ATLANTA – A rural Georgia group outlined policy priorities on Wednesday, urging state policymakers to prioritize rural agriculture, broadband, and education.
“We are Georgians and are concerned that rural issues are too often ignored and rural residents are being left behind,” said former Democratic Gov. Roy Burns. “We want to make sure these priorities are the top priorities of the Georgia Legislature.”
Rural Voices USA is a national non-profit organization focused on rural issues. Members of the organization’s Georgia Steering Committee have developed a list of policy proposals they say policymakers in Peach State should consider.
Foremost is to strengthen the rural economy by creating a Rural Economic Development Fund that utilizes measures such as tax credits and seed funds to encourage investment.
According to Brian Kuehl, executive director of Rural Voices USA, the aim is to help Georgia’s agricultural sector stay competitive by embracing cutting-edge developments, such as plant-based protein production. is.
“The goal is to make rural Georgia a better place to live and make a living,” Kuhl said, noting that rural communities already have assets such as hard-working people and a good education system. bottom. “There are all kinds of niche opportunities.”
The group also urges the state to provide federal bipartisan infrastructure law funding for 2021 as soon as possible to promote rural broadband so that all Georgians have access to high-speed internet.
“For farmers, processing plants and manufacturers, [broadband is] Macon Publisher Susannah Maddux, who chairs the steering committee, said:
“The investment that Congress made ….more in real dollars than the rural electrification push of the 1930s,” Kuhl added.
A third priority area is addressing rural healthcare shortages in Georgia by encouraging healthcare professionals to work in rural Georgia and stemming the tide of rural hospital closures.
Recent legislative efforts to address labor shortages are welcome, said Terry Coleman, a member of the steering committee and former Democratic speaker of the state House of Representatives. But Georgia still doesn’t have enough medical resident slots to meet that need, he said.
“We have to keep busy,” Coleman said.
This article is available through a news partnership with the Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
