The Georgia Public Policy Foundation (GPPF) held its annual Legislative Policy Forum on Friday. The Forum brings together leaders on conservative policy on a variety of issues from around the nation. Georgia legislators attendance was in abundance – former Senator Josh McKoon (now Secretary of State candidate), Senator Fran Millar (R- 40 Atlanta), Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick (R- 32 Marietta), Representative Sharon Cooper (R- 43 Marietta), Rep. Beth Beskin (R- 54 Atlanta) were all there, in addition to others.
The Forum is a chance to get a feel for where conservative thought is on a number of issues and maybe get a glimpse of what the discussion will be like on those issues once the Georgia legislative session starts. Fitting for the debates we are currently engaged in, most of the day revolved around three issues that have received a lot of Federal attention but which GPPF hopes can find some more locally based solutions – taxes, healthcare and education. This article briefly discusses two of the sessions from the day.
Jonathan Williams, the Chief Economist and VP at the Center for State Fiscal Reform at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), opened up the day as the breakfast keynote. His speech focused on federal tax reform and what it could mean for Georgia. Georgia does not seem to be in danger of becoming Connecticut or Illinois but Williams discussed some of the problems with tax policy that has led to both economic and budget problems in those two states. “If I were to condense down ten years of research and traveling the states and lessons learned when it comes to tax policy in one slide, it is don’t be like Illinois.” Illinois just raised income taxes by 32%.
Williams is still hoping that Washington will be able to push through tax reform and encourages Georgia to do the same. Williams warned that Georgia is in a tough region for economic competitiveness. North Carolina in particular has been very aggressive in promoting pro-growth policies and tax reform. Despite its regular listing as one of, if not the, best state in which to do business, ALEC’s economic competitiveness index, “Rich States, Poor States” dropped Georgia to 17th this year. Williams argues that simply doing nothing can be enough to hurt a state’s competitiveness as other states get more aggressive. Much of Williams’ argument revolves around income taxes. However, not everyone agrees that the income tax in Georgia is the problem.
The second session did not involve politicians or professional public policy people. The session was moderated by Don Betts, a Senior Project Manager with Georgia Tech’s Center for Economic Development Research (CEDR) and from the group EmployersLikeMe. The group “is a community of learning to help employers have the healthiest employees at a fair cost” The purpose is to give employers a network of other employers and discuss what’s working and what might not be and specifically around healthcare. The session’s panelists were representatives from private industry – Langdale Indusries based in Valdosta, Southwire Company based in Carrollton and Mohawk Industries based in Calhoun.
The panel discussed one of the central pieces for employer-based healthcare going forward – patient-managed care. That is, the employer giving their employees the ability to manage their own care as much as possible – a “care coordination path.” This should allow the patient/employee to structure the care that might work best for them and also ultimately save the employer on costs. Some of the criticism around the American healthcare system has been how it is made more difficult from the start by having so much coverage employer-based. This puts a strain on businesses and increases the distance from the patient and payer, which can hide costs. Unless something big changes, this is the system we will continue to be working in so these discussions will continue to be central for American healthcare.
Other sessions also discussed healthcare, education and a range of issues addressed by Dr. Tim Huelskamp, former congressman and the president of the Heartland Institute. You can see several of the speeches and panels in their entirety on the GPPF YouTube page.
