Here are top Ga. leaders’ priorities for legislative session

ATLANTA, Ga. - State political and business leaders met for the annual “Eggs and Issues” breakfast to look ahead to this legislative session.

Gov. Brian Kemp says tort reform is at the top of his list in a continued push to curb civil lawsuits, saying he will soon unveil a legislative package to do just that.

“We must address the need for a legal environment that is balanced with our neighbors,” he said.

He also announced that his budget proposal will have $530 million to invest in freight and logistic transportation infrastructure and $250 million to the development of water, wastewater, and solid waste infrastructure projects.

Kemp said one of his other top priorities is continuing to strengthen the workforce by expanding Georgia MATCH into the individual graduation plans of students beginning in the 9th grade, calling it the Top State for Talent Act. Adding it will align the existing, career-tech and academic credentials with the high-demand list they’ve unveiled and increase opportunities for articulation from high school to postsecondary programs in those high-demand fields.

“Ensuring that Georgia not only remains the top state in the nation for business but also the top state for talent,” said Kemp.

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House Speaker Jon Burns named improving literacy rates and school safety among his top priorities. He said they will work to bolster school security, communication between school districts and law enforcement agencies and access to mental healthcare following the Apalachee High School shooting.

“We will consider every measure that respects citizens’ rights and ensures this never happens again,” he said.

Burns said he will also push for improvements for correctional facilities in the state.

“The inmates in those facilities are there because they broke the law, but they deserve to be safe while they serve their sentences and our corrections officers certainly deserve to be safe while they do their jobs,” said Burns.

He also said they plan to have the state conduct the first comprehensive water and energy resource study since 2006.

“Twenty years later, we are experiencing record-breaking growth and development in every corner of our state and the demand for our water and energy resources has grown significantly,” said Burns.

Burns also said he wants to codify protections for invitro fertilization, saying in 2021, over 2,900 children were conceived using IVF in Georgia.

“Access to fertility treatments should never be a question,” he said.

Kemp also took the opportunity to look back on recent years and remarked on some of the work they’ve done, including with the Rural Workforce Housing Initiative. He said since the program launched, they have awarded more than $42 million in infrastructure grants to 21 rural communities.

Since 2019, he said the state has created more than 193,000 new jobs and has brought in over $90 billion in private investments, with the majority going to rural communities.

Last year, Georgia lawmakers approved $250 million to invest in local roads, and Kemp said they plan to do that again this year.

“With a new legislative session upon us, I’m confident that by continuing this approach, we can keep Georgia the best place to live, work, and raise a family for years to come,” said Kemp.

Kemp’s address

I’m glad to be here with Speaker Burns, Lt. Governor Jones, our constitutional officers, of the General Assembly, Mayor Dickens, and some of the great local partners who have helped us keep Georgia the best state for opportunity. I also want to thank Chris Clark and the Georgia Chamber team for making this yearly event possible.

When I last spoke before you, I challenged us all to consider both where we need to be generations from now and how we get there. And as we have done in the past, we worked together as partners on that very challenge – delivering historic investments, reforms, and initiatives that are not just worthy of our status as the No. 1 state for business but reflect our state’s values and priorities.

As a result of that partnership approach, including with many others throughout Georgia, we’ve seen more than 193,000 new jobs created in communities across our state since 2019. And we’ve brought in over 90 billion dollars in private investments, with the majority going to our rural communities. We also have more people working than ever before in our state, and have jobs open for anyone looking for work or a new career.

Along with us maintaining our status as the No. 1 state for business for more than a decade, these achievements are all a part of a track record that everyone in this room should be proud of. But as I always say, we can never rest on our laurels.

In this new year, we must remain clear-eyed and focused towards building on these successes in the future. And that begins with ensuring that Georgia not only remains the top state in the nation for business, but also is the top state for talent.

We have made great strides in job creation and diversifying our economy, but we cannot allow workforce development to fall to the wayside.

It was at our second annual Workforce Summit last year that I unveiled this new initiative, which aims to develop an educated and skilled workforce aligned with our state’s current and future industry needs.

We plan to accomplish this by aligning our education pathways to access high-demand, high-skill, and high-wage careers.

Last summer I proposed and signed legislation enabling us to do just that and I’m proud to say we are already seeing implementation at the state and local levels.

After months of collaborations with industry partners and education professionals, my office unveiled Georgia’s High Career Demand List, enabling us to align education and job training programs with the needs of employers, grow our skilled workforce, ensure training programs meet industry standards, and increase awareness of career opportunities across the state.

We also continue to witness strong results from our innovative, direct-college issions program: Georgia MATCH. Since we launched Georgia MATCH, enrollment at the University System of Georgia has not only hit an all-time-record high but did so at a rate that was more than double the national average, with a majority of that increase coming from in-state students.

Our Technical College System experienced an over 9% enrollment growth, bringing their total enrollment to the highest levels we’ve seen in over a decade.

Combine this with a surge in students enrolling in high-demand programs and our state is well on its way to being a magnet for skilled talent. But even with these successes, we are mindful of the challenges in this space that lie ahead nationwide.

Challenges like what many are referring to as the “demographic cliff” which describes a nationwide decline in high school graduates, caused in part by a decreasing birth rate. However, as our state has done time and again, we see obstacles as something to overcome and challenges as opportunities.

That is why my istration will be proposing the Top State for Talent Act this session to: incorporate Georgia MATCH into the individual graduation plans of our students beginning in the 9th grade; align our existing, career-tech and academic credentials with the high demand list we’ve unveiled; increase opportunities for articulation   from high school to postsecondary programs in those high demand fields; and finally, to include a return on investment analysis measuring the effectiveness of our secondary and postsecondary programs that are aligned with the high demand career list.

We are not only focused on developing our workforce. Through our Rural Workforce Housing Initiative, we also continue to work with our local partners in communities across the state to their efforts in ensuring that this growing workforce can live in the same communities where our industry partners are creating good paying jobs.

Since the program’s launch, we have awarded more than 42 million dollars in infrastructure grants to 21 rural communities.

Communities like Elliott’s Walk in Columbus where they’ve already built 18 homes and are building 24 more, or in the city of Colquitt where they are constructing 49 sustainable units for their workforce to call home.

We also recently awarded our first ever Rural Site Development Awards, to help our local partners turn what some have called “fields of dreams” into ready-to-go sites for job creation.

It is through innovative approaches and partnerships like these, that we not only solidify our status as the No.1 State for Business but also grow the gap between us and the competition.

However, we must also ensure current and future partners know they can find not just great talent here, but an infrastructure network that can their growth and needs.

Since 2019, our private sector partners have committed over 66 billion dollars in investments for logistics-enabled businesses, creating over 140,000 new jobs across our state.

This s for over three-fourths of total jobs created and total private investments made in our state since I entered office.

That is why last year I announced that we would be investing an additional $1.5 billion into our infrastructure needs - expediting 23 projects more than 40 years ahead of schedule and funding 19 new projects.

I am proud to report that this has not just served us well in of economic development, but it has also benefited our state and partners from a fiscal management approach as well.

As a result of these investments, by 2035 we will have saved more than 1 billion dollars from delay and crash reduction and saved more than 4 billion dollars by 2050. Additionally, Georgia is ranked No. 1 in the nation for our infrastructure by CNBC and ranked No. 1 state for bridge quality by ConsumerAffairs.

This return on investment is something we should all be proud of and as a result, I am proposing that we double down.

Last year, with the help of the General Assembly, we provided $250 million dollars to double our grant investment in local roads without doubling the cost for local governments, and after hearing how beneficial this was from our local leaders, I am proud to say we’re doing it again.

Furthermore, my budget proposal includes 530 million dollars to invest in our freight and logistic transportation infrastructure. And finally, I will be proposing another infusion of 250 million dollars into the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority fund to the development of water, wastewater, and solid waste infrastructure projects.

Thanks to our previous investments in this fund, 135 Georgia communities have received nearly 500 million dollars in financing, providing over 1 million Georgians with reliable water services. While other states are raising taxes, we are cutting them, while also returning billions of dollars to taxpayers, paying down our debt, investing in our priorities and saving billions in future costs to our state and industry partners.

Yet, in all of that good news there is one more thing that we must address, the need for a legal environment that is balanced with our neighbors.

When I spoke to you all this time last year, I announced that my istration would work with the General Assembly to gather data that would prepare us to take on the issue of tort reform head on.

That data has now been gathered and following multiple roundtable conversations on the impact our current legal environment is having on our economic growth and healthcare needs, I will soon be unveiling a robust legislative package that will bring balance to our proceedings and parity with our neighbors.

We will move forward with an open mind and work with all of you as a team – just like we have successfully done on so many tough issues.

Tort reform will be my top legislative priority for this session, and I look forward to sharing more about those plans in the coming weeks. But I need your help. Every local or regional chamber in this room has a critical role to play this session to make sure we finally get tort reform done.

I’m asking you to engage earlier and harder than you ever have. Talk to your , get them involved, and give them the tools necessary to be influential with their House and Senate delegation.

In fact, given the seating chart here, local chamber delegations, you can take this opportunity to give your legislators a look or a nudge under the table.

They need to hear from you not just today, this week, or this month. They need to hear from you and your every day from now until Sine Die.

Because this is not a partisan issue. No matter your party, your district, your zip code, or your background, this issue impacts us all.

This is the year - so let’s get to work and get it done.

As you can see from what I’ve laid out here today, by working together, we have accomplished great things as a state.

With a new legislative session upon us, I’m confident that by continuing this approach, we can keep Georgia the best place to live, work, and raise a family for years to come.

God bless you all and may God bless our great state. Thank you!

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