For those familiar with the Georgia Public Policy Foundation’s (GPPF) vice president Benita Dodd, you may know she is an outspoken advocate for transportation – or sometimes against transportation, in the form of transit at least. Well this year’s GPPF legislative policy forum, one of the major events leading up to the start of the legislative session, will focus on mobility. Except not that mobility. This is more focused on upward mobility, whether in education, healthcare or employment.
The November 15 event will feature high profile speakers, including Lt. Gov Geoff Duncan as the opening speaker and Georgia House Speaker David Ralston closing out the event. Governor Brian Kemp may also be making an appearance as one the speakers.
Besides the legislative heavy hitters, the event also will feature Katharine Stevens, a scholar from the American Enterprise Institute, discussing the role of early childhood education and breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty in disadvantaged communities. Michelle Wirth from the Georgia Charter Schools Association, Mike Dudgeon, the policy director for Lt. Gov. Duncan, Hannah Heck from the Atlanta Westside Charter School, and William Mattox, the director at the J. Stanley Marshall Center for Educational Options at the James Madison Institute will be on a panel together also discussing education and upward mobility.
A GPPF would not be complete without some discussion of transportation so Ed Crowell, the CEO of the Georgia Motor Trucking Association, Representative Brett Harrell (R-106 Snellville) chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and a member of the House Transportation Committee, Kirsten Mote from the Aerotopolis Atlanta CID, and Chris Tomlinson, executive director of the Atlanta-region Transit Link Authority (the ATL) will be discussing moving on transportation innovation. Public transit, autonomous innovation and the future of trucking will all be on the table.
There will also be a session on regulations, ordinances, mandates and licensing requirements and how these rules may be limiting the growth of small business in Georgia. James Broughel from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University will give an overview of Georgia’s regulatory environment and Scott Hilton and Cade Joiner from the Georgians First Commission will discuss their work carrying out Gov. Kemp’s order to make Georgia the number one state for small business.
As Dodd noted in her invite to the event, “At the first Georgia Legislative Policy Forum in 2010, legislators heard about digital learning and criminal justice reform; today, Georgia is a leader on those issues.” Then Governor Nathan Deal did indeed pick up the baton on criminal justice reform and paved the way for states, particularly Republican-leaning ones, to engage on that important issue. And Augusta is quickly becoming one of the leading cities in the country for cybersecurity, thanks to investments in the Georgia Cyber Center and Fort Gordon becoming the home for the U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence.
It remains to be seen the impact that this year’s event might have on the politics in the years to come, but the audience likely in attendance will be the right one to make things happen.
To register and see a full breakdown of the agenda: https://www.georgiapolicy.org/event/2019-georgia-legislative-policy-forum/
