James September-October 2024 web - Flipbook - Page 11
mission to lower taxes and send money back to
Georgians. “We sent a couple billion dollars back
to the taxpayer citizens of the state and also were
able to lower our state income tax rate,” he reminded this writer.
Furthermore, Jones is promoting the eventual
elimination of the state’s income tax. “I’m realistic
that you can’t do it in one year,” he says. “But it’s
something we need to do; it needs to be our goal,
and we work toward it every legislative session. I’m
proud that we were able to lower it this year and
we’re going to lower it again next year. But the goal
is to get it to zero.”
Implementing Future Laws
Jones isn’t done yet on other policy issues and
has several items he’d still like to see passed into law
under his leadership. For example, he says “something I want to do are the children and family measures that a Senate committee put together to focus
on our foster care system, along with our Division of
Family and Children Services (DFCS) system, which
needs improvement. We were able to add significant
resources, and once we obtained what they needed
at DFCS, we quickly went from having over 100 foster kids in hotel rooms down to zero.”
Jones has been supportive of law enforcement
by helping to give state law enforcement officers
a pay raise and pushing for passage of measures
that help protect law enforcement officers. “One
reason why Trump is my guy is that he believes
in public safety; he believes in men and women in
law enforcement, and he believes in people who
serve our communities and our country— while the
Biden-Harris administration does not have a good
record. And Vice President Kamla Harris is on the
record talking about wanting to defund law enforcement, wanting to eliminate cash bail and put
repeat offenders back on the streets.”
Regarding surprises, Jones points to a policy
issue familiar to watchers of action or inaction
under the Gold Dome: sports betting. He says for
nearly ten years, someone in a chamber has introduced a bill to allow sports betting in the state but
the legislation has yet to cross the finish line and
head to the governor’s desk. “Two Senate bills this
year— Senate Bill 386 and Senate Resolution 579—
were passed overwhelmingly in the Senate but
were never chosen by the House Rules Committee
to be put on the calendar. There is likely some other
hesitancy, but the main sticking point appears to
be disagreements on where the revenue would go
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