Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2023
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
PAGE 5A
State Roundup
Experts link foster care failings to child sex trafficking
By Dave Williams
Capitol Beat News Service
Georgia youths in the custody of the state’s foster care
system are disproportionately likely to become victims of
child sex trafficking, several experts in the subject testified
Monday.
Between 2018 and last year, the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children received more than 2,400
reports of children missing from foster care in Georgia in
volving 1,790 children, many of whom went missing sev
eral times throughout the year, Samantha Sahl, supervisor
of the national nonprofit’s Child Sex Trafficking Recovery
Services Team, told a U.S. Senate subcommittee at a hear
ing in Atlanta.
Of those missing children, 410 were identified as likely
child sex trafficking victims, she said.
Sahl and other witnesses blamed the trend on children
who run away from horrendous conditions they suffer in
foster care settings resulting from systemic failures by the
Georgia Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS).
“We know we have an urgent issue when children feel
better on the streets or with a trafficker than they do in their
foster-care placements,” Sahl said.
Monday’s hearing on conditions in Georgia’s foster care
system was the third in the last two weeks held by the U.S.
Senate Subcommittee on Human Rights, chaired by Sen.
Jon Ossoff, D-Ga. At the first hearing, Ossoff revealed the
results of a DFCS internal audit that showed the agency
failed in 84% of cases brought to its attention to address
risks and safety concerns.
The second hearing as well as Monday’s testimony fo
cused on the number of children under DFCS supervision
who end up missing.
DFCS officials responded to the first two hearings with
a letter accusing the subcommittee of failing to request
information or responses from DFCS in advance of the
hearings and charging the panel’s investigation has been
political in nature.
On Monday, Brian Atkinson, a staff lawyer with The
Wilbanks Child Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation
(CEASE) Clinic at the University of Georgia’s School of
Law, said his experience shows entry into Georgia’s foster
care system puts children at risk of being trafficked.
“If a child’s caregiver, family, friends, communities,
and the state fail to provide for their basic needs of food,
shelter, safety, security, love, their survival instincts kick
in and they search for other ways to have those needs met,
heightening their risk of landing straight in the hands of
traffickers,” he said.
Tiffani McLean-Camp, 19, gave personal testimony
Monday of her experiences when she entered foster care
at age 15 after being physically abused by adoptive parents
and sexually abused by a family friend. She said the abuse
continued while she was moved to various placements 20
times.
McLean-Camp said one of those placements was in a
facility with a gate surrounded by barbed wire, where she
was physically abused and overmedicated.
“It felt like being in prison,” she said. “It made me feel
like an animal locked up in a cage.”
After she became pregnant and her son was bom pre
maturely, McLean-Camp said she and her infant son were
separated at times and then placed in an emergency shelter
where she got no attention for post-partum depression or
physical complications from her pregnancy.
She said she got no visits from her DFCS case manager
and received no help from the agency.
“I had to learn everything on my own,” she said. “I had
to teach myself.”
“No child should have to go through the experiences you
have survived.” Ossoff told McLean-Camp following her
testimony.
Atkinson said he believes the foster care system has
made progress in embracing the concept of treating chil
dren who fall prey to sex trafficking as victims and not
criminals. But he said too many victims still are cast in a
negative light, which makes them less likely to get the help
they need.
“When our clients reach out to DFCS, they’re met with
disbelief, dismissiveness, and often no response at all,” he
said.
Unprecedented surplus sparks debate over state spending
By Dave Williams
Capitol Beat News Service
Legislative Democrats and so
cial services advocates have long
complained that Georgia doesn’t
spend enough money to meet
the educational, health-care, and
public-safety needs of a growing
population.
But there’s something different
about the latest fiscal numbers
that prompted the left-leaning
Georgia Budget and Policy Insti
tute (GBPI) to release a 15-page
report Oct. 31 calling for the
state to loosen its purse strings.
The state was sitting on $16
billion in unspent funds at the
end of the last fiscal year in June,
including $11 billion in undesig
nated reserves.
“It’s uncharted territory,” said
Danny Kanso, the GBPI’s fiscal
analyst and the report’s author.
“I don’t think it serves anyone to
have $11 billion sitting there in
an account with no plan for it.”
While news of that much tax
money not going toward any
purpose is sure to stir debate
during the 2024 General Assem
bly session beginning in January,
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp
and GOP legislative leaders are
sticking with their determination
to maintain fiscal discipline.
“The governor looks forward
to working closely with the Gen
eral Assembly on priorities for
how the state’s one-time funds
will be utilized in a strategical
ly responsible way that does not
commit short-term revenue gains
to long-term obligations,” Gar
rison Douglas, a spokesman for
Kemp, said back in July as initial
word of a third straight year of
large budget surpluses was sur
facing.
“Everyone’s foaming at the
mouth over $16 billion,” state
Senate Appropriations Com
mittee Chairman Blake Tillery,
R-Vidalia, said Nov. 2. “They
forget that’s only six months of
revenue for the state. You have a
rough time and that money will
burn very quickly.”
The GBPI report attributes the
huge pile of unspent dollars to
“repeated underestimations of
annual state revenue collections”
that resulted in the state bringing
in far more tax money than was
being spent for three consecu
tive years. On the other side of
the equation, state spending was
failing to keep pace with infla
tion and population growth, ac
cording to the report.
“There are several unique ar
eas in which surplus funds pres
ent a rare opportunity to address
deficits built up over time and
projected needs in the future
- all while strengthening Geor
gia’s economy, supporting job
creation, and benefiting families
statewide,” the report stated.
Specifically, the report sug
gests the state use undesignated
reserves to:
create a $7.5 billion, self-sus
taining Child Care Trust Fund
to promote access to affordable,
quality child care.
modernize Georgia’s school
bus fleet by making long-de
ferred investments to help cash-
strapped local school districts
maintain and replace aging bus
es.
provide bonuses to state em
ployees to help agencies provid
ing vital services reduce turn
over.
Kanso said the Child Care
Trust Fund could pay for itself
by being managed in the same
way the state handles its teacher
and employee retirement system
funds. The balance of the fund
would compound each year at a
rate higher than the annual pay
out, the report said.
Kanso said one-third of the
school buses plying Georgia
highways are more than 15 years
old because state funding for the
buses has been cut significantly
in recent years. His report rec
ommends spending $850 million
to $2.7 billion to modernize the
school bus fleet.
“If we don’t address that,
it’s going to be more and more
costs for local school districts,”
he said. “The state can help lo
cal school districts catch their
breath.”
Kemp and the General As
sembly already have provided
targeted pay raises to employees
of state agencies suffering high
turnover rates, including $11,000
increases for state law enforce
ment officers during the last two
years and $2,000 raises this year
for other state workers, teachers,
and university system employ
ees. Altogether, teacher salaries
have gone up $5,000 since Kemp
took office in 2019.
Kanso’s report pointed to an
nual turnover rates of 25% in
state agencies Georgians rely on
for vital services as evidence the
state still needs to do more.
The governor and legislature
also have used surplus funds to
provide state income tax rebates
to Georgians during the last two
years, while Kemp has suspend
ed the state sales tax on gasoline
to curb rising prices at the pump.
Kanso said those tax cuts are
just scratching the surface of the
huge pile of undesignated re
serves the state could use to beef
up investments in ongoing needs.
But Tillery said the General
Assembly’s Republican major
ities aren’t about to suddenly
change course on spending.
“It’s not the state’s money. It’s
taxpayers’ money,” he said. “In
dividuals who think the session
is going to be a money-rain-
ing-from-heaven free-for-all are
mistaken.”
State Senate
Republicans criticize
Georgia voting system
By Dave Williams
Capitol Beat News Service
PSC rejects bid to
consider delaying Vogde
‘prudency’ hearings
Georgia elections officials
defended the state’s elec
tions system Wednesday
from sharp criticism leveled
by several state Senate Re
publicans dining a commit
tee hearing.
After using touch-screen
voting machines since the
early 2000s, the General As
sembly passed legislation in
2019 providing for a paper
backup to electronic ballots.
“The voter can read and
verily their choices before
that vote is scanned and
tabulated,” Charlene Mc
Gowan, general counsel
to the Georgia secretary of
state’s office, which over
sees elections in Georgia,
told members of the Senate
Ethics Committee. “It is
safe and secure.”
McGowan went on to
outline plans for further
changes to the system now
in the planning stages, in
cluding a software upgrade
that will be rolled out as a
pilot project in next month’s
municipal elections in five
counties.
Republican members of
the committee expressed
alarm that the upgrade
won’t be implemented state
wide until after next year’s
elections. Several cited a
report released by Univer
sity of Michigan computer
scientist Alex Halderman
last year that identified nine
flaws in the Dominion Vot
ing System machines the
state currently uses that he
said leave the system vul
nerable.
“This software is in
compatible with Georgia
elections,” said Sen. Greg
Dolezal, R-Cumming.
“That’s unacceptable by any
standard.”
Blake Evans, director of
elections in the secretary of
state’s office, said the flaws
pointed out in Halderman’s
report have been addressed.
“What we have in place
mitigated those vulnerabil
ities and kept our elections
secure,” he said.
But Dolezal argued that
just because the state can
fix the flaws identified in the
report doesn’t solve the un
derlying problem.
“We know everybody has
a key to the lock on the front
door, and we don’t change
the lock because we know
we can catch them going out
the back,” he said.
Other committee mem
bers complained that the
QR code Dominion’s voting
machines print on every pa
per ballot lacks transparen
cy.
“My constituents don’t
trust these QR codes,” said
Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Al-
pharetta. “They don’t trust
the machines or the scan
ners.”
Committee Chairman
Max Bums, R-Sylvania,
asked McGowan and Evans
to work with the General
Assembly to eliminate the
QR code from paper bal
lots so voters will be certain
their votes will be tabulat
ed correctly. A bill Bums
introduced in the Senate this
year to do just that remains
alive for consideration
during the 2024 legislative
session.
Bums also asked the sec
retary of state’s office to ac
celerate the implementation
of the software upgrade so it
can be in effect in time for
next year’s elections.
“We share the same ob
jective,” he told the elec
tions officials. “We want
secure and safe elections in
Georgia our voters will have
confidence in.”
By Dave Williams
Capitol Beat News Service
State energy regulators
have denied a request
by two citizen watchdog
groups to consider de
laying hearings on how
much of the costs of the
Plant Vogtle nuclear ex
pansion must be paid by
electric customers until
after commission elec
tions.
The U.S. Supreme
Court put the filling
of two seats on the
five-member Georgia
Public Service Commis
sion (PSC) on hold last
year until the General
Assembly changes the
way PSC elections are
conducted.
Because the Novem
ber 2022 elections were
postponed, Commis
sioner Tim Echols’ term
has expired and Com
missioner Fitz Johnson,
who was appointed to
the panel to complete the
term of a commissioner
who left the PSC, has not
stood for election in his
own right.
The PSC will hold
“prudency” hearings this
fall on how to divide the
costs of building two ad
ditional nuclear reactors
at Plant Vogtle between
Georgia Power cus
tomers and the utility’s
shareholders, with a vote
set for Dec. 19. The two
watchdog groups asked
the commission to put
their request to delay the
hearings on Thursday’s
Energy Commission
agenda.
“Allowing unelected
commissioners Johnson
and Echols to participate
in any phase of this case
is reckless, unnecessary,
and unduly jeopardizes
the authority and legit
imacy of any decision
the commission makes,”
Glen Carroll, coordi
nator of Nuclear Watch
South, told commission
ers Thursday.
PSC staff lawyer Pres
ton Thomas said Georgia
Power filed documents
seeking the hearings in
late August, while Nu
clear Watch South and
Georgia WAND, the two
statewide nonprofits
that asked for the delay,
didn’t file their petition
until four days before
Thursday’s meeting.
That made it impossi
ble for the commission
to give other parties in
volved in the case the
usual 30 days to respond
in time for Thursday’s
meeting, he said.
“Any urgency that Nu
clear Watch claims might
exist is dispelled by the
fact that they failed to
act over the last two
months,” Thomas said.
In a system unique to
the PSC in Georgia, com
missioners run statewide,
even though they repre
sent one of five districts.
The court ruling putting
off elections in the dis
tricts served by Echols
and Johnson stemmed
from a lawsuit a group of
prominent Black leaders
filed claiming the redis
tricting plan the General
Assembly’s Republi
can majorities passed in
March of last year di
lutes the Black vote in
those two districts.