Georgians to Legislature: Make job creation top priority

The poll surveyed 694 adults statewide, using both traditional landline and cell phones. The data was weighted based on mode (cell only, landline only, and mixed), region (metro vs non-metro), gender, age, race, education and ethnicity (Hispanic vs non-Hispanic).

The margin of error for the sample as a whole is plus or minus 3 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

Unemployment is down, home prices have started to improve and hotel occupancy is nearing pre-recession levels. Yet, despite these signs of an economic recovery, Georgians said in a new poll that lawmakers returning to the Capitol this week should make jobs their top priority.

The poll, produced by Kennesaw State University’s Survey Research Laboratory for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, found 38 percent of Georgians believe jobs and economic development should be the Legislature’s top concern as the 2013 session begins Monday.

Another 21 percent said education should be a priority, and 15 percent said health care.

Fritz Ngwenya of Atlanta is among the 38 percent.

The 39-year-old author felt the Great Recession’s impact directly when he felt forced to leave his job as a car salesman.

“It was slow — I was losing money to go to work,” Ngwenya, who sold Toyotas, said.

Ngwenya recovered. He wrote his first book, but he knows others haven’t been as fortunate.

“There’s a tremendous need for jobs,” he said.

Gov. Nathan Deal said last week he expects his policies of the past two years to continue to pay off.

“You’re going to see more of the research and development jobs and IT jobs moving here,” Deal said after General Motors announced plans to open an IT center in Roswell. “We have some more coming. Every project is different, but the reality is we have all the basic ingredients that most of them want.”

Deal and House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, both said they do not anticipate major new job bills to emerge this year. Instead, both pointed to past years’ efforts they say are now paying off.

Ralston said the tax reform bill passed in 2012 was instrumental in Georgia landing several key economic development prizes, including Baxter International and Caterpillar. That bill included a Deal-backed initiative to eliminate sales tax on energy used in manufacturing; the governor also advocated for expanded tax credits for job creation.

But, down in McDonough, where Amy Berkes was cleaning up after the lunch rush at her Gritz Family Restaurant, she said tax credits should not just be for big businesses.

“They need to work to give tax breaks to small businesses so they can hire more people,” Berkes, 54, said from the counter of her meat-and-three diner. “Creating jobs drives a community, I don’t care where you live.”

Nearby, George Hamrick waits tables at P.J.’s Cafe to supplement what he makes from his other jobs as an interior designer and house flipper.

The 45-year-old Hamrick said he’s sick of paying taxes and seeing them “ill spent.”

“It just sends me into orbit,” he said. “I work my butt off at two-and-a-half jobs.”

Another issue on voters’ minds is health care, and many in the AJC poll had a different view from Deal and some legislative leaders on Medicaid funding.

The AJC’s survey, conducted Dec. 10-19, found a strong majority of Georgians — 65 percent — believe the state should accept increased federal funding for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

But Deal has rejected the idea as too expensive; while the federal government would cover most of the cost of the expansion, the state would eventually face billions in new expenses. State Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth, who is expected to be elected this week to the Senate’s top post, said the country and the state can’t afford it.

“The federal government borrows more than 40 cents of every dollar it spends,” Shafer said. “It makes no sense to increase spending when we are not able to pay our current expenses.”

But Rep. Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta, the Democratic leader in the House, said the investment would pay for itself.

“The $32 billion Georgia would receive over 10 years, according to estimates, could yield $72 billion in economic benefit,” Abrams said, from growth of the health care industry and other spending through pharmacies and savings from fewer people going to the emergency room for standard care.

Another impact of the federal health care law is the creation of new insurance marketplaces, or exchanges, in the states. Deal has rejected the option of having the state create its own exchange; under the law, the federal government will do it instead.

But pharmacist Jimmy Goodson of Cumming said he trusts the state more.

“I would have more faith in the state than the federal government,” he said. “They’re not answering for much.”

Ralston, the House speaker, understands Goodson’s point, but said Washington gave states very little flexibility to design the exchange.

“They almost put you in a straitjacket in terms of what you can do,” he said. “The whole purpose for having an option for a state health care exchange ought to be that all 50 states, if they so desired, could create a plan that suited the needs, the population, the economy of that state. They didn’t do that.”

Billy Sanders of McDonough agrees with the governor and Shafer. The 39-year-old sales associate at On the Square Gun & Pawn knows the state already has a huge hole in its Medicaid budget. Adding to it doesn’t make sense, he said.

“We can’t afford another $4.5 billion,” Sanders said of the state’s estimate of the 10-year cost of expanding Medicaid. “Do we really want to add our name to the list of states and cities facing bankruptcy?”

Across the historic McDonough square, Courtney Esposito runs Truly Yours, an embroidery shop. She believes lawmakers could make it easier for small businesses to succeed.

“The pressure on business is enormous,” she said. “The fees and the fines, then the high workers’ comp. That’s the biggest issue.”

But job creation goes hand in hand with education, Lionel Myers of Mableton believes.

“Without education, you can’t even get a decent job that pays a decent salary,” Myers, 57, said. “Education is the key to everything. Education is saying, ‘I worked, I’m responsible, I’m mature.’”

Legislators should do more for schools, to improve teaching and technology, he said.

The AJC poll found Georgians overwhelmingly believe there should be a limit on lobbyist gifts to lawmakers.

The General Assembly is expected to consider legislation this year that would create a $100 gift cap as well as a plan sponsored by Ralston to ban gifts completely.

While 63 percent of Georgians said lawmakers are at least somewhat ethical and honest, less than 4 percent think they’re highly ethical and honest.

More than 70 percent said all lobbyist gifts should be banned. Another 15 percent support a $100 cap.

Carol Messina of Sugar Hill was among the 16 percent of respondents who do not believe lawmakers are ethical and honest.

“The Legislature needs a lot of self-fixing before they worry about anything,” Messina, 73, said.

She doesn’t believe all legislators are unethical, but “the majority are swayed. The lobbyist thing is out of control here.”

Still, Messina doesn’t favor an all-out ban on gifts. A $100 cap would suffice, she said.

“They can take them to dinner,” she said. “Let them take them to dinner and let that be the end of it.”

But, on the northern edge of metro Atlanta, Gene Hodges of Cumming was succinct in expressing what he most wants legislators to do on ethics reform.

“They need to get rid of kickbacks from lobbyists,” the retired postal worker said.