Christmas comes early for state employees and educators

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas for state employees and educators here in Georgia. On today’s episode of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia podcast, hosts Greg Bluestein and Bill Nigut discuss the $1,000 bonus Governor Brian Kemp has approved for 308,000 state employees, teachers and school staff at the cost of about $330 million. AJC education reporter Martha Dalton joins the podcast with details on the bonuses.   Looking ahead to tomorrow, Judge Steve Jones will review Georgia lawmakers’ recent efforts to redraw electoral maps. But will the maps pass muster on being more racially in line with federal voting rights laws? We hear more about the litigation from Democratic Party of Georgia lawyer, Sachin Varghese.   Plus, a group of well-known evangelical leaders have now put their weight behind the measure to combat antisemitism, a bill that stalled this year in the Georgia senate.   Have a question for the show? Call the 24-hour "Politically Georgia" Podcast Hotline at 404-526-AJCP. That's 404-526-2527. We’ll play back your question and answer it during the Listener Mailbag segment on next Friday’s episode.   Links to today’s topics: Kemp plays Santa to 308,000 Georgia teachers, state employees with $1K bonus Judge to review lawmakers’ efforts to redraw electoral maps Evangelicals join dispute over definition of anti-Jewish hate   Subscribe to the AJC: If you aren’t a subscriber to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, click here to get unlimited digital access to the AJC.    Listen and subscribe to our podcast for free at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also tell your smart speaker to “play Politically Georgia podcast.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices