WABE’s Week In Review: Voting Changes And The COVID-19 Relief Money
Georgia’s U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff this week called on Gov. Brian Kemp to veto the controversial voting legislation recently passed in the Georgia General Assembly.
The bill passed earlier this week by Republicans in the state senate amounts to voter suppression, Ossoff said.
“There is, in my opinion, little more shameful for an elected official to do than to abuse their power to disenfranchise the very people they represent,” Ossoff told WABE’s Lisa Rayam. “You shouldn’t try to cherry-pick your voters by disenfranchising those that don’t like you. That’s cheating.”
The legislation would eliminate no-excuse absentee voting and make a slew of other changes that Ossoff and others call racially and politically targeted.
Supporters of the voting changes say they are needed to ensure election integrity.
Kemp bashes COVID-19 relief stipulation …
The COVID-19 relief money comes with a stipulation that states can not use it to directly or indirectly offset a tax cut this year.
Georgia’s House recently passed a few tax-cut and tax-credit bills this year, including one to lower income taxes by about $140 million.
“Democrats in Washington D.C. are now telling states that they cannot cut their taxes, create new incentives to attract investment, or expand or incentivize school choice,” Kemp said.
The package appropriates about $15 billion to Georgia through direct payments, aid to state and local governments, and more.
Democrats say the money should be used immediately to help those who are suffering, not cut taxes.
“So much is coming out of this bill that puts us in a decidedly different place,” said Georgia U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, who credited Georgia voters for electing him and Jon Ossoff to the U.S. Senate in January to pass the relief measure.
The federal funds will have an impact on the lives of children who live in poverty, according to Laura Wheeler with Georgia State University’s Center for State and Local Finance.
Until now, poor families, who did not owe taxes, could only claim $1,400 of the $2,000 child tax credit. Now, all families earning up to $150,000 will get $3,000 per child and $3,600 for kids under six years old, regardless of whether or not they owe taxes, according to Wheeler.
“Some of the counties have very high poverty rates. This will put money into the economy into those counties as well,” said Wheeler. “[This will] help small businesses because people [are] going to have income to spend, and it will shore up the economic damage that’s been done.”
The new child tax credit rules are only for this year.
A new home, a fresh start …
The pandemic introduced challenges into many people’s lives. But for some Atlanta residents who were homeless, it also created an opportunity. More than 450 now have apartments of their own under a new city program.
Students become vaccine administrators …
Nursing students at the University of North Georgia in Gainesville thought they would complete their clinical experience virtually this semester, but instead, they’re administering COVID-19 vaccines.
A WABE podcast special …
Despite recent signs of progress, we’re still far from the end of the coronavirus pandemic.
To mark living with COVID-19 for a full year, WABE health reporter Sam Whitehead recently spoke with two experts fighting the pandemic: Dr. Carlos del Rio from Emory University and Dr. Lynn Paxton, director of the Fulton County Board of Health.
This week’s “Did You Wash Your Hands?,” our podcast about the coronavirus, featured a recent live conversation focused on some of the challenges ahead and some of the things to be hopeful about.
Loeffler hoping to model Abrams’ ground game …
Former Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler from Georgia lost her seat in January in a runoff election that sent two Democrats to Washington. She said she lost in part because of massive Democratic organizing in the state — an effort led in part by Stacey Abrams. Now, Loeffler is starting a new Republican group to try to catch up.
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