Zell Miller statue gets General Assembly’s blessing
ATLANTA — Legislation calling for a statue honoring the late Gov. Zell Miller to be placed on the grounds of the Georgia Capitol cleared the General Assembly Wednesday, March 17.
The state House of Representatives passed the bill 172-1 and sent it on to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature. The measure originated in the Georgia Senate, which passed it unanimously early this month.
Miller, a Democrat who served both as Georgia’s 79th governor and as a U.S. senator, died in 2018 at age 86 after battling Parkinson’s disease.
During two terms as governor in the 1990s, he spearheaded the creation of the popular HOPE Scholarship program, funded through the Georgia Lottery.
“Zell Miller has been called the governor who gave Georgia HOPE,” House Speaker David Ralston, R-blue Ridge,” said from the House floor before Wednesday’s vote.
“Zell Miller had a view of this state where your opportunities were only limited by your willingness to work.”
Before ascending to the Governor’s Mansion in 1990, Miller served four terms as Georgia’s lieutenant governor.
After eight years as governor, Miller was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2000 by then Gov. Roy Barnes following the sudden death of Republican Sen. Paul Coverdell. He decided not to seek election to a full six-year term in 2004.
Senate Bill 140, introduced by Sen. Jeff Mullis R-chickamauga, calls for a sixmember committee to choose the design of the statue.
Two members will be appointed by the House speaker and two will be named by the lieutenant governor. The final two members — one from the House and one from the Senate — will be chosen by the governor.
The bill also stipulates that no public funding go toward the statue. The money is to be raised through private donations.
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve foresees the economy accelerating quickly this year yet still expects to keep its benchmark interest rate pinned near zero through 2023, despite concerns in financial markets about potentially higher inflation.
With its brightening outlook, the Fed on Wednesday significantly upgraded its forecasts for growth and inflation. It now expects the economy to expand 6.5% this year, up sharply from its previous projection in December of 4.2%. And the Fed raised its forecast for inflation by the end of this year from 1.8% to 2.4% after years of chronically low price increases.
The Fed also said it would continue its monthly purchases of $120 billion in bonds, which are intended to keep longerterm borrowing costs low.
On Wall Street, investors registered their approval of the Fed’s low-rate message, sending stock indexes higher. And the closely watched yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which has surged in recent weeks on inflation concerns, declined slightly.
Still, the Fed’s upgraded forecasts raised questions about what would cause it eventually to raise its key short-term rate, which affects many consumer and business loans. As the economy strengthens, the policymakers think the unemployment rate will drop faster than they thought in December: They foresee unemployment falling from its current 6.2% to 4.5% by year’s end and to 3.9%, near a healthy level, at the end of 2022.
That suggests that the central bank will be close to meeting its goals by 2023, when it expects inflation to exceed its 2% target level and for unemployment to be at 3.5%, which is where it was before the pandemic struck. Yet it still doesn’t project a rate hike then.
At a news conference after the Fed’s latest policy meeting, Chair Jerome Powell stressed that the central bank wants to see substantial improvement in the job market and economy and won’t reverse its low-rate policies based solely on forecasts. Last year, the Fed altered its policy framework to make clear that it would eventually raise rates only after annual inflation had exceeded its 2% target “for some time” — and not just when higher inflation appeared likely.