Rep. Floyd Griffin Opposes Proposed Senate Bill to Restructure Central State Hospital Local Redevelopment Authority, Responds to Recent Article

ATLANTA – State Representative Floyd Griffin (D-Milledgeville) recently expressed his opposition to Senate Bill 260, which would restructure the Central State Hospital Local Redevelopment Authority (CSHLRA) in Milledgeville. Rep. Griffin also offers the following response to a recent article about this proposed legislation:

“SB 260 is an attempt at reducing local control of redevelopment efforts in our communities – decisions that rather should be made by folks that live and work here. Any sort of issue with CSHLRA should be addressed by local government, and to that end, I have spoken with the inspector general regarding the authority, in the hopes that we can remedy any current issues. If SB 260 makes it out of the Senate and onto the House Floor for a vote, I will vehemently oppose the bill and fight to ensure that this authority remains at the discretion of local communities. While the state should have some say in the authority, stripping away all local input is not the correct route to take. I urge my neighbors back home and our local community to voice their opposition to this bill, while we work to better the authority without taking away local decision-making.”

CSHLRA was originally created in 2012 to revitalize the former hospital and prison grounds after their closure. The authority was tasked with repurposing the 200 buildings across 2,000 acres, aiming to mitigate job losses and bring the properties back onto local tax rolls to boost the economy.

Under SB 260, the bill would reduce the authority from nine voting members to three, take away the ability for Milledgeville and Baldwin County governments to appoint members and

rename the authority by removing “local” from its title. Additionally, the authority would be placed under the purview of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, moving it to be under state governance.

The full text of SB 260 may be found here.

Representative Floyd Griffin represents the citizens of District 149, which includes portions of Baldwin, Bibb and Jones counties. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2024 and currently serves on the Defense & Veterans Affairs, Special Rules and State Planning & Community Affairs committees.

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