The Rural Voices Georgia Steering Committee took its agenda to the State Capitol Wednesday and shared their message that they “will hold policy makers accountable on rural policies to benefit workers and families across the Peach State and in turn, strengthen Georgia’s economy.” The Georgia steering committee presented its three priorities – rural economic development, broadband, and rural healthcare.
“We want to make sure our officials have the information they need to have a thought provoking understanding of the problems facing Rural America and Rural Georgia. We will then work with our officials to move quickly and decisively to help solve Rural America and Rural Georgia’s problems,” said former House Speaker Terry Coleman of Eastman.
According to Rural Voices, Georgia’s rural areas are suffering from lost opportunities including a need for further investment in manufacturing, the processing of protein and Georgia crops, job training, healthcare and technology. They also pointed out that Georgia’s rural areas are losing hospitals, doctors, nurses, clinics, veterinarians, farmers and other producers because they don’t have the resources to stay in place.
“Today, we asked lawmakers to consider three priorities: First, to set up a rural economic development fund to strengthen ties with our rural economic development authorities and make sure they are equipped to do all they can to support rural jobs,” said Rural Voices Georgia Steering Committee Chair Susannah Maddux of Macon. “Second, we’re pushing for rural broadband be elevated to a top priority. Affordable and dependable high-speed internet is a critical lifeline that connects people to schools, telehealth and jobs. For farmers, processing plants and manufacturers, it’s needed to advance their businesses. Third, we know that rural healthcare is an issue of survival for people who don’t have nearby access to care, and we’re asking for that to be a priority,”
Members of Rural Voices Georgia include rural leaders, educators, agricultural leaders, farmers and current and former elected officials, including former Gov. Roy Barnes, and former House Rep. and CEO of Stuckey’s, Stephanie Stuckey.
“We are Georgians who are concerned that rural issues are too often ignored and rural residents are too often left behind,” added former Governor and farmer Roy Barnes. “We want to make sure these priorities are top of mind for Georgia lawmakers. We want them to work every day to be a champion for rural policies like broadband and health care access that have enormous importance to people living in rural areas.”
In the area of economic development, the committee is pushing for the state to set up a fund which they say would strengthen ties with local economic development authorities and facilitate using tools like new market tax credits, opportunity zones and other incentives. They also want to help position Georgia for next generation, value-added processing such as making new products from plant materials. And they support more “producer-owned processing of proteins and Georgia crops.”
Other priorities for Rural Voices include:
Rural Broadband
● Affordable and dependable high-speed internet is a critical lifeline that connects people to schools, telehealth and jobs. For farmers, processing plants and manufacturers, it’s needed to advance their businesses.
● Recommending the state rapidly deploy the funds available through the 2021 federal infrastructure act by working with local EMCs, power companies and other providers so that we have universal broadband coverage across the state and a continuous process for improving and maintaining high quality internet access.
Rural Healthcare
● To address the closure of rural hospitals which they say is reaching pandemic proportions across rural Georgia and having a negative effect on quality of life, they recommend incentivizing hospitals, clinics, doctors and nurses to operate in rural Georgia.
● Supporting the expansion of the training opportunities for veterinary and medical professionals across Georgia and the expansion of loan repayment programs to veterinarians, doctors, nurses and medical technicians who commit to working in Georgia’s rural areas.
● Recommending leveraging federal resources to improve healthcare and support rural hospitals and healthcare facilities.
● Recommending more transportation options for people needing to go to medical appointments in rural Georgia.
