a very complicated issue.
In fact, I've shared,
I've shared with you all over in the past years that there was a, GAO study a couple of years ago, 2020, actually. It was 2020 data,
that highlighted
that for every
$100
increase in rent,
or in average rent in a community,
there is a corresponding
9%
increase in homelessness.
We know that this is a challenge, that housing is a challenge for many of our 11,200,000
Georgians.
We we also know that while $50,000,000
is a lot of money,
when you look across the state, that that's not, a, an enormous amount of money to address the housing needs across the state. And so the intent with these funds is to target
unsheltered homelessness.
Those folks who are on the street,
and there were a couple of questions that I did make note of in the, in the joint hearing because, it is true that,
you know, trying to address
people,
and their their needs before they become homeless is a,
is an important challenge. We also,
we know that because we administered,
along with a handful of local governments, $1,300,000,000
in one time federal funds,
over an eighteen month period,
two years ago for that purpose. These $50,000,000
will be used to provide flexible grants,
to local governments and nonprofits
who come with solutions that are locally driven. So we believe
that,
the solution to address unsheltered homelessness in Atlanta
looks different perhaps than the solution to address homeless unsheltered homelessness in Savannah,
certainly looks different than the solution to address unsheltered homelessness
in Tifton or Statesboro.
We expect that these funds will simply enable the state
to work alongside
local communities
that are working with their local partners
to address their local needs.
So,
address unsheltered homeless. The second piece that we anticipate
is that these funds will be leveraged. So $50,000,000
would be leveraged
by local skin in the game. That can come from local community commitment. It can come through philanthropic commitment. And to clarify a question that came up, and I think it came up from a senator in the joint hearing,
I am not the fundraiser.
We're not looking to go out and fundraise
to expand this. We simply, in the in a competitive
grant application process,
will look for all of those grants to bring money to the table, and we would be looking to participate alongside those local funds to develop sustainable solutions, whether those are whether that's providing capital, whether that's providing,
for services, wraparound services as a part of an overall
strategy.
So we will absolutely look to leverage these with with matching grants from local communities. And then the third piece,
and and I'll tell you that this is modeled,
in part,
off of what we have seen and talked about with some of our, with some of our sister states. I know there were a handful of us that went out to Texas and met with some folks out there.
Yeah. And they've put some flexible grant funds, made them available to communities.
We don't wanna put a lot of requirements because we wanna allow the local governments to drive the innovative solutions, but we do need some data. And so we also expect there to be a reporting element that is required out of this.
That's really the,
the the the plan, the cursory plan at this point.
But again, we're asking your support for that $50,000,000
ad.
Mister Hicks reported on sixteen eight one in GIFA.
I I will tell you, Trey Bend is off to a great start and he's doing a great job. And, we've talked a little bit about their plans to roll out that new program. And, of course, we will support them any way we are able,
in that regard.
It's at 169.one.
This is actually a reduction,
although it is reflected,
in forestry
and in the ag budget,
as a as an addition. So we're simply moving the recommending that these funds be moved.
Last year, you included $25,000,000
in the budget to address
hurricane disaster response.
And we appreciate the opportunity to stand up a new program
to address hurricane disaster relief. We actually did that in conjunction
with some federal disaster funding as well.
We rolled out a program that was eligible open
to applicants from, local communities, as well as nonprofits.
W I know that we've talked about the fact that, you know, we needed to get blue tarps off of roofs. And I, I got an update from our,
federal funded program. We have had to date, as of yesterday,
5,681
pre applications
from every eligible County,
in the, for, for those disaster funds. And of those pre applications,
1,576
are in process with,
a full application.
So they've been qualified,
and we are assessing the home for, home repair, roof repair, things of that nature.
With with these funds that you appropriated, the 25,000,000,
we have made 17 grants through two grant rounds,
totaling $13,800,000,
thereabouts,
to,
communities
really all across that, affected area from Valdosta to Augusta and,
much rural area in between.
These funds have been, I think, really critical
to address,
non FEMA and non insurance,
related or covered needs in communities that
really needed to address some catastrophic,
issues. You know, culvert repairs,
building repairs that weren't be that weren't, insured,
and weren't gonna be able to wait for federal disaster funds down the, down the road. So we've we've made those grants. The recommendation here is to move
the remaining funds of that 25,000,000
to address timber related,
or timber related disaster needs,
that that, is I think in keeping with the legislative legislative intent of those funds.
And then at sixteen nine dot two,
we have a a recommendation of $15,000,000
to continue the rural site development program. I think I reported the other day, to date, we have made,
11
infrastructure grants,
across the state.
If you think about the history of One Georgia, over twenty five years, we've invested,
about $800,000,000
in communities,
you know, all across the state. Certainly, you know, throughout both of your districts and,
you know, really, I think it's about a 140
counties that have been touched by One Georgia.
Many of those smaller industrial parks,
that locals have marketed for years have been consumed over the last five years as we've had unexpected
or unprecedented,
economic success. And so this is really a program of how do we rebuild,
some of that capacity.
And, we've made 11 grants. We've also extended 11,
like, planning
scholarship grants
for 50 to $150,000
to help communities with some of the engineering
and the design and the environmental studies that are necessary
to pursue the Department of Economic Development's grad certification.
As those communities
achieve grad certification,
we anticipate
a continued pipeline and demand for the for the infrastructure grants. And so that's the, that's the recommendation here is to continue that program with the $15,000,000.
That's really the only, that's all we've got in the amended budget, but I'm happy to entertain questions,
if there are any. Well, thank you, commissioner, for being here and and that, update. And and I do know that the rural site the the rural
important to many communities,
across our state. Any questions from members of the committee?
All right. Thanks so much for being here. Thanks so much.
Director Sabo, come on up.
Georgia Forester Commission.
No, dude. I just forgot how you full screen it.
Oh. I'm pretty sure you probably missed it. Is it on a PDF? It is on the PDF. Oh, that I don't know. I know how to do it on.
I totally forgot how you do this.
I don't know either. You want me to you want me to just put on a thumb Drive?
Alright. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for being here tonight. The floor is yours. Thank you. Appreciate that. And I'd I'd feel like I gotta say for the record, I won't say which past speaker, but somebody made the comment they filmed Stranger Things for eight hundred and four days last year, and that pretty much sums up the forest industry and forestry community. That's that That was a very good representation.
I always like to remind everybody of our mission, vision, and core values and and that really reflects
in in who we are and especially the,
you know,
integrity, respect, equality, using facts to drive our decisions,
and, you know, being responsible for our own success. And that's, to me, that's something I think a little bit rare in government, especially those that that very last one. And I really feel like our folks just embody that.
Quick
highlight on some recovery efforts. And so this this ties back to last year. We were able to,
purchase 29 additional tractors with the 10.9
in in total that we received or sorry. Sorry. The 12,000,000, the 1.1 that we had in our budget and the 10.9 in the amended budget.
Five tractors have been received. The other four, I mean, when I say they're weeks away, they're they are literally weeks away.
The fuel mitigation program, that was the cost share program for landowners to help clean up.
You know, almost almost 2,500
applications.
So we did a second sign up because we reached out to every single applicant that we had to find out where they were, if there if there was help that they needed.
And one thing we were able to do through that program or through those calls were
link loggers who might have been misplaced from the loss of industry
to help them with landowners who had funds to clean up. So that helped bridge the gap, but we did have roughly 16,000,000
in landowners saying they were going to use a federal EFRP fund. So that's why we did the second sign up.
Way more than enough applicants now to to utilize the funds. So,
I maintain that a lot of the and a lot of those landers did indicate that they are waiting on the block grant funding to have money in hand to help a cleanup to begin that program.
Also, we had 3,000,000 of those funds,
separated out to help with the fire lines, forest roads,
over 3,700
miles of roads, and that's or fire lines and roads, and that's just in the impact area. That's not statewide
that we utilize those funds for over 11,000
equipment hours and we'll keep doing free fire lines and breaks until we run out of funds. And just really been an outstanding program
and really important to
to our employees and their safety and we'll we'll get to that later on.
Some key performance indicators that I did not go over in a joint session that I wanted to to highlight.
The first one so far this this fiscal year, over 2,100 wildfires for 11,000 acres.
When you drill down to it, that's a 5.1 acre average for wild fire. So even with the increased fuel loading, the increased fires, we're still maintaining our five to six acre fire average. And really just want to thank our personnel there. And and once again, that ties back into,
you know, this committee and the help that you've given us with the right equipment,
you know, the funding to put those lines in and, you know, be proactive and not just wait.
Forest
management.
Our southern pine beetle spots are greatly down. That was a big concern with with the hurricane.
You know, what type of pine beetle activity will we have. So that those numbers are down 75% from where they were last year. So really just good news from a forest health perspective
there. The other thing that we did and I wanted to highlight was we, we added four additional foresters to the field. So our some of our leadership came together through retirements and they took they took four positions, which
it does decrease promotional opportunity for people. Leader leadership willingly took on more and we were able to put four additional foresters into the impact area to help with the case loads and workloads. And that that so far has just been an outstanding support or outstanding effort.
5.6
turnover last year. That includes retirements. Without retirements,
we're looking at 3.6%
turnover for the agency. So could not be prouder of our our agency, our leadership.
And to me, I think that just speaks to the culture of of where we are and the work that's been done,
you know, by by the members to help
give us the funding and and have the salaries where they should be.
We also
dedicated our building to John Mixon this past year. That was passed last year in a resolution.
So mister Mixon was a former state forester and just really a pioneer in many ways in our industry. So that was a outstanding opportunity that we had.
Diving off into our AF AFY budget, AFY '26 budget.
As everybody said, the,
the employee supplemental to $2,000,
that that goes a long ways. I don't think I have to speak to anybody.
You know, just the cost of living and what that what that is and and
how impactful that can be. So,
this just helps morale, helps
helps folks that may have been putting things on credit cards for too long and just kinda get their feet back underneath them. So just a a huge win and something we fully support within the agency.
107,000
in operational funds for the new helicopter.
That is our, picture of our new helicopter, so we will get that later on this. We will bring it to Georgia later this week. It is in Virginia right now,
doing a few little minor touches on it. So we we told them we don't wanna take ownership until it is a 100% how we want it. But,
obviously, it flies, so that's a good start.
But that 107,000
will be, that's
the last quarter funds of what we'll see
for our FY twenty seven budget.
And that was in conversation with OPB. Just funds we knew we would need since it was an addition to fleet when we talk about fuel, maintenance, everything else.
I'm gonna skip the 10.9 to, Georgia Forestry Innovation Initiative because, I will touch that on next slide.
148,000
in pass through grant funding for Talbot County. That's just our traditional pass through funding. And then there's a 60,000.
It's internal but staying with us, but going from management to our forest protection. So, just wanted to mention that since it's on your sheet.
The last one that's on here that's not part of the timber task force is a 12,000,000 for tractor replacement.
Last year was 10.9, but in total it was 1.1 because we had 1.1 worth of equipment funds. This year, the ask is at 1.1 and in FY twenty seven will be shifted to operational funds to help with the increase in fire. So to get our 12,000,000 total
that we that we were able to obtain last year, it's it's in this year's amended budget.
And happy to have more discussion,
later on if if you would like.
Grover's Forestry Task Force.
I'll start with the mass timber building. So that is actually a picture of a mass timber facility,
just outside of Chattanooga. That's the only one we've been able to find
that may kind of resemble the inside of a a county unit. And that's what we're looking at, something similar within
Morgan County. And that's what the 2.6 is for. It would be the State's
first, as far as the State agency, first mass timber facility.
You know, there's some nuances to it that we want to figure out.
Projection costs,
to be honest, do look like they're roughly 10% more than your average cost, but
we're trying to work with builders and architects who have utilized mass timber before.
What you'll find if an architect or builder has not used it or kind of they shy away from it and they'll price it like they're building a traditional building. But there's a lot of cost gain from when you do when you do start receiving it on-site and start building.
Really good example is a story here for Ponce City Market.
When they were building the mass timber facility adjacent to it, there were six workers
putting the thing together and the building behind it had, you know, 50 plus built in the same size building.
So
we know there's efficiencies to find and and that's our ask is let the Georgia Forestry Commission kind of be the guinea pigs for the state, find those efficiencies,
and how do we start utilizing more mass timber.
Commissioner Harper touched on the Georgia grown wood. That is that is in Department of Ag budget as where it should be. Great partnership between us, Department of Ag, and Forest Industry Partners.
And,
once again, this project specifically, but really all the projects.
Georgia's
behind in the loss of industry and and that's a good thing for many reasons. We haven't lost we recently lost industry, but our other states, South Carolina,
Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, they lost industry years ago. So
we're we're at the back of the line, so to say. And so how do we attract more industry? How do we get to the front of the line? And and that's a big piece of this.
You know, Georgia being the number one state to do business helps our ports, our our rail system, everything that's factored in there. But but how do we help tell our story? And this Georgia grown wood project is a huge part of it.
The,
the increased funds for the Georgia Forestry Innovation Initiative with Georgia Tech, that is,
you may have heard the term like the Re Wood Group out of Georgia Tech. They have been doing the research for years now. So these are not funds to do
research specifically. These are funds to take those research and go scale up
and partner with industry through their transfer technology program and work with our work with our companies within the state. And how do you take those wood products to the residuals?
They use small diameter woods, even the less desirable species, and that's the market we lost. Right? That the small diameter market is the market we lost. So how do we how do they take those species
and turn them into things like pharmaceutical coatings,
carbon black for tires,
just a wide array of different things.
One thing that I I I read a full statement during the joint appropriations, and I don't wanna read it now, but I do wanna make sure I get these numbers right. So the the projection for the two year economic impact could add up to 2,000,000,000 to Georgia's GDP,
and at full maturity could grow up to 80,000,000,000.
Already starting to have conversations
with the, technical college and and, you know, how do we start ramping up programs when we start looking at chemical manufacturing and different things that we typically haven't had tied to forest industry.
You know, and so that we have the workforce to, you know, to see this out all the way to the end. So really excited about this. There's no other states that are doing anything like this that I've seen or I'm aware of, and we're really just blessed to have somebody like a Georgia Tech in this state that that have those knowledge, skills, and abilities.
Wildfire outlook.
The governor mentioned during his presentation over over 4,000 wildfires last year over 26,000 acres. I know 26,000
acres sounds like a lot, but
when we think about how the amount of forested acres we have in this state, that is less than a tenth of a percent of our forested acres that actually burned. So once again, just want to thank our team for the work that they've done.
Outstanding job.
One thing that's actually happening today, it was happening this afternoon,
our our, Okefenokee Swamp down in that Southeast corner is is historically low.
And so there's a meeting happening right now with, really,
our our team leads, ICEs, my deputies down there, and just having a conversation and getting ready for it now. I would rather prepare and it starts raining
and that and hopefully nothing is needed. But, it's looking like it could be a really active spring in the swamp.
So it's, leadership from from Florida, Georgia, the swamp, some federal teams, and really the message being delivered from the Georgia Forestry Commission is
the private forest industry and private forest land owners have had enough over the last several years between Helene, Lawson Mills, and everything else. And so
we're gonna have good, safe, but aggressive firefighting tactics.
And, you know, we're not looking for massive burnouts and and things in the past that may have been past practices. We're gonna we're gonna be really aggressive. So
we'll, I'm, eager to talk to my deputy and see how that message goes over.
I mentioned,
it's it's been busy. So this was last week. It's it's kind of like a tale of two weeks. Right?
These are some fires we've had at night. Just very aggressive,
heavy fuel loading in the impact area for a while. Montgomery County, Tattnall County, that area was really hot.
We've had to limit authorizations and try to get ahead, especially since we've had most of our crews in the north end of the state working.
The rainfall helped, but we did not have enough rainfall to where this threat has gone. So this is something we really expect to pick back up in the upcoming weeks, especially with the amount of wind that we've had.
And then Commissioner Harper mentioned the, partnership that we had for a winter storm firm.
And, I just I love this picture because you have
DNR, GFC,
and Department of Ag, some law enforcement officers all in one. This is about five chainsaw crews with law enforcement support while they're working.
And, so this this was pre storm or smiling, so they had they haven't been running the chainsaw in single digit weather yet. But,
it just, to me, this is how state government should function for us to work together, not duplicate efforts
and and really do good for the citizens.
Latest update is we've cleared 25 counties. And by we, I mean all of these agencies. 25 counties
assessed over 2,500 miles of road,
clear 207 miles of road with full of debris.
We're currently in three counties and as hard as three hit counties, Habersham,
White, and Raven.
And, out of lunch, we still Raven dumped about or not sorry. Not Raven. Habersham gave us about 60 requests of,
county roads that need to be cleared. So
probably another day, day and a half worth of clearing, and then, we will wrap that one up and get everybody home and rested.
With that, I'd like to say thank you and and,
also mention our tagline there at the bottom, the fighting fire, protecting forests, serving Georgia.
And that's something as as we started to get out and talk to people and,
helped tell our story, what do we do? I I will say somebody somebody mentioned that we should change our name. And I said absolutely not. That's that's not happening.
But our
our communications group came up with about, I don't know, about six or seven different taglines and we sent out to all of our employees and overwhelmingly this was their favorite. They thought this is this represented them on and who they are and what they do. And, so I just
couldn't be more proud of them and I I think that is a very accurate accurate description of the Georgia Forestry Commission. So happy to take any questions.
Well, thank you, director and thank you for the great work that
your, your team has done across our state and working to
assist
Georgians,
in time of need. We know that this isn't the first time Georgia Forestry
has responded to an incident. We know it won't be the last, but do appreciate the great work that they do,
day in and day out protecting citizens of our state.
And, look forward to the,
additional conversation as we move forward with the transfer of funds over,
to move,
research to the next level to assist
an industry that has,
as you've mentioned, has had enough -Yes, sir. -Uh, that, from mill closures to the impacts of jobs,
the nearly 3,500
30 3,500
direct and indirect jobs that have been impacted by the closure of mills, the impact on the landowners.
And, and not just those, but also the
contractors that work with those mills. I mean, it's a ripple effect across all our communities across across Georgia from, Savannah and International Paper to Cedar Springs on the West Side of state. So, it's, it's very important we continue to work with, with you and your team and the industry to move the industry forward during this difficult time. As you've said many times over, we need that next hurty moment. -Yes, sir. -And it's coming. So we look forward to working with you,
on that. And just for, gratification of members of the committee, we do have the governor's task force report that was also on the desk of the members,
this morning,
that was, task force that was convened after the, announcement of the closure of international paper and and other mills to, to give us a deeper dive. So thank you for the great work that you've done. We know it has not been an easy couple of months.
But, thank you for the work that you continue to do as we move the state forward. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chamber. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Duvall, Georgia World Congress Center.
Center.
Well, good afternoon, Chairman Meeks. Thank you and the committee for your time today. Thank you, Bailey, for getting us all set up here. We'll be working from,
the tracking sheet, page 10 on the tracking sheet for the worldcongresscenter50.1.40one,
and I also understand there may be something under economic development that we wanna cover. But thanks so much again for for allowing us to be here today. I want to start off by
hopefully
okay.
Well, okay.
Alright. Here. You always have to carry a backup, so hold on there and then stand by.
Alright.
Bailey, is it okay if I, I mean, take this out?
I gotta
Oh, thank you.
Mhmm.
Alright. Let me try to drive again here. Oops.
That's the wrong one.
Alright.
Okay. Let's try that again. Chairman, excuse me about that.
Recently just released our FY last fall FY '25 economic impact.
Clearly, the events we host on our campus, it's well known that they generate economic impact, support jobs, and helped, at least this, fiscal year, dollars 1,900,000,000.0
in economic impact.
One of the things we've been working on that, I think is important to, illustrate a little bit further and maybe take a closer look at is a heat map of where we spend some of our dollars in GWCCA managed facilities
across the state of Georgia. And so we've worked with collecting some of our, partners that we work with and where we spend our money across the state of Georgia. And so, what you see before you is just kind of a version one. We're continuing to work on, several versions of this of where we have economic impact. And important for me and important for everybody in the state of Georgia to know is a 101 out of a 159 counties we have impact in or spend money in, whether that's buying goods or personnel or people living there, in those counties. And so that equates to about $290,000,000.
Certainly always,
pleased and and wanna say thank you to the governor and and the legislature for the support that we receive on all the capital requests that we have in the past.
Reflective on on the screen before you is obviously the transportation terminal and pedestrian mall, but also, the, end result of the Signia by Hilton Atlanta. That's we just finished our second year of operation, believe it or not. I can believe remember talking about it going to be open. We've, finished our second year of operation. It's done really well. But, we had an investment of our of the World Congress in over half $1,000,000,000
for that, facility.
Other projects we completed that we're putting in action today,
is inclusive of, the BC Exhibit Hall. And so,
certainly excited about that. IPPE is in the house right now. International
Production and Processing Expo or poultry as some of us used to call it, but they've, relabeled and also have the meat industry with them. But, they're 600,000
square feet going strong right now, open this morning, and, 30,000 folks are in town for that show.
Clearly, the Orange Deck helps us, take care of all the the folks we have there, so we're appreciative of that funding too.
Funding in progress right now,
anytime you have to, replace over a million square feet of roofing,
it does take some time. I'm happy to report that we're about 70% of the way there and on our final building of,
roof replacement,
escalator modernization, we're, replacing 35 escalators within the facility and that takes time too and pleased to report we're 66% complete and,
continue on that journey and you can see the estimated time we believe will be done there. I think I reported back to you some of the money we, received for HVAC that some were replacing some of our rooftop units on top of the Congress Center. Sometimes those require helicopter put on top of the Congress Center. So that's what you see in the photo there.
You kinda wrap it up and put it all together here,
and really look at it. You know, the Congress Center, we're big believers in reinvesting in the facilities too. We know we know we can't,
reinvest everything we have, but anything that we make extra we try to reinvest in and that's what this slide shows you that since 2002 we've, reinvested $174,000,000
within the Congress Center to try to help match some of the funding that we receive from the state.
Well, the big question I think is, FIFA. FIFA World Cup is coming and I I took note of your your comments earlier. And so just, as a reminder,
I think the sports council or metro chambers are represented in the room, so, we are part of the host committee along with the ACVB, the metro chamber sports council,
Mercedes Benz Stadium, the city of Atlanta. All of us are part of the host committee that put on these great events. Obviously, the state of Georgia is very involved with these events too. And we're super excited about having that this year. I think you know, eight matches, and that's what's gonna happen inside the bins.
But also, we are gonna host a fan festival in Centennial Park. And so the fan festival I mean, the atmosphere around FIFA, I think John said it was about thirty seven days,
but we are gonna extend that on our campus in several locations. So first is Centennial Olympic Park. Right now we're, designated for twenty one days of being open around matches. Now some of them will be our match days that we're open, the day before or day after, and then some of the key matches that you'll see. So in Centennial Olympic Park, you'll have music, food,
and you'll also be able to watch matches, that are gonna happen,
in and around the tournament as it's here.
Additionally, I think what's kinda unique is thirty years to the almost the date after we hosted, the world,
gathering for the Olympic games, we'll host FIFA World Cup in Centennial Olympic Park again. So that's pretty pretty neat. Big piece there, open to all Georgians,
so it's free event. So we we're excited about that, but we're also excited for our visitors that will be be coming. So if anybody wants to across the state to come, we'll we'd be happy to host them, in the during the FIFA Fan Fest, in Centennial Olympic Park.
I think also what was mentioned is,
we we've conceptualized and we're beginning to activate against, to lay out, you know, the World Congress Center's big stage at the end of the day, and we have a lot of space available. And so really working with the Department of Economic Development,
Department of Agriculture, DNR, etcetera, we're trying to get a coalition
around that we can basically focus and and and show off Georgia inside the Congress Center during FIFA World Cup. And again, I think that's important for
us to do, not only on match day, but then the other days that surround the the, experience here. Because obviously, we want to drive and show everybody that we're the number one state to do business in at the end of the day.
I mentioned to you the big hitter in the in the middle there, the IPPE show. Certainly excited about them. Sports may be the headline on top, but we have a lot of a lot of book, a lot of business on the books for now and into the future. And those are some of the significant trade shows that we host, and some of the other sporting events that we host at the World Congress
Center. We have exactly one request,
that the,
the governor was, we appreciate putting in the amended fiscal year budget, and that is electrical system replacement. Now, electrical system is one of those things you know when you're when it's not working, but you may not it may not be the thing you see out front. But if the lights aren't working or you have trouble with, you know, the 600,000 square feet of exhibit space, exhibits we have right now, and electrical, then then you know it's not working. But really for us,
it's about improved reliability,
safety,
efficiency, and infrastructure.
And at the end of the day,
your support of our request for $12,000,000
in the amended fiscal year budget is really gonna help,
support and approve would authorize commencement of the project,
for us at the end of the day. It encompass developing a comprehensive design and really push us off on the procurement of equipment for a phase one approach.
You know we were born, in multiple phases,
five to be exact. So we won't be able to tackle it all with $12,000,000, but this will certainly get us started and give us a roadmap to get there.
Just some of that fun stuff that you don't see behind the walls of equipment that's, aging out. We'll also look at transformers, lighting controls,
bus duct, that support our activities on the exhibit hall, where we wire up all those great shows,
that come to,
Georgia and the city of Atlanta,
and also look at our emergency power.
So
last but not least, thank you. We appreciate it. I think,
with the metro chamber in the room, just addressed that we've also, I think, under on page six
of, Department of Economic Development's, information. There's funding, one time funding, non recurring funding set aside for Super Bowl. I think that's pretty consistent with what what you've done, for other large events we have. FIFA World Cup,
most, most notable thus far.
Obviously, that would be important funds that the host committee and the World Congress Center as a state entity would keep would shepherd through the process if that indeed is something that's gonna get continue to be funded.
It helps cover public safety infrastructure, and the like. And I'll,
you know, check with my colleague from the Chamber, Nick, and see if I've if there's anything else we wanna talk about that. But that's definitely in the budget process. So I'll stop right there and help answer any questions.
But and last but not least, mister chairman, I forgot to recognize the most important people in there. And that's Lindsey Strickland, our vice president,
of government affairs, Janet Fenelinson, our chief financial officer. And actually, I have two of my colleagues from Savannah here. Kelvin Moore is our senior vice president and general manager and helps us manage the Savannah Convention Center. And then Al Rojas is our vice president
and assistant general manager. So Shouldn't have done that. I'm gonna help bail you out since she did that. I won't have to do that for you.
Hey.
On the 10,000,000, can you talk about a little bit more what that would that be more security cost or will it be split? Yeah. I think, it's important to, remember we're already in the planning cycle. So we're we're moving down the planning cycle right now. Obviously, the Super Bowl this year, we're we're our hyper focus is on,
FIFA and execution against that. But, you know, two years out is really the planning cycle. You send people out to see the Super Bowl. You look at the new nuances of it. You're planning against public safety needs, infrastructure needs, etcetera. What we're gonna do, we're gonna do something in Centennial Olympic Park, etcetera. And so I think,
this gives kind of certainty to that approach as we as we move forward. And the good news is it's just a one time, request.
Great. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here today, and thank you for all that you're doing to promote Georgia. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.
And mister Kelvin Moore.
Okay. Very good. Thank you.
Good afternoon, mister chairman.
Thank you for being here today. Thank you for having me. And then there was one.
My name is Kelvin Moore. I'm the senior vice president for the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, and,
general manager for the Savannah Convention Center. And this is Kevin just introduced. I have my colleague with me,
mister Albre Haas, our vice president
and assistant general manager. Let's see
here. Boom. There we go.
So today, I'm gonna, have the privilege of of giving you a lot of the good news that's happening down in Savannah
and,
review one of the items we have in the governor's
amended budget. So so first,
2025
is the twenty fifth anniversary of the Sedona Convention Center. It's, been a very consequential
and impactful year,
for the convention center.
First,
we were able to complete the expansion
of the Savannah Convention Center, a $276,000,000
project, of which we are very thankful for the governor and the entire legislature for your support on that.
That project allowed us to double the capacity of the convention center from 330,000
square feet to 660,000
square feet.
What that does is allow us to raise and and ranking as far as square footage and improves our competitive positioning
with cities like Nashville and Tampa and Austin and Richmond. It allows us to really step up in weight class and and generate more economic impact for the,
for the city and for the state.
We have been rocking and rolling since the day we we opened the doors there. We started off with a Nike Savannah showdown,
volleyball tournament with 14,000,
young girls and their families, and we have not stopped since then.
The other big news coming out of Savannah is the development of a new headquarter hotel.
It is a signia by Hilton property,
444
rooms,
about a 33
construction time,
that is planned for opening in 2028.
What those two projects do for the Savannah Convention Center for the destination,
it really completes the overall package.
Again, it improves our competitive positioning with all of our comp set and most importantly, it allows us to generate more economic impact and more impact for those in the region there.
So so how's it going? Right?
The chart on the on the screen now will show you all of the event activity we have on the books through fiscal thirty one. And what this shows is that we have 320
events on the books through fiscal thirty one,
and 215
of those events are utilized in expansion space. What does that mean? That means for not the expanded convention center,
we might not have been able to get the majority of those 215 events. So the expansion is paying off. The the state investment in that expansion is paying off. And if you can see that the outer years, you have fewer events,
events book many years in advance. So we we expect the impact to be significant.
I'm gonna report on you right now for FY '25, but our FY '26 is is even better.
So we're very we're feeling very, very good about where we are from a from a booking pace.
By the numbers for fiscal twenty five, we had a 162
events,
400 event days, over 200,000
attendees.
The statistics I'm most proud about is a 96.1
customer satisfaction rating because you can have the the best brick and mortars and all of that,
in a property, but if your people aren't treated well, and if they're not treating our guests well, they won't come back. So we're very proud of that.
But impactful,
the convention center supports roughly 28,000
jobs
in in the Savannah region that are related to events and hospitality.
And in f y twenty five, the economic impact
from convention center events was a $183,000,000
for the county, and a 100 just under a $121,000,000
for the state of Georgia.
We are here to to seek
the committee's approval for one item we have on the
in the in the governor's amended budget.
Couple of things I just wanna make sure that I that I stress is the Savannah Convention Center is a state owned facility.
It is on state owned land.
It is governed by state enabled authority and managed by state enabled authority. So this is a state project,
managed for the benefit of the state.
Savannah George Commission Center Authority is self sustaining, has never come to the to the state for any operating,
support.
The $276,000,000
for the expansion was a pretty big nickel, though, so thank you again for that.
But we're we're pretty proud of how we've managed to to do things down in Savannah.
The next slide will show you what we've done as as far as capital self funding. Over the twenty five years of the convention center in into this current fiscal year, it's about $41,000,000
in capital projects
that have been funded by the Savannah Georgia Convention Center Authority through its own funding mechanisms.
You will see that the most recent years, that number has
increased. Why? Because the existing part of the building is twenty five years old. And as you've seen with our friends at the Georgia Rail Congress Center Authority,
when those stairs and escalators and HVAC units get 25 years old, those expenses begin to increase.
The project that we have, before you today is, in I believe it's in the tracking sheet on page ten,
fifty point one point thirty two,
and it is a $5,000,000
request in the governor's amended budget,
for river walk repairs. This this project, broadly speaking,
it enables to to serve,
to connect the entire campus, community center, including the the hotel that is under construction.
It improves the walkability and the connectivity,
completes the campus. And again, it's it's all part of that improving our competitive
positioning.
It is a two phase project. The first phase, which we are just about complete with, is,
the rule and force in the bulkhead structural integrity, all of the work underground there. And phase two, which we hope to to,
initiate soon,
is to complete the utility infrastructure underground and then come above ground to begin the beautification pavers and lighting and and landscaping things of that nature.
This slide that's up now kinda shows you the area
in red
where the the work has,
has been going on, and the area that we hope to complete.
The next photo kinda shows you a before
when we began that work, which we are we are well underway.
And the next photo kind of gives you a sense of where we were just two days ago. So the teams there have been working very, very hard to get that done.
That river walk completion again, it's very important to the overall package, to the Savannah Convention Center, and to the competitiveness,
of the destination overall.
And, again, we are seeking your support,
for the $5,000,000
projects in the governor's amended budget for this project. Happy to answer any
questions. Thank you, for that update. Just, an
economic question, I guess, when when you were talking about the number of,
events that have been booked. Mhmm.
Twenty five and twenty six,
And then 27 that falls off pretty significantly. Of course, there was a nice jump in '26. Mhmm. It falls off of '27. Do you anticipate more being booked? Absolutely. Four twenty seven out of Yeah. You know, not being in the business, how far out in advance for some of these, some of these booked? Yes. So the way that the the sales process works in Savannah, not dissimilar to Atlanta, but a smaller scale,
we partner with Business Savannah, our destination marketing organization.
They handle all of the event sales eighteen months and out. Our sales team handles the event sales eighteen months in. It is not untypical for you to see the out years where the numbers are smaller. As you get into those years and closer to those years, they rise up. I would suggest to you that coming in f y twenty
six,
we had
roughly 60% of where we ended up
on the books. A lot of that is our team going out in the year four of the year hunting and killing the the the events that we need.
Okay. Well, thank you for the great work you are doing, and thank you for being here today. Thank you very much.
Alright, ladies and gentlemen. With that, no question from members of the committee. We will stand adjourned. Thank you for your attendance today.