Georgia Speaker of the House and District 7 Representative David Ralston and State Senator Steve Gooch spoke about their goals for Georgia’s future at the Fannin County Chamber of Commerce’s Eggs and Issues breakfast Tuesday, October 19.
Gooch also updated attendees on the Highway 5 expansion that started in the 1980s. Bids have been received and one contract should be released in a few weeks. The project has been broken up into three phases and is estimated to take three to five years, hopefully starting just before spring of 2022.
Redistricting was a topic mentioned by both lawmakers, and November 3 marks the start of a special legislative session for redistricting the state based on the 2020 census. According to Ralston, there is a model that lawmakers go by, but most people will not hear about that in the media. “You’ll hear all of the stuff of unfair politics, trying to pick your voters and all of that,” Ralston said.
Both Ralston and Gooch both spoke of Georgia’s post-COVID-19 shutdown economy.
According to Gooch, Georgia’s economy fared better than others in the nation after being one of the first states to reopen businesses.
Ralston said that Georgia has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country at 3.5% and Fannin County’s is even lower at 2.5%.
However, “Everyone I talk to cannot find employees,” Gooch said. He attributes this to challenges created at the federal level with subsidies provided “to sit at home instead of going back to work.”
Early summer, Georgia cut some of these subsidies. “We believe it’s time to go back to work,” Senator Gooch said.
Senator Gooch highlighted the University of North Georgia Blue Ridge campus and the North Georgia Technical College located in Blairsville, Georgia, as Fannin County’s assets in getting Georgia’s workforce ready for the future.
Another issue Georgia’s economy is facing is supply chain challenges. According to Senator Gooch, freight and logistics plans are in the works to reduce “choke points” and expand Georgia’s Class One railroad capacity. “Cargo ships are sitting out in the ocean waiting to be unloaded,” Gooch said. Issues unloading freight, lack of trucks moving supplies, etc. result in a backlog at Georgia’s largest port in Savannah, Georgia.
However, it will take several years and funding according to the senator.
Speaker Ralson spoke of a $50 million spending proposal he plans to introduce for the 2022 budget that would focus on mental health, law enforcement, and public safety to help with Georgia’s increase in crime and the increase in law enforcement officers resigning or retiring early.
In the $50 million plan, two million dollars would go towards Georgia’s accountability courts and a pay increase for those employed with the courts, and $10 million would be used to give state prosecutors raises. According to Speaker Ralson, everyone who protects the public “deserves a reward.”
Seven million dollars would go towards crisis situation training. Also within the plan, $22 million would go towards the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) to speed up the processing of critical evidence and would introduce new legislation to give the GBI authority to investigate election fraud. Currently, the GBI must be invited by a county to investigate election fraud cases. Senator Gooch also spoke of the increase in crime and the ongoing debate on how to resolve the issue.
“We have legislators who want to take money away from the police department in our state,” Senator Gooch said. “I don’t believe the police departments are capable of enforcing their laws as long as their mayors and elected officials won’t back them up and support them.