Georgia Senate Passes State Airport Takeover Bill

The Georgia State Senate approved a proposal to create a state authority to take control of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Mike Stewart / Associated Press

By a vote of 34-22, the Georgia State Senate approved a contentious proposal to create a state authority to take control of the City of Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. There is an option in the bill for the state and city to work out a “joint governance plan” instead, by the summer of 2020.

The city has remained strongly opposed to this measure from the beginning.

“State Senators that usually champion small government and local control have made a sweeping power grab to take what they did not build,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Thursday.