02/09/2026 Senate Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Economic Development and Tourism

There, in the back of the room, if you haven't, make sure you grab one. I always tell people when they come to the farm, on a tour, we always we go out on the farm. We do the whole hayride and all that, and then we finish up at the ice cream machine. So if the tour sucks, the, at least you got something good to eat. So, I don't know.

This is my first one of these. See, y'all just bear with me. I I promise it's gonna be funny. I can assure you that, this morning. Leader Andrew Vittarte, do you mind opening this up in more to prayer?

Yes, mister chairman. Sounds I'm on board. Sounds like we need it. Hopefully, this ride don't crash. Dear heavenly father, thank you for bringing us here this morning.

Hope everyone had a restful weekend. I just wanna pray that you watch over us, bless us, and allow us to live within your grace as we take on tough issues and live in this tough society right now. I ask that you bend everyone's heart, mind to collaborate and work together for the people of Georgia. Amen.

Thank you, leader. We'll go ahead and get into this, and I I just you know, again, this being my first time, chairing, a committee like this. I I just wanna say that I appreciate, Wynonna and her team down at, the the budget office, prepping me so much. And then, folks over at economic development and DCA who I've met with. Thank you all for coming and walking me through this, as as much as you can.

You know, I think this is a whole team effort. That's what I've been learning since, since I was down here, my first day in January. So, it very much, and this is a team process. So I appreciate y'all, coming to the office and walking me through, line by line. So thank you all very much.

With that, I'm gonna ask, commissioner Nunn if you'll come up. Yes, sir.

Okay. Thank you, mister chairman. Members of the committee? Great. We certainly see that here in Metro Atlanta.

But in addition, if you look at, the homeless population census, you know, whether it's Bibb, Clark, Hall, Stevens, Chatham, Glenn, really all across the state, there are needs. We believe that, those needs are best addressed and solved through locally driven solutions. This line item simply would, would provide funding for the State Housing Trust Fund to support local communities in addressing their local needs with, matching funds. The the intent here is a program that is highly flexible, again, to enable Stevens County or Liberty County to address their issues through, through their solution, which may look very different than Savannah or Atlanta. So flexible funds that would be granted to the community who would be expected to put significant matching funds in.

So, you know, essentially matching those dollars so that we can stretch the 50,000,000, even further. And that can, would be expected to come from local governments and also from philanthropic providers. And then lastly, the the third condition that we aim to put on these funds is the requirement for them to track and provide us with the tracking data so that we have a better we have better visibility into the homeless population across the state. I've got a lot of questions about this. And I think one thing that is important to, to, illuminate as we have begun to build this program out is that, there are some communities that already have that have been raising money to, to address some of their needs.

Maybe it's through capital to build shelters or maybe it's through, you know, expanded, capacity through to, provide wraparound services, we would expect to do a first round of grants very soon, you know, provided the funding, provided that you appropriate those funds. But we also know that some of the more rural communities in the state may not be able to move quite as quickly. So I would anticipate that these funds would be deployed through two or three rounds of competitive grant funding. So we would, expect to get, grants from communities, for requesting these funds. We would evaluate those through a competitive process.

And, again, I think we would expect to move quickly for those communities that are already down the road on this, and and then, also preserve funds so that we could do another round of funds probably the latter part of this calendar year. That was one question that I've received. Another question that came up in the joint, appropriations hearing was just a question about really compliance. And I think it's important because I know people have, have seen, you know, other states and listened to, you know, how grants work in other states. I think it's really important that we remember that, you know, this is Georgia.

And the way that we administer grants, is these grants are reimbursable grants. And that's really important from a compliance standpoint because it means that you've actually spent the dollar to do what you said you were gonna do before we we reimburse those funds. So reimbursable grants is a big big important part of compliance. And then also, and I'm really proud of our teams, but we do a lot of compliance work including site visits. And it's amazing how much you can find out by just going and visiting somebody's operation to understand what they're doing.

Happy to take any questions, but I'll keep moving if

I appreciate your presentation on this. The question I've got is around so they do a grant application. What are they telling you in that grant application?

Well, so we haven't we haven't developed the program yet. This is a a new program.

Mhmm.

But as I think that what we would be expecting is, what do you plan to do? What's What's your objective? How many people are you gonna serve? What is what is the proposed outcome, and how are you gonna fund it? Because we're not gonna fund the entire as I said, we expect to leverage these funds.

So what is the, what are the local funds you're bringing to the table, and and also how you'll sustain and and also how you'll sustain that program? Because these are one time funds. It's intended to help you to, address a need upfront. For example, yeah, there there are communities like, there's some communities in the state I can think of four or five at least, that have built, small tiny homes to to serve their veterans' homeless population. That that requires upfront capital, but it also requires ongoing operating cost.

If if you come to us requesting capital to build or to purchase shelter for, to to serve your population, we're gonna wanna understand how do you operate that? How are you gonna fund that? What are the, local sources you're bringing to the table? There are other communities, that actually don't have a lot of services, in their community. I can think of several, local, local governments that have pretty significant challenges in the southern part of the state that literally have no organized ability to address homelessness in their community.

And they've started to have encampments that have started to encroach on their downtowns, their their close proximate, close proximity to the interstate. And in those communities, I could imagine, although we have not rolled out a program yet, so we have not seen any competitive, applications, that in those communities, they may be looking at some of their churches or philanthropic organizations to build some capacity. And if that community came to us and needed help with wraparound services, then that would also be, what we would fund. Happy to walk through the details of the of the, what we're asking for in the application once we develop Yeah.

I mean, I I guess what I'm after you said that you'd give a maximum flexibility. And there's some programs that work. There's some programs that are just throwing money away. There's some programs that actually encourage homelessness or or I I I know a county where they flock there because Right. It's like they they bust them in because of what they're doing.

And and so, I I appreciate the flexibility to give the local governments, but I hope that, you know, whatever you draw up is gonna be based on science and not just somebody doing something.

I I couldn't appreciate that comment more. And I I would like to just highlight, you you added the term maximum to flexibility. The point about flexibility is that that the that the program, would would be able to fund a solution in Stevens County that looks different than a solution in Fulton County. And we believe, based on lots of conversations all across the state that, you know, the needs in, or the approach in Macon Bibb or the approach in Tifton or the approach in Statesboro probably does look a little different than the approach in Downtown Atlanta. So the flexibility is intended to allow communities that flexibility.

But, no. I I couldn't appreciate more your your point about, you know, that that these need to be solutions that were or, proven solutions that work.

Alright. And then, the other thing is I know you said there would be reporting, and we've run into a lot of times where people just don't turn in their reports. And we gotta look

for

them. And several different agencies around there, well, they never turned them in. So, you know, I always I always get concerned that the reporting end of it doesn't happen after the money's given.

Yeah. No. I I appreciate that too. And, happy to talk to you offline about any of that that you are interested in. There's a there's a tool and is actually part of the, of the federal, response, but it, it's called the homeless management information system or HMIS.

You know, we get audited all the time. We, have lots of, people that that look into our systems. And fairly consistently folks say this is the best information that is available. You're only required to use that tool if you receive federal funds, but based on all of the, based on all of the feedback that we have gotten from both providers and, you know, some of you, we believe that that would be a that's the best way to capture data. And so the intent is that we would require anyone who received the state funds to also use that that, that reporting tool.

Alright.

I'm I'm that's fine, Drew.

Hey, mister chairman. Commissioner, is there is there anything in recent memory, last ten or twenty years that, would resemble this budget line item that, senator Hauseitler's referring to, trying to address housing in in such a bold fashion? Is there anything in the last twenty, twenty five years? I mean, I've lived in the state and, you know, around this city most of my life, and I don't know where the city, the state has kinda provided such a huge investment.

So if I could expand your question beyond the the, beyond the point about specifically as it relates to homelessness. I think we do a really good job as a state, and as an agency on your behalf as the administrators of appropriate at coming alongside local government. Right? We could pull it to, we can point to one Georgia and many of our economic development and housing programs. You appropriated money.

I'll get to it here in just a few minutes, around disaster recovery. Your constituents your constituents all across the state. And so we, are in a good position to come alongside local government, to have local strategies, who have local skin in the game, and us to help them to address what amounts to expensive but important solutions. As, you know, when you narrow this with the prepositional phrase around, specifically housing, I cannot think of anything that the the state has done in this regard. In fact, fact, for the last thirty years, the state housing trust fund has simply drawn down, federal matching dollars, which, so so, I think that there are plenty of examples of programs like this that we've been able to successfully administer state money to come alongside local governments and to address solutions.

Thank you.

To go a little bit further than senator Hussettler, if you you don't mind, mister mister chairman, just I think after the, you know, the recent outcomes or lack of outcomes in some communities we've seen with federal, COVID money and other national or federal grant programs, I think in terms of measuring outcomes, transparency, tracking, those things, I think, for us, is gonna be highly critical because, I mean, right now, even in my own district, I'm still digging out school systems that took federal money that baked it into their budgets that are now basically bankrupt, and I'm sure there's other school districts around the state. Some of that capacity building they did, you know, was mental health. Some of it was housing. Some of it was they can't even explain it. So I'm, you know, a little I don't know what word I wanna use, but, wanna make sure we're very mindful in, you know, detail.

I mean, we we wrap pretty decent details around a lot of the programs when we talk about wrap services and things, and, I'm actually surprised this part of the budget made it through the house as much as they usually dislike talking about wrap services. But I think before we get the final passage, I think trying to understand what does that look like, what is capacity building, what are the outcomes you're gonna measure. The other thing too, is truly, you know and you may not be able to do this, but, you know, what is the Metro Atlanta versus rural mix? Is most of this $50,000,000 going to the city city of Atlanta for one time funding for for FIFA? That's that's the optics outside this building.

But that

and that's not the case. That was not certainly not

the

what's what was designed or communicated to us. Although I certainly expect and as I mentioned on, when I was presenting initially, we do know that there are communities like, those in Metro Atlanta that have already raised, raised, you know, money, to address needs and need additional gap funding. And we would certainly be prepared to move quickly, in order to address those needs. We also know that other communities in the state for whom this is intended, wouldn't be that far along, which is why we would be doing, we would aim to, deploy these funds over multiple rounds of competitive grants to enable communities, in your parts of the state, to to be able to participate in that program.

Yeah. The only thing I'm gonna say to that I agree with you. Only thing I'm gonna say to that too, and I'll express this to the city of Atlanta, is just I mean, there is a issue in Downtown Atlanta. I think some of us would say there is. Some some may not.

But if there is any large chunk of funding that's gonna be sunken into Atlanta because of, you know, tourism, you know, my my request and expectation is at least there's some level of what is the same sustainability. It's not just around we have events coming up in a few months, and, you know, we'll host in a couple years of Super Bowl and then whatever the next thing is. But, you know, the erosion of the neighborhoods that are that is around Downtown Atlanta, when these events coming in terms of, you know, bringing vibrancy back to the city because I think we all would agree. I know the mayor disagrees. You know, we've had a friendly conversation about it.

You walk down Peachtree Street. I mean, it's like, you know, a city of zombies. I mean, literally, it's not alive like when I was in college at Georgia State. So, just wanna be mindful of that. And then, like, do you have an expert that's gonna be able to manage this fund, or you're gonna have to go out and find somebody to

No. We to do this. We have the team that can manage the the funding. Again, we're not trying to dictate the solution. Right.

We we we are perfectly capable of But

in terms of building the, you know That's right. Requirements that I think that senator Hossettler is asking.

That's exactly right. Okay. And and, yeah, we're we're we are, we're ready to go on that.

Alright. Thanks, commissioner. Thank you so

much for all of those questions.

Just a couple points. We talked in, when in in my office, when you talk about these communities that offer a lot of services, and those tend to be in in the part of the world where I live, that makes makes us a magnet. And I, you know, just going forward, you know, I don't I hate to reiterate it. Nobody likes to work in a fence, but, you know, we've gotta be mindful about the the communities who are shipping people to other communities who are providing, those services. And my fearless leader down there, he's picking on tourism a little bit, but down there in down in the on the coast, there's one of those exits, somewhere between, Savannah and Jekyll, and the hotel rates are plummeting, and it's panhandlers in a homeless camp.

And, you know, so these are obviously things that are affecting us all over all over the state, but thank you for the clarity. And I think, you know, as as you guys develop the the plan, it would be great to to be able to look over that.

Absolutely. And and before I move on in the budget, I just wanna say thank you for all of the feedback, that that, was encapsulated in the form of questions. Very helpful, and, thank you for your consideration.

Thank you, commissioner.

So I've got, just a couple of other items, and, I'll I'll point you to page nine in your tracking sheet. I think you're gonna hear from from my colleagues at GIFA, so I won't go into the details. But eighty two one and eighty two two, involve, appropriations to GIFA. And then on page 10, there are two items at 83. The first is eighty three dot one.

Last session, the general assembly, requested that we administer $25,000,000 in one Georgia funds for a disaster recovery program, and this was on the heels of hurricane Helene. You specifically asked that we, enable nonprofits to be eligible. I think this actually gets to, you know, one of the things that we were just talking about. We we were able to, open up this program to, eligible nonprofits. I think there were some barriers there that were, you know, difficult to overcome.

For example, you know, if you were a nonprofit that was applying for funds, you had to be, audited and have a clean clean audit. We, we also because all of our all of our grant funds are reimbursable funds, you know, we don't just give you money to go do something, and then you come back and tell us what you did. We we actually didn't have any nonprofits to compete in, but we did, we were able to grant about 13,000,000 in, and change in funds to affected communities for specific, hurricane disaster, projects. We've we've completed two rounds of competitive grant funds, on, on that program, and we've got federal funds that are now available. And so the recommendation here is just to sweep that 11, 1,000,000 and change, and, repurpose that for, some timber related disaster issues.

That's 83 dot one on page 10. And then directly under that, at eighty three two is a $15,000,000, ad in the governor's budget that the house supported for rural site development. Two years ago, really on the heels of twenty five years of successful, one Georgia grants across the state, you know, we we had a pretty healthy infrastructure of economic development sites. Given the great work, with the governor's leadership and with Pat and his team, and all of the local communities, that have been working hard and, just realizing unprecedented success, many of those sites have been taken down, or off the market or or actually put to good use. That's the appropriate way.

And so this program was intended to, help us to rebuild some of those smaller local, economic development sites. Over the last two years, we have made a number of grants to local communities all across the state in the form of infrastructure grants. And then we have also, given some, grad or Georgia ready for, accelerated development scholarships to about 12 communities across the state. The grad program is administered by the Department of Economic Development. It says that you meet all the criteria that, that make you, you know, really ready to go.

And, we we've only granted those, infrastructure funds to community or to sites that were grad certified. These 11 or 12 sites that have gotten a scholarship, have been doing all of the prework, the engineering, the planning, in order to pursue that. And so we do expect that many of them will be coming back, to request infrastructure funding, and that's what that 15,000,000 is intended to, to address. Happy to answer any questions, but that's, that's all I've got in my budget.

Thank you. Appreciate you, commissioner.

Thanks so much.

All good.

Alright. Now we've, got the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority. We're gonna hear from those good folks.

Good morning. Morning, mister chairman, members. My name is Trey Bennett. And, as of November '25, I'm the new executive director for the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority. As you know, GIFA works with local communities in Georgia to provide low interest loans to finance water and sewer infrastructure projects and administers federal funds for energy projects across Georgia.

We also monitor state fuel tanks to ensure safety and compliance, and we're the lead agency for emergency support function number 12. We coordinate with GEMA and the Department of Homeland Security to restore damaged fuel systems during natural disasters or other emergencies. In addition to these responsibilities, last spring, the legislature new frontier for our agency, and we look forward to helping Georgia's communities advance energy and economic development projects in the future. We look forward to helping Georgia's communities advance energy and economic development projects in the future. If you look at page number nine, under 82.1, you'll see that governor Kemp has recommended GEFA.

And, additionally, under 82.2. It's my understanding that the house is also recommending another $50,000,000 in funds for rural infrastructure for economic development. We're grateful to them for this recommendation as well. With that, I'll be happy to answer any questions that you may

have. Go ahead, chairman.

35,000,000. He's he's new at this. I have to help him.

He wants to he wants to make sure everybody hears you.

The the millions watching at home. You know? But because you're chairing the meeting, they all tuned in.

Well, my mom's

Super Bowl

was not.

Yeah. The the 35,000,000, explain where that gas infrastructure is going to. I know I should remember that, but I don't.

Sure. So, like I said, senate bill number 13 gave us the authority to to fund loans for natural gas infrastructure. And Mhmm. So in the past, we've primarily done water and sewer. We have a revolving fund that has been funded previously for those projects.

This $35,000,000 would allow us to create an additional fund to fund these natural gas projects. So we would

So you don't have any specific projects at this time?

No, sir. Not at this time. We're in the process of creating, an application process, on getting ready to do underwriting and all of that, to be able to fund these.

Okay.

Anybody else? Cool. And later?

Thanks. This is more of a we can talk offline about this, but do you have data? I'll get with you after the meeting or couple next couple days. Just showing if there's any trends over the last twelve months or since or even the last twenty four months where you're seeing an acceleration, of places around the state asking for grants, loans, funding, to build water infrastructure, water reservoirs, anything like that. You don't have to answer that now, but just I just to talk and just in terms of kinda where are we seeing, you know, the water trend going.

And I and I know there's economic development considerations. There's population considerations. Honestly, I know in my part of the state, there's a lot of housing considerations that, are concerning in many ways because in some in a lot of ways, more housing is bringing less money to the digest, whereas, you know, a manufacturing or logistics facility or, commissioner previously, as he mentioned, a lot of that rural one Georgia money, you know, for site development and things like that, I know is highly important. But how those things are being kinda pulled together if we looked at a community strategic plan. So just I just wanna learn more kind of where you think over the next five or ten years we're going as a state, and we can talk about that offline.

Absolutely. Thank you. And and I will say I don't have specific data in front of me right now that I can answer you with. I'm happy to speak with you offline. That said, as the state grows, the need is increasing dramatically, and we also have a significant amount of aging infrastructure in our communities, specifically in rural areas of the state.

There there's a tremendous need there for new updated repairs and also new facilities. So I'm happy to meet with you anytime that you'd like. Thank

you. Is that that 35,000,000, is that for new gas lines, or is can existing gas lines, maintenance, repairs, whatever, expansion?

The statute's pretty broad. It just gives us the authority to fund natural gas projects. So, I would assume that those repairs or replacements or new infrastructure would be eligible.

K. Thank you. Any other question? Sounds good. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Alright. Now we're gonna hear from commissioner Wilson and his team at the Georgia Department of Economic Development.

Chairman, good morning.

Good morning. Good morning.

Committee, how are y'all?

Good to see you. Happy day after the Super Bowl.

That's a problem.

I can tell, Frank. Chairman, we've got a, the the governor was was kind to us this year. And, you know, as we've talked about a little bit in some of the previous, previous, speakers, we've got a an unprecedented opportunity this year with the, World Cup coming to Georgia, to not only do we have eyes on the state, but you've got people coming for these matches. Our goal with the department is to utilize that that opportunity and try to make sure that that not only can we capture more tourists and get those tourists to come to Georgia, but we've got seven divisions in our department that all touch and create, jobs. And so how can we leverage the World Cup and then take that into, helping these folks who are visiting Georgia find new Georgia products, potentially create new Georgia businesses?

You know, there are other things that we need to highlight, And so the governor asked us, what would you do if we could fund some additional marketing dollars leading into the FIFA World Cup? And so, as as you will see in your budget on line one twenty five point two, the governor added $3,000,000 into, our budget for marketing, this year. And as he said in the in the budget language is for tourism to update our marketing materials and to enhance our recruitment efforts. Part of this, of course, having the the exposure of the World Cup coming to Georgia, this gives us this opportunity of to to really focus on all of the divisions and all the things that that make Georgia unique and great. And so that $3,000,000, as I talked about in my budget presentation, is is something that I think that, that will live past, past the the World Cup, and I think that's what we've really tried to focus on.

The department, and I've kinda stepped back a little bit, we looked at our numbers. Our marketing budget is down 55% from 2008 marketing numbers. We had about seven 17, almost 18,000,000 marketing dollars in 2008. We're a little over 8,000,000 in marketing dollars now. And I think we make a do a great job of utilizing the taxpayer dollar, and getting great bang for our buck.

But in so doing, we've had to put some things off updating websites, updating videos. The last time we did a video update was 2015, finding new pictures, new new materials. So while we are focused on the World Cup, we're also focused on being able to update things that will live past the World Cup, and that's what this $3,000,000 would go to. When the governor asked us about this, we put together a document that I think our team has has gotten to all of you, and and I definitely talked about it with you, chairman, when we met. It highlights all the different things that we would do, and it's across multiple divisions.

Part of this too, and I see our friends at the Georgia World Congress Center coming up shortly, they came to us with, I think, a fantastic idea, which is to utilize the empty space that they have at the World Congress Center during the World Cup and to create basically a a trade show floor where Georgia communities can come and market themselves. Georgia communities products, this would allow us to everybody who's got a ticket, everybody who's coming in during that, July heat in Georgia, they're gonna be looking for some air conditioning to bring them into, the World Congress Center. And while they are getting water and while they're maybe having a a beer, they can experience, tubing from Dahlonega. They can see, things about our state parks, Providence Canyon, Smithgall Woods. They can experience all the things that are, all the great things about the state of Georgia, hopefully go spend money there, while they're here.

And if not, come back and spend money after the World Cup is over. And so I'm really excited about that activation because it truly allows us to bring communities from all over the state and maximize the World Cup that is in Atlanta, but for everybody else, all of our other communities. So, that $3,000,000, I think, is, is something that is is needed. It's something that we will use, very wisely, but I think, if we can use that to help, highlight the rest of of the state of Georgia. Happy to take any questions on on that piece.

We have some other ads as well.

Yeah. That website, how soon you you're gonna be able I mean, it's like a $115,000, I think. How soon is that is it gonna be ready by FIFA?

It will, chairman. And so one of the things because we have, we have been working on our website, we've kind of put this into multi tiered approach. And so every year, we've been doing a little bit more. That website will be available. We're shooting for late March, early April, time frame to be able to have that unveiled.

K.

Frank, senator again.

Thank you, mister chairman. You know, we had a a study committee on ways to improve our our tourism in the state. And this $3,000,000, I I kinda curious. Is it enough to to make a big impact, or do we need more? Is that, you know, one of the things that to me I know, you know, we we renamed this this committee, added tourism to it.

It's the second largest industry in our state. And when I look at, what we're we're doing is bringing those people in pays a lot of bills. So Absolutely. What's what's the if you had the dream, of what whatever you wanted for the this additional tourism funds, where would that be?

Chairman, I and I do appreciate that and the work that this committee did to look at tourism funding. You know, it is interesting when you look at Georgia's tourism marketing dollars compared to many of the other states. It's a $83,000,000,000 industry in Georgia, you know, that promotes nearly 500,000 jobs. It we our funding at the state level has been and consistently been lower, than many of our competitor states, but it doesn't take into account, as you all know, all of our communities that work very hard and put a huge amount of money into tourism as well as does do our friends at the World Congress Center as do the state parks. So when you look at it as a whole, we do have a significant, there's a sick significant amount of money that goes into tourism marketing for the state of Georgia.

That said, if if we had more money, we could do more because marketing truly is about how many people you can reach. And so one of the things that, the reason this happened is that, you know, the governor's team at OPEB came to us and said, what could you do if you had more? And, and, obviously, this is amended budget, and so we need to have we have to spend it by the end of the fiscal year. And so I think that's why you see things that that will ultimately live on. It's updating a lot of things that we have.

At the same time, we are targeting people specifically for the World Cup. And so, you know, if you change the if this were in our big budget, then we would change how we're spending it. And and, and so I'm happy to, senator sit down with you if you wanted to go over some ideas that we have, but we we do have, plans that have been we could dust them off that if we had additional funding, this is what what we could do.

And the reason I bring it up, mister chairman, if I can, is, you know, I think in investing more in tourism brings more people to Georgia for spending that money. The increases the hotel, motel stays in the state, thus increasing transportation funding. And I think if we can work that balance, I think there's a real good opportunity to to do that. And I'd love, you know, with your help to to try to make that happen. So thank you.

Thank you, senator.

I would also I I would add and we just briefly talked just briefly talked about it in my office. But I I would add that I I understand it's not y'all's job to to run the CVB in Gainesville or Savannah or anywhere else, for that matter. You'd be

very upset if you tried.

Well, I I've just the sooner the better on this is my opinion. I think that by the time we catch them in a trade show, I I think there's a great opportunity to be able to showcase Georgia. But if they're the people traveling here like my wife, that list is already made before they go see the, you know. So so if if it's simply encouragement from from you guys out in the, state to the CVBs and the other communities and all, if if that's all that it is, it's just encouragement to get the word out or if that's, you know, speeding up that website directing people or that search engine optimization. I I I feel like the faster, the better.

Just especially for this particular event.

Chairman. But I think we feel exactly the same.

I agree with you, though, that this is this is more than just FIFA. It's this is gonna be longer lasting. So thank you.

So, chairman, next, in line one twenty five point four, the house added a $100,000 for entrepreneurial support for small businesses. I haven't had a chance to find out what chairman Hatchett, what the focus was of of that. So, I can't speak to that yet, but, we'll come back around on that piece. Then in, section one twenty eight point two, the house added $250,250, for the increase in community arts grants. And, and while the I'm not sure I know that chairman Hatchett is a big supporter of the arts, and I, you know, I think that that at least this was not in the governor's budget.

But should this be, allowed to stay in the budget, I do think that our arts team does a pretty amazing job of getting funding out into our communities to support our arts organizations. They had funding in a 151 of a 159 counties last year, through our arts grants. We had 363 arts grants, that went out, in in the last fiscal year. And so I I do think that, should that money stay in, that this is a great opportunity to continue to increase the great work that our Georgia Council for the Arts does, across the state.

Any questions on that?

How do they how does

the council designate, those which programs receive the money?

In under this new appropriation. So, Tina, do you have do you wanna Tina, Lilly is our executive director for the Georgia Council for the Arts, and I'm happy to she does an amazing job managing a huge amount of money that's come through the council over the ARPA years and would love for her to say a few words.

Thank you. We because we have already spent our grant allocation for f y twenty six, all of the applications that we received went to a community based panel for adjudication. Six members of on the panel from all over the state in all disciplines, They score based on published criteria. The largest, chunk of that score is for community impact. How is this project gonna benefit the people in your community?

So that could be through, increasing tourism or addressing a community issues such as a decline in downtown. We then rank all of those applications by score, start funding at the highest, and go, and fund as many of those as we can. So the additional money will allow us because we could only fund about 50% of the applications to then go to the next ones in line and fund them.

Tina, how many more those could we fund potentially?

25, of general operating support grants.

Great. Thank you. Any other questions? I appreciate you coming up and answering that.

Glad to.

That's why I keep smart people around, chairman. Thank you, Tina.

I knew you didn't give out the art money.

The chairman, if we go to, line one thirty four point two in the tracking document, the governor included a $110,000 for the Georgia Humanities Council to support America two fifty anniversary initiatives. Obviously, this is the 2026 is the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of, the the declaration of independence. The house plus that up to $250,250. And, I do say, as I said in my, in in my budget presentation, that the Georgia Humanities Council does a tremendous job, really capturing who we are as Georgians. They are the backbone of of this effort that that is a kind of a three legged stool between the department, the Georgia Humanities Council, and the Georgia Historical Society, Todd Gross and his team.

We're very excited about what we can do over the two fifty. The way we are working on this is Georgia Department of Economic Development and our Georgia Humanities Council and, and the Georgia Historical Society are really gonna focus on promoting, all the great things that are going on around the state in celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth. Again, trying to capture some some of the tourists that are going to come to the 13 original colonies to celebrate, to see where the revolutionary war happened, to to participate in in activities that are going on. On. And so we this would enhance that effort, and, I think it's a definitely, this is a a one time spend opportunity.

The two hundred and fiftieth is not going back around again. So do y'all have any questions on that?

Just one quick one. Yeah. Yeah. Chairman. What was the original appropriation on?

A

$110,000, and they plussed it up to 250, 250. It's a total of $2.50, $2.50. That's right.

You know, you know, this is zero sum game.

You don't know what they cut off. I don't know where that came from. That's right. I'm I am very aware. I've been the beneficiary, and I've also been the loser on that.

And then I'll I know the World Congress Center is coming up later, but, there's $10,000,000 in, 01/2003 that, for the security at the, World Congress Center for FIFA. And then, that's those are all the ads in our budget, and, happy to take any additional questions.

Thank you, commissioner. We got any questions from the committee? You're good.

Great. Chairman, thank you.

Grab you a donut. Appreciate y'all. Alright. We're gonna hear from the Georgia Humanities Council, and I assume we're gonna hear a little bit, maybe a little deeper into, this America two fifty initiative.

Thank you so much. My name is Mary Wern, and thank you for having me here today. I have been president of Georgia Humanities Councils for just about a year, a little over a year, and I'm very grateful to the governor's, recommendation of a 110,000 to support Georgia's America two fifty initiatives. And as an engineer who also earned a doctorate in American literature, I appreciate that sometimes there's poetry and numbers. So I very much appreciate that two fifty two fifty recommendation.

It certainly caught my eye, and I appreciate the confidence both of the governor and the house have shown in our work. So let me give you some brief back background on Georgia Humanities and why this work matters. Georgia Humanities is now in its fifty fifth year of service to the state. Our mission is to bring history, culture, civic learning, and civil dialogue directly into communities in Georgia, especially small towns and rural areas. As the nonprofit state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, we distribute federal, philanthropic, and private funds to schools, libraries, museums, and community organizations across the state.

We're required to match every federal dollar we receive, and state investment helps us meet that match and keep those resources working here in Georgia. Last year, when our federal funding was interrupted, we did not pull back. We pressed ahead. We doubled down on philanthropic fundraising and continue delivering statewide. All of that work has prepared us for this important moment.

America Two Fifty is not a symbolic milestone for us. It is an active statewide effort underway and central to our mission in 2026. More broadly, this is a once in a generation opportunity. As one of the original 13 colonies, Georgia has a special responsibility to ensure every community has a chance to participate. So how is Georgia man humanities contributing to the America Two Fifty effort?

First, we're doing community grants. These grants empower local communities to design and deliver their own America two fifty programs grounded in their own history and culture, putting leadership and creativity in local hands. They're also an exceptional value. They have been funded by the state for many years. They're an exceptional value, leveraging rough roughly $4 in federal, local, and philanthropic support for every state dollar invested.

Second, Museum on Main Street. Through our partnership with the Smithsonian, we bring world class traveling exhibitions into rural communities specifically. Our current exhibition, Voices and Votes, Democracy in America, explores our democratic traditions from 1776 to today and encourages civic learning, democratic participation, and civil dialogue. Third, National History Day Georgia. We are a national model in National History Day across The, United States.

This is a year long statewide civic education program serving approximately 15,000 students each year. This year's theme, revolution, reaction, reform, aligns directly with America February and invites students to engage deeply in history and civic life. And then fourth, the Georgia circuit, which is a legacy program designed specifically for America two fifty. It brings scholars, artists, and storytellers into communities to share Georgia stories from the founding era to the present day. These programs can be requested by local partners all across the state and are designed as a lasting legacy meant to serve communities long after the anniversary has passed.

With appropriate funding, these scalable platforms have the power to help us reach every region in Georgia. So why more investment now? State investment now helps stabilize our work during a year of fiscal transition. It ensures that when when federal funds arrive, Georgia is positioned to meet matching requirements and keep those dollars working in our communities. More importantly, state investment allows us to expand our reach.

We already have the infrastructure and partnerships in place to serve more communities, schools, libraries, and local organizations. What is at stake is whether America two fifty reaches a few places or truly reaches all of Georgia, including our small and rural communities. And finally, I wanna end on a personal note. This is personal for me. I remember the bicentennial of nineteen seventy six.

I even have a photo of myself dressed as a small child dressed up as Betsy Ross. It was a moment of shared pride, civic connection, and belonging to a larger American story. Those memories have meant a great deal to me, and they have stayed with me to this day. I want Georgia's children and grandchildren to build memories like that in 2026. I want them to learn their history, celebrate their communities, and feel part of something larger than themselves.

We all need to feel part of something larger than ourselves at this moment. With your support, we can help make that possible for families and communities in every region of Georgia. Thank you for listening, and I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Senator Gann? Thank

you, mister chairman. What was your name again?

Mary Warren. The,

Mary, I I'm not sure. I heard you did you say you were an engineer?

I was.

What what type engineer?

I was a biomedical engineer, and I worked in electrical engineering.

And and then you you've got the left side and the right side of the brain going at the same time. I'm like, oh my gosh. So they, thanks for for being here.

Thank you. Any other questions? Chairman Hufstedler, he's not paying attention down there. I think we I think, personally, I think we should just give out tax credits for families who participate in this, who actually learn about the history of the state of Georgia. So we another budget item.

I got something to get you

off in.

Okay. That'd be perfect. I had to wake him up over there. Thank you. Thank you.

Alright. We've got the Georgia World Congress Center Authority. In the back of this one here.

Well, good morning. Good morning, chairman Echols and members of the committee. Good to see everybody bright and early this morning. I hope your team won last night, Whoever you were pulling for, we're certainly excited to be here. And on behalf of the World Congress Center, I'm Kevin Duvall, chief executive officer of the World Congress Center.

Lindsey Strickland is our vice president, governor affairs. And in the back with us is Janet Finlinson, our CFO. And then you'll get to meet some of our teammates from Savannah here, right after us. But, really here today to walk you through where we are, and what we're what we're about at the World Congress Center Authority. So thanks for letting us be here.

We just recently released last fall our economic impact for the year of f y twenty five. I can certainly say we had another great year, at the World Congress Center. We we had over 15,000 jobs that we supported. We had a lot of a lot of events on campus. Three and a half million people came through our, facilities and 1.9, billion dollars of economic impact to the state of Georgia.

At 1,900,000 excuse me. While 1,900,000 is a large number excuse me.

Super Bowl got you, Ken.

Screaming at your TV. I was, yelling at the TV too much last night. And and while $1,900,000,000 is an important number for the state of Georgia, I think, what we wanted to develop was a heat map and just really to let you know where we're impacting the state of Georgia through our GWCCA managed facilities. As you can see that, the the spending that we have are involves communities and and counties through the state of Georgia to the tune of a 101 counties out of a 159 total county counties or 290,000,000. Just represents where we spend our money, where our where where our people live, throughout the state of Georgia.

Turning to, already completed capital projects that we have on campus, we certainly appreciate the legislature and the governor's support of past projects that we've had. And you can see a few on this slide that we have for you, include inclusive of the transit terminal, the pedestrian mall, our re recently hard to believe our second year. We've been open the Signia by Hilton Atlanta. And then also we have a couple more completed projects with the, BC Exhibit Hall and the orange deck. We do have a few projects that are under underway right now or in progress, and we're thankful for the money that you, helped us do.

We're we are work working through our million square feet of, roofing projects at the World Congress Center. We're working on some escalator modernization, and that continues. And then we also, have funding from last year that we're working on HVAC replacement for the World Congress Center. We believe in in addition to, any money we make, we always wanna reinvest in the World Congress Center. And so this slide just shows you the amount of funding that the World Congress Center has put in, and plus the, Signia by Hilton Atlanta.

So $174,000,000 we put in of our own money into the World Congress Center facilities, plus the Signia by Hilton Atlanta investment. Of course, commissioner Wilson, and everybody has talked about, the FIFA World Cup. We're excited to host that. It's under a hundred and fifty days, and it will be here, in Atlanta. We we certainly can talk about the eight matches that are that are here in Atlanta, but the other, fun things that we're gonna do on campus, would be, we're gonna extend the tournament to Centennial Olympic Park.

We're gonna host the FIFA Fan Festival in Centennial Olympic Park for twenty one days. It's open to all Georgians. It's free of charge, and it will also be open for our friends from around the world. And as a reminder, this is also, an important year, for the city of Atlanta and the state of Georgia. It's the thirtieth anniversary of the Centennial Olympic games that were here, in '9 excuse me, 1996.

And so who once again, we'll host the world in Centennial Olympic Park. Commissioner Wilson, mentioned it. We came up with an idea that we wanted to really show off the state of Georgia. And so we are gonna spend a couple weeks here in June and July, and have a lot of folks, including DNR, Dick d, and Georgia AG come to the World Congress Center and really have some space to show off to those visitors that come come to, the state of Georgia and the city of Atlanta, and show off Georgia and really have a great event there. So it's still under development, but we certainly wanna show off and and show why we're the number one place for business.

You know, this week's an important week. We just finished up Dallas Safari Club yesterday. Had a great turnout, at the World Congress Center and some other events in inside. But, this week, the star in the middle or the star for the week is cheer sport. So if you're interested, come on over on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and I think they even have a little tail end on Monday.

We'll be happy to introduce you to cheerleaders and a lot of glitter and a lot of dipping dots, etcetera, as they, take over the entire World Congress Center, about 1,600,000 square feet of of work throughout the the World Congress Center. But in addition to FIFA and World Cup and all the important events that you can see on this slide, and we'll we'll mention a little bit about Super Bowl in a minute, you know, you have you have a great events that are coming back, and our book of business really looks, well, long into the future for the World Congress Center. So we're proud of that. We we have one request this year, for you or in front of you, and let me give you that number and location of that request. We are on page 18, three seventy one line three seventy one, 41, and this is really $12,000,000 for, electrical systems at the World Congress Center.

You know, this is a this is an important ask for us. Much like our HVAC system that you gave us funding last year, it really is time to begin to replace some of our electoral systems at the World Congress Center. You know, our electrical infrastructure supports events, and, you know, obviously, the lights and the HVAC, but beyond that, it supports events where we hook up trade shows and conventions on the show floor. Certainly, during IPP, recently, we had over 600,000 square feet of exhibit space that we hooked up to electrical power. Helps us with reliability, safety, efficiency, and then, continues to improve our infrastructure around the World Congress Center.

Your support and approval of the funding would authorize the commencement of the project and would help encompass the development of a comprehensive design and procurement of equipment for the initial phase of equipment. Pictures say a thousand words, but it's kinda hard to talk about pictures behind the walls, etcetera. But certainly, it would be include inclusive of changing out some of our exhibit hall bus duct that immediately supports our floor and exhibit trade shows, panel boards, distribution breakers, lighting controls, etcetera, would be part of the whole process that we would use this money to to fund. One other item before I finish up and take questions, I think, commissioner Wilson mentioned that, on page 15, probably a separate document, line item one thirty four point three would be funding for the, one time funding, nonrecurring funding to help support the Super Bowl, Super Bowl twenty eight. We are officially on the clock to less than two years out here.

We will host the Super Bowl again. And I think as a reminder, on the World Congress Center Authority campus, the Super Bowl has about 20 to 25, events. They do, but we hosted 80% of those events on the World Congress Center campus the last time they were here. So, if, supported, we would be a steward of that funding, and that would help for safety and security and infrastructure for the in support of the game. Again, it's one time nonrecurring funding.

So with that, I'll just say thank you, and then I'll be happy to answer any quest questions anyone might have.

Got a question from chairman Hovstadler.

Thank you for the presentation, and I'll have to say I like to hear what I miss Frank Poe. He was always

Understood. On

top of things over there. Did a great job

Yes, sir.

As well. The the hotel there, the Hilton, I I think it's impressive. I think it's going real well. I didn't know how the and I couldn't catch the numbers quick enough when you're putting them up there on the screen. Mhmm.

Is that a is that a land lease, or how does what's the financial arrangement on that?

Yes. Thank you for for asking that, and I know I did kinda move through. It is actually owned by the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, based on revenue bonds. The the World Congress Center Authority put in $55,000,000 in equity, and then we have, $471,000,000 of revenue bonds. And so at the end of the day, it's a state asset owned by the World Congress Center Authority.

We have hired Hilton as our management arm of that. Obviously, they they've given us some money to have their name on the on the building, but, that is a state authority owned facility, and we reap, the benefit of that investment or the reward or down the downside if there's a risk to be involved.

Okay.

Anybody else? What's the number? You

You gave the, thank you for what you're doing. You gave the number or the page and I don't think our pages are lining up correctly. Could you give the line item? Page one. I got the page one.

That was the that's the 12,000,000 for the the last election start. And for sure

So 10,000,000, I think, was under Department of Economic Development. Page 15 was I think it might be

So that's wrong. So so the the line is what I was looking for. The line item, do you have a line?

I do. 134.3.

Okay. I think that'll do it. And you know what? You are right. It is page 15.

Okay. Yes, sir. That's the security cost. I got you. Yes, sir.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you all. Thank you. Good job. Thank you all very much.

Alright. The good folks at, Savannah, Georgia Convention Center. Uh-huh. Good morning.

Morning, mister chairman and with this committee. First, thank you for bringing me, your subcommittee on tourism down to Savannah. We really appreciate it having the chance to meet with that committee.

I was gonna mention that you guys did a phenomenal job, and we appreciate the Thank you very much. Hospitality and, what a great facility.

Thank you very much. Members of the committee, my name is Kelvin Moore. I am, senior vice president and general manager for the Savannah Convention Center. And, my colleague is with me here, mister Alvaro Haas, in the second to the back row. He's our vice president and assistant general manager.

I'm here for two reasons. I'm here to give you an update on all the good things going on down in Savannah, and, secondly, to seek your support on a line item in the governor's amended Hispanic Commission Center. It was a very was the twenty fifth anniversary for the Savannah Convention Center. It was a very big year, consequential year for us. Just to remind the committee for those who who may not be aware, the Savannah Convention Center is a state owned state owned land governed by state authority and managed by state authority.

And in the first five twenty five first twenty five years for the convention center posted a total of over 4,000 events, 10,000 event days. We've had 3,600,000 guests come through the convention center and generated a total economic impact of over $1,800,000,000 and generating 2,500,000 room nights. So we had a couple of big things happen for us in 2025. The first was the completion of the expansion of the Savannah Convention Center. I wanna thank the governor and the entire legislature for their support on that $276,000,000 project.

That project doubled our size, doubled our capacity. It improved our ranking by size, and status as far as the tiers that we can compete in. It improves our competitive positioning, with cities like Nashville and Tampa and Austin and Richmond. So that was a very, very big thing for us. We and we appreciate the the governor and the legislature's support on that.

We opened that building back in February 14, Valentine's Day last year. And we started off with a bang. We had 14,000 young girls and their families playing volleyball on every square inch of the property. And we haven't stopped since. We've hosted, state of the port, large events, small events, conventions, trade shows, banquets, and small community events.

So, we've been going a 100 miles an hour ever since that opening. The second big thing that happened in 2025 for the convention center was breaking ground on a new 444 room Signia by Hilton Headquarter Hotel. We expect that to be a thirty three month construction time and opening in 2028. Combine those two things, the expansion and the opening of the hotel, are really gonna serve to elevate Savannah's competitive positioning in the industry. So so how's it going?

The slide I have up here for you right now gives you a sense of our current booking pace since the expansion opened. Broadly speaking, we have 320 events on the books through fiscal twenty thirty one. Of those, 215 are using space in the expansion. What does that mean? That means if it were for not the expansion of the convention center, most of those 215 events would not be able to have been booked.

And that allows us to generate more economic impact for the city, for the community, and for the state. I think you all should have a copy of our fiscal twenty five annual report, but I'll go over some of those result for you briefly. We hosted a 162 events, 400 event days in fiscal twenty five, welcomed over 200,000 attendees. The stat that I'm really most proud of for our staff is that we generated a customer satisfaction rate of 96.1. And that's almost a five percentage point increase over the previous year, and we did that while we're still trying to get through the expansion.

It had a lot of things going on out there and and negative impacts to our customers. So our team really did a good job there. The hospitality industry and community and surrounding areas supports about 28,000 jobs. The convention center is very instrumental in supporting that. And the fiscal twenty five, events at the convention center generated $183,000,000 in economic impact for the county and $121,000,000 in economic impact for the state.

So capital improvements for the convention center. First thing I wanna talk about is the historical capital investments that have gone on the convention center. The Savannah Georgia Convention Center Authority is a self sustaining authority. We have hotel, motel tax agreements with the city of Savannah and Port Wentworth and Pooler, Garden City, Tybee, Chatham County. Savannah Georgia Convention Center Authority has never requested funding from the state for operations, but we did receive that $276,000,000 for the expansion, again, which we're very appreciative of.

Over the twenty five years of the Savannah Convention Center, our authority has self funded roughly $41,000,000 in in capital projects. You see on the list on the screen there that the most recent years, that number has gone up. Why is that? As a building gets twenty five years old, systems begin to need to be replaced and repaired. So, you will see that there.

What we're looking for, and the gov governor's included in his amended budget is support for the completion of our river walk repairs to our river walk. This, project does two things. It, it allows us to reinforce the bulk and structural integrity below ground, and then it allows us to come above ground, do some infrastructure work, and complete that so that we can have a connected community, connected campus for the entire for the entire facility there. Provides for a more inviting destination for locals as well. Have a couple of pictures there to show you.

The red area that you can probably see there towards the bottom of that kinda shows you where that work is is happening. This next picture shows you what that project looked like at the beginning of the bulkhead repair work. This photo right there shows you where we were about three weeks ago.

We're about 95%

complete with that project now. And, again, we are repair, and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you.

Thank you for that, update. We appreciate it. Chairman, send it again.

Thank you, mister chairman. Kevin, one of the things that that, I'm I'm glad to see the hotel going up. Glad to see that on the other, as they say, the other side of the river. Yeah. So the, but one of the big things that's always an issue, I have people that tell me all the time, if I go stay in the Westin, I go stay over there, there's you lose Savannah.

You know, it's not it's it's not historic Savannah. They have things there. And I know the water taxis go back and forth. What's your solution to to be able to to feel like you're more part of Savannah in that tourism side of things? Because when you are on the island, it it is very difficult.

So there's gotta be a a better way. Is it is it to, tunnel under the river to to get us better connected? What what's the what's the key to, because I know, you know, you're gonna have a few more restaurants and stuff when you build that new hotel. But that's that's you could put restaurants and hotels anywhere, but it's not Savannah. So how do you make that work?

Well, thank you for the question. So I I I'd suggest you a couple of things. One, the water taxes system that we have there does really do a good job of getting people back and forth, for those who are in on the River Street side and wanna come to the island

On certain days.

On certain if it works well, there are times when this when the when the ferries are not all in operation. That is correct. But I would also suggest to you, on Touches Island by itself, in addition to the investment that the state is putting in there with the convention center and the hotel,

there

is a significant amount of private investment going on out there as well. There there already exists the golf course. There is a a new apartment community. There's plenty of public house plenty of private housing out there. And there are a couple of investors that are doing, other items that are gonna be out there to make that more inviting and more connected to to all of Savannah.

So just over the next three to four or five years, you're gonna see more of that happening out there. But the transportation part is very important to us. And and we are working both with Chatham County, the Chatham Area Transit, on working on solutions to make that a more more viable solution.

Thank you.

Chairman Watson. Thank you. It's hard to let the Savannah Convention Center, speak without, chiming in. We have been working on those ferries for a while with, Chatham Area Transit Transit, and they are, it takes actually a couple years for those things to be built. And, and the funding is there.

And as soon as we get all those operational, I think that will improve. The river walk, also, the state has been doing the river walk for since its inception. So, this is not new, but the, collapse was new, and that's ever so important. I wanna circle back to what, chairman Hufstedler said. The the hotel, it is a Signia or not or in in the details and who owns it and the financing on that.

It is a insignia by Hilton, similar to here in Atlanta. The Savannah, Georgia Convention Center Authority issued $398,000,000 in revenue bonds. So the authority owns the the hotel in Savannah similar to as it does here in Atlanta. So that that's the makeup and and the financing for the hotel.

And Hilton manages it?

And Hilton is on a management agreement to manage the hotel for. That's correct.

Thank you. Any other questions? We appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thanks for what you're doing.

Alright. We got one more to blow through right here. Public Service Commission.

Thank you. Good morning.

How are y'all doing this morning?

Well, thank you. First off, congratulations on your appointment as the chairman of this Thank you. Subcommittee. We look forward, to working with you from the Public Service Commission. Anything we can do to help, please let us know.

My name is Rhys McAllister. I'm the executive director at the Public Service Commission. And I have with me today, Tom Bond, who's our utility director for any utility related questions you might have today. He'll be answering those. But, I would like to, first off give regrets from our chairman, Jason Shaw, who couldn't be here today.

He's in Washington, DC, attending the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners conference up there, working with, commissioners from all across the country on issues, that affect the state of Georgia. They're not unique to us. Many people are dealing with many of the challenges that we have here in the state. So he's up there, and many of other commissioners and staff are there as well. So, first off, I'd like to, thank you and the committee members, for allowing us input into the budget process.

On behalf of the entire commission and staff, we want to thank you for the funding that was added to last year's budget. We would also like to thank the governor and all of you, for the proposed one time salary supplement the governor's recommended budget for this year as well. As you know, the PSC has the complex mission of energy regulation. Finding, retaining skilled staff is an ongoing challenge at the commission. Your work with our budget goes a long way in helping us fulfill our work for the citizens of Georgia.

The state of Georgia, like many states, has seen an unprecedented low growth on the power grid. As recently as 2022, Georgia Power is predicting low growth, of 400 new megawatts over the next seven years. The most recent prediction show low growth in the range of 10,000 megawatts. To put that in perspective, Georgia Power currently deploys 22,000 megawatts statewide. Georgia Power is effectively seeing a 45% growth spurt from that number.

This new low growth brings challenges and opportunities, in December to meet the need, the PSC PSC approved a generational investment in our energy infrastructure. We approve this in a way that will protect existing ratepayers from the needs of new large load customers, specifically data centers. I'd like to state clearly this is important. The PSC does not approve or certify data centers. It has no say in the approval of the 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. The mission is critical to the economic development of the state, and our decision in December falls directly in line with this mission. Our utility director, as I said before, mister Bond is here. If any of you have any questions regarding low growth, meeting low growth, or efforts to prevent cost shifting. As far as our amended f y, a f y two thousand twenty six budget, the PSC requests help for the construction and monitoring process of new Georgia power infrastructure.

The annual state appropriation for the PSC is relatively small compared to other state agencies, but the decisions of the commission, as you well aware, impact the entire state. In the governor's proposed, amended, budget, the PSC would receive about 13,300,000.0 in state funds. Because we are a small agency, even small changes in the energy sector can place large burdens on our staff. The massive increase in energy load caused by data centers is going to add a significant workload to the PSC. As we stated earlier, it's a 45% increase over current megawatt output today.

Specifically, the PSC monitors new construction as Georgia Power's infrastructure expands. Right now, we have three new units under construction at plant Yates and Newnan. Expansion at three other Georgia power plants will begin soon with five additional units at these plants. The PSC is charged with ensuring that Georgia Power spends money prudently when constructing new infrastructure. Ensuring prudent spending on construction directly corresponds to lower rates charged by Georgia Power.

We're shorthanded. The PSC is already shorthanded on staff for construction monitoring. We're so short we have one person. Other than zero, you can't get much shorter than that. So we have one construction monitor on staff.

So we're we need these people for for these, qualified construction monitors, and it takes time to locate them and to train them. To meet the workload that we currently have, we plan to promote from within our own staff and begin cross

training immediately. We then plan to

backfill this existing position that will be opened up by construction projects. The House version of the PSC

is amended f y

twenty six budget included funding to the fiscal year '26 at $36,125 for the engineer and $31,875 for the financial analyst. These numbers can be found on page 18 of your policy bill at lines, two seventy five point three and two seventy five point four. For future years, the annual salary for the engineer would basically, extrapolate that out, would be 85,000, which is a 144,500 after the trip for the fringe benefits. And for the financial analyst would be 75,000, which would be a 127,500 after the trip for fringe benefits. Benefits.

All we ask is is, if you would support us keeping that what the house recommended and appropriated in the budget that they've, recommended. As construction move forward on other projects, we're likely to come back and ask for more construction monitors, but those additional asks can wait until, future budget cycles. As always, the commission and the commissioners and the 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 or on p PSC construction monitoring on infrastructure expansion. Thank you, mister chairman.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

We have any questions? On those construction, the the monitors, maybe you said it, maybe you didn't. But can you tell me just a little bit more about what they do?

What what they do is, when when a project first starts out, they set they look at what the company has set for performance metrics for the project. They review that to see whether it's it's reasonable, whether it's prudent. And then during construction, their main job is to is to evaluate what the company is doing, how it's doing it, whether it's meeting industry standards, whether it's meeting the performance metrics that it's set, whether it has, a a fully integrated schedule. You know, sometimes in the past, the company has come in and they've said, well, here's our schedule. But the components within the schedule weren't tied together.

And so, you know, some dates were just arbitrarily in place. And so what what we're doing is is reviewing it during construction to make sure they're following those those industry standards. And then when the plant is complete, the company has the right to ask to put everything they spent into rate base. And we have the opportunity to deny any costs that are that are not reasonable or not prudent. If you wait till the end of construction, and these five new plants are gonna be about $12,000,000,000.

If you wait till the end of construction and then try to look backwards and say, well, you did this wrong, you did that wrong, you're never gonna have enough details to make any kind

of meaningful evaluation. So what we're

doing is real time monitoring.

Question keeps coming up about these data centers. And you see, a lot of small communities are looking at data centers, and and the reason they're looking at it is money. What are y'all saying doing as far as them coming in and the expense for them not being in the rate base that go out to the regular customers?

What the commission did last year was was adopt new new rules for for large customers. And and large customers for this rule is defined as as a 100 mega 100 megawatts or bigger. And the commission set the rules first so that any contracts that the company did for these large customers had to have a minimum billing requirement. And the minimum bill is what the customer has to pay, whether they use electricity or not, whether they use up to the level they've said they're gonna use or not. The minimum bill is set to recover the incremental costs of the new generation and transmission assets to serve that customer.

So at a minimum, they would be paying those incremental costs under the contract. Anything they pay above that can be used to put downward pressure on rates for existing customers. The new rules also, required longer term contracts, at least fifteen years, sometimes longer, extensive collateral so that if a if a company does leave early, Georgia Power has bonds or security or parental guarantees for the the well for the really well established ones that they can get money from. And all of this is designed to make it so that the cost being caused by these customers is collected and collectible from these customers.

What I'm concerned about, will y'all allow them and the contracts you have with them for the service be put into the the rate base that the average customer is paying?

The the commission's goal is is that is is no. They will not the average customers will not be paying it. Now now all costs go into rate base

Understand that.

Including these costs. But then those costs are allocated out in rate cases to the customer classes that cause those costs. So all of the costs will be allocated. All of the costs are being caused caused and attributable to these large customers will be allocated to those large customers in the upcoming rate cases over the life of these assets.

The question again, is, are you gonna allow the data centers? Because they use a lot of power. They gonna be included in in our rate base as Georgia Power customers?

They I

need a yes or no on it because we

Well, okay. The the I would say the answer is no. If if your question is, are are existing customers going to be paying the costs caused by these data centers? The answer is no. Alright.

Ideally, existing customers' rates will actually go down because of these data centers. Because every dollar a data center pays that's higher than their incremental cost will put downward pressure on other company other customers' rates. And the the company has has guaranteed for the next three years, rates rates won't go up at all. For the three years after that, the company has guaranteed a minimum of $8.50 downward pressure on residential rates for each of those years. And thereafter, the commission, you know, will will use traditional cost of service rate design to make sure that that that remains the case.

Thank you, guys. Any other questions? Nothing else? We appreciate your time this morning.

Thank you, Jeremy.

Alright. Y'all have a good day. Yes. Good week. Alright.

With that, I think we made it through one successfully. We will adjourn.