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AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2006 > January > 11 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USReactions to Perdue’s speech
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor
For nearly 20 years, I’ve taken the same approach to every legislative session: focus on the needs of everyday Georgians, to make sure this government — your government — works for you. All of you.
Right now the state of Georgia provides HOPE Scholarships to every child who graduates with a “B” average, scholarships that allow them to attend any Georgia university tuition free…. Every single one.
We provide HOPE Scholarships to every high school graduate, scholarships that allow them to attend any Georgia technical college for free…. Every single one.
We provide Pre-Kindergarten to every four-year-old in Georgia who wants it…. Every single one.
I was proud to lead the legislative fight for these groundbreaking programs.
It is time to lead again.
It is time to provide heath insurance to every child in Georgia….every single one.
Regardless of who they are … Who their parents are … Where they live … Or how much their parents make.
I’ve fought for children’s health care my entire career … a fight that led to PeachCare, a program that now provides health coverage for more than 200,000 Georgia kids.
Yet too many families and their children fall through the cracks, struggling in gaps left by a patchwork of healthcare programs.
We are talking about displaced workers who lose their coverage through no fault of their own … think of the thousands of Georgia employees who will soon be without healthcare at Delta … GM … and BellSouth, just to name a few….
We are talking about thousands of families without healthcare who make too much money to qualify for help.
Let me repeat that: these families make too much money to qualify, but they don’t make enough to afford basic health insurance. So their kids end up with no health insurance at all. It was the same problem families had with college tuition before we passed HOPE. And it’s wrong.
This idea comes from a program in place in Illinois. We will adopt it to the needs of Georgia and make it our own. We call it PeachKids. And it will provide health insurance for every child in Georgia.
Now get ready for the usual suspects to come forward … the ones who say it can’t be done.
The same people who told me HOPE couldn’t be done….
The same people who said Pre-K couldn’t be done….
But we got them done.
And we will get PeachKids done.
No matter what it takes. No matter how long it takes.
Listening to Governor Perdue today, it is clear that we now agree on a few issues we have disagreed on over the last few years.
An important one is reducing class size.
In every part of Georgia, there are overworked teachers in overcrowded classrooms
Governor, I hope we can work together to reduce class size in this state.
I also support your effort to increase teacher pay.
But one time election-year proposals will not solve our education problems.
We need to worry about teacher pay, class size and our kids’ education not just in election years, but every year.
And that goes for tax cuts too —
We haven’t passed a tax cut for families in several years. As the proud sponsor of the largest tax cut in our state’s history, I will support any new tax cut — including a childcare tax credit — for Georgia families.
As you all know, the HOPE Scholarship has a special place in my heart.
Over the past few years — over my objections — HOPE has been cut, needlessly and too often.
Today, students and their families are reaching into their pockets to buy things HOPE use to pay for. That’s wrong.
The greatest college scholarship program in the nation deserves better than that.
It is time to RESTORE all HOPE cuts that were made.
The Governor also proposes a Constitutional Amendment to protect HOPE, and I will support any effort to do that.
But you have to read the fine print. And when you do, you’ll find out that this amendment does not … I repeat … DOES NOT protect the HOPE program from future budget cuts by Governor Perdue or anyone.
If this amendment passes, HOPE can still be cut … at any time … for any reason … and by any amount.
In the end, protecting HOPE requires leadership and a real commitment to keeping it strong.
I was there when HOPE started. I have that commitment. And I will be watching … every minute … to make sure the HOPE scholarships are protected.
As we work to make our kids as healthy as they can be and give them the best education we can- we also need to protect them from a constant cultural assault that undermines our values.
So let’s prohibit the sale of extremely violent and sexually explicit video games to children under age 18.
Let’s establish uniform rating guides for all forms of entertainment so parents can get reliable information about content.
And let’s give parents more input about the content of the health and sexuality curriculum being taught in schools.
Let’s protect our kids and make these simple ideas the law of the state.
And that brings me to one final point. I will support any measure that helps and honors the outstanding men and women serving in our military.
I believe in Georgia. And, for nearly 20 years, I’ve gone to work every single day thinking about one thing: what can we do to improve the lives of everyday Georgians … each and every one of you.
YOU should be the focus of this session.
Your family. Your schools. Your health. Your values. Your life.
I am ready to go to work for you.
God bless you … and God bless the great state of Georgia.
Secretary of State Cathy Cox
Three years of bickering under the Gold Dome meant teachers weren’t treated like professionals and classes got larger. Now that we’re in an election year we’re finally beginning to see a renewed focus on education, but it doesn’t make up for the ground we’ve lost. If our state’s leaders had spent the last three years cooperating and working for all the people of Georgia, we would be much further along in improving our schools and strengthening higher education.
We face enormous challenges to provide affordable health care for more Georgia families and small businesses, in educating our children in world class public schools, and in solving our difficult transportation problems so we can finally get Georgia moving again.
The uninsured don’t have a powerful lobby roaming the halls of the Capitol. Parents with kids in school don’t have unlimited political money with which to wallpaper the offices of our elected leaders. Commuters don’t have Gold Dome insiders on their side to twist the arms of Georgia’s political elites to finally bring forward the solutions we need. And we heard nothing whatsoever in the Governor’s message today about improving traffic or assuring access to health care for most Georgians — the quality of life issues that we must address.
Good ol’ boy politics has simply gone bad. Its time has passed. Cleaning it up once and for all is at the heart of my campaign for Governor.
In the coming days I will be offering my plan to make Georgia government serve everyday Georgians and face up to the critical needs of her citizens — the way it should have all along. We can change Georgia — restoring faith and confidence in a government that works for each and every Georgian, regardless of their personal wealth or political influence. Working together, I am confident that change is exactly what we’ll achieve.
Charles Bullock, political science professor at UGA
Lest anyone have doubts, there could hardly be clearer evidence that it is easier and more fun to govern when the state treasury is full as opposed to when the wolf is at the door. With state revenues running well ahead of projections, the governor could use his state of the state address to outline a number of popular funding initiatives.
Education was the area that received top billing and in which Gov. Perdue most fully fleshed out his proposals. Education, like most areas in the budget, was put on a diet in recent years when the state struggled to meet its obligations and stay solvent. Now with revenues rising, K-12 education is faring better than other areas in competing for new dollars.
Much of what the governor proposes for education should please classroom teachers, a group that numbers approximately 100,000. Public school teachers have traditionally been in the Democratic Party corner but searched for a new home in 2002 in reaction to what they judged to be unfair criticisms from Gov. Barnes. Gov. Perdue has not repeated the Barnes’ mistakes by blaming teachers for the continuing poor performance of Georgia seniors on the SAT tests. Instead Perdue is seeking a reaffirmation of support from educators in the upcoming election.
The FY 2007 budget promises to improve the finances of the teaching corps with the largest pay raise of the Perdue governorship which will seem even larger than last year’s raise since the state will step in to shoulder increased charges for health insurance.
Reducing class sizes in K-8 will make teaching and maintenance of discipline easier. This should promote the task of education.
Teachers, who often chafe under and resent the lack of understanding that they perceive coming from the administrators under whom they work, may also be pleased with the proposal to have at least 65% of the education budget go into the classroom rather than fund salaries for additional legions of coordinators and assistant superintendents and principals.
The speech offered a buffet of non-controversial proposals. The governor supports investing to create new jobs, while opposing meth use, sexual predators and use of eminent domain to give property to developers whose schemes might increase property tax revenues. These should all pass and become part of the governor’s platform for why he deserves another term.
Having burgeoning coffers allowed the governor to propose targeted tax relief for various subsets in society. Grateful beneficiaries include working families, those who heat with petroleum produces, small businesses and the elderly.
I heard nothing about using some of the extra revenues to replenish the rainy day fund. Perhaps I missed that. But if that was not in the speech, it may be because not many Georgians see a direct benefit from that use of extra tax dollars.
There was very little in the speech that had not been already mentioned, so no surprises.
If the legislature delivers on what the governor seeks — and it would be surprising if he did not get all of this through the General Assembly — he will be well positioned to answer the question: What have you done for me lately?
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