James January-February 2025 web - Flipbook - Page 65
eorgia Senate Democrats will offer a
bold 2025 General
Assembly agenda to
help Georgia’s working families— and
stop Republicans from damaging our
schools, hospitals and economy.
We will work for Georgians and
hold Republicans accountable for
their inaction and indifference to
Georgia’s working families. By focusing on public education, affordable
workforce housing, rural development
and affordable healthcare, we aim to
ensure that every Georgia community
has the tools and opportunities necessary to thrive. At the end of the day,
our minority caucus can only get so
far. The ball is in the court of Republicans: will they work with Democrats
to improve Georgia or continue to
foster policies that negatively impact
working Georgians?
Investing in Public Education
Education is the most important
part of your child’s development. And
our commitment to Georgia’s children is unwavering. We believe that
every single child in Georgia deserves
access to the best education in our
country. Yet Gov. Brian Kemp refuses
to use our $16 billion surplus to aid
Georgia’s families. We should use the
surplus to make big investments in
public schools to ensure smaller class
sizes, update instructional materials
and pay teachers competitive salaries. Educators are the backbone of
our communities. If we want to give
our children a world-class education,
we must provide teachers with the
resources they need.
Ensuring an Affordable Home
Health Care for Working Families
The rising cost of housing has
left so many Georgians struggling to
find safe, affordable homes. Although
we have consistently presented legislation to address our housing crisis,
we have yet to find Republicans
willing to work with us to solve this
critical issue.
One area we are particularly
concerned about is higher rent costs
and absentee landlords. We will continue to fight against unjust evictions
and fight against unreasonable and
irrational rent increases. The bottom line is that we must ensure that
hard-working Georgians stay in their
homes. It is time Georgia takes bold
steps to make housing affordable—
and the American Dream accessible.
Georgia is one of nine states that
has not effectively provided coverage
for working families. We will once
again introduce PeachCare Plus, a
program that would provide up to
500,000 Georgians with access to private health insurance, bring billions
of federal dollars into our state, and
help save our rural hospitals.
In the last session, we came close
to helping working-class families
obtain affordable healthcare. For the
first time, we had a vote to truly help
Georgians obtain affordable healthcare. Yet, unfortunately, the governor
decided to hold onto Pathways— a
flawed and, quite frankly, a failed
program. We must and can do better
for our families.
Revitalizing Rural Georgia
A Vision for Georgia’s Future
Rural Georgia is the heart of our
state. But for too long, Republicans
have left these communities behind.
Democrats continue to prioritize
infrastructure improvements, education and access to essential healthcare services in our rural areas. From
broadband expansion to modernizing our hospitals, we are committed
to representing all of Georgia.
Rural healthcare remains a major
concern. We will continue to support
policies that help our families in need
of medical assistance. We need to
make sure our healthcare can be
trusted, which is why we propose
bringing investment into our hospital
system and end the medical workforce shortage plaguing our system,
especially in rural areas.
Our plan for you is rooted in the
belief that Georgia can and should
be a place where everyone has the
opportunity to live and succeed. By
prioritizing education, housing, rural
development and healthcare, we are
laying the foundation for a more equitable and prosperous state— a state
where all people can prosper.
We promise you, we are ready
to work, and we will lead the way to
make Georgia the number one state
to live and the number one state to
raise a family because it is the people
who make this state great.
State Sen. Harold Jones II, D-Augusta, has served
a portion of Richmond County since 2015. Last
November his party caucus named him Senate
Minority Leader.
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