ATLANTA, Georgia- Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is scheduled to deliver the 2021 State of the State address at 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time today at the Georgia House of Representatives.
This, according to a press release that Kemp’s staff emailed Wednesday.
Georgia residents may watch Kemp deliver the address live on Georgia Public Broadcasting at gpb.org, the press release said.
The Georgia Star News asked Kemp’s communications staff Wednesday if they could preview what Kemp plans to discuss as he speaks Thursday. Kemp’s staff did not respond before Wednesday’s stated deadline.
Kemp, on his Facebook page Tuesday, said he has prioritized reforming Georgia’s voting system.
“As I have said many times before, adding Photo ID requirements to absentee ballots is another way to ensure secure and fair elections in Georgia,” Kemp wrote.
“I look forward to partnering with state legislators on election reform during the 2021 Legislative Session.”
As for the COVID-19 pandemic, the governor tweeted this week about vaccinating people.
“Last week, the four vaccination sites in the metro-Atlanta area completed over 9,500 vaccinations,” Kemp wrote.
Kemp said in a press release last week that the State of Georgia’s net tax collections in December totaled $2.40 billion, for an increase of $171.4 million, or 7.7 percent, compared to December 2019 when net tax collections totaled almost $2.23 billion. Year-to-date, net tax revenue collections, Kemp said, totaled $12.57 billion, for an increase of $722.5 million, or 6.1 percent, compared to Fiscal Year 2020.
A sThe Georgia Star News reported in November, state legislators pushed Kemp to call a special legislative session before the January U.S. Senate runoff elections. Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff defeated incumbent U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and incumbent U.S. Sen. David Perdue, respectively.
The special session did not happen.
Had such a special session occurred then state legislators would likely have addressed the appointed presidential electors and the implementation of laws limiting voter fraud in the general election runoff.
As reported in December, Kemp would not use his authority to change the date of the state’s two U.S. Senate elections from January 5 to February 1 of this year. Moving back the date might have given members of the Georgia General Assembly additional time to coordinate and develop ways to prevent potential election fraud.
– – –
Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Brian Kemp” by Brian Kemp. Background Photo “Georgia Capitol” by DXR. CC BY-SA 4.0.
