Excerpts from the Democratic response to the State of the State address:
Governor Deal told us today that Georgia is the best state to do business. The Governor told us today that our economy has brought prosperity to the people of Georgia. The Governor told us today that he’s finally going to fix our broken education system. He told us today that he has the solutions to what ails the State of Georgia.
Unfortunately, the Georgia of today is a place where economic inequality is among the worst in America, and a place where a person who wants to climb the ladder has less opportunity to do so than most anywhere else in America. The fact is that a child born into a poor family in Georgia — whether they’re in downtown Atlanta or rural Mitchell county — has less of chance to work his or her way into the middle class than if they were born in almost any other state in the nation.
The Georgia my Democratic colleagues and I seek to create is a place where every one of our public schools provides its students with the skills to succeed in the 21st Century. We want a Georgia that stops turning down billions of federal dollars—- tax dollars we have paid to Washington — by expanding Medicaid to provide health insurance to half a million Georgians, create 70,000 new jobs and keep rural hospitals across the state open. We want a Georgia that invests in transportation and infrastructure in a way that provides options for people in urban, suburban and rural parts of our state — which means better roads and bridges, as well as more mass transit. And we want a Georgia that honors and respects all of our citizens and their families, and does not condone discrimination against anyone.
The Governor and his colleagues would have you believe that the policies they’re pushing in the next two months are in your best interests. But make no mistake — those policies serve the powerful special interests, not the interests of our middle class and those striving to join it.
Despite the Governor’s assurance today that this is the largest education budget in state history, he is only replacing some of the money that has been cut under years of Republican control. That has resulted in more kids in classrooms with fewer teachers and higher property taxes for homeowners as local school boards raise taxes to make up for the state cuts. Now, instead of providing the funding that school districts need, he has proposed a new funding formula which would lead to a drop in state funding for 178 of the 180 school districts in Georgia compared to the current formula.
Expanding Medicaid remains a priority for Democrats. Our proposed legislation would provide healthcare to over 650,000 people, save hundreds of lives, inject billions of dollars into Georgia’s economy, and create 70,000 jobs, funded by money that Georgia taxpayers are already sending to Washington.
The easiest way to know what politicians stand for is to look at the legislation they support. Do they support making healthcare available to everyone? Democrats do. Do they support legislation that gives people the tools they need to lift themselves into the middle class? Democrats do. Do they support legislation that protects people from discrimination based on orientation, color, and creed? Democrats do. And we will continue to fight for those principles and against legislation that violates them.
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