Author Blog Cash and Safety Net Melissa Johnson Georgia’s 2016 Human Services Budget Reflects GBPI Influence April 21, 2015 / January 15, 2020 by Melissa Johnson Georgia lawmakers took steps in the just-ended legislative session to improve the lives of some of the state’s most vulnerable people. Lawmakers allotted $900,000 more in the 2016 state budget to help Georgians with disabilities prepare for jobs and added more than $25 million to better protect children. Also significant is something left undone. Lawmakers […] Read more » Economic Security Melissa Johnson Safety Net
Blog Wesley Tharpe Transportation Reforms, Questionable Tax Breaks Drive This Year’s Tax Agenda April 17, 2015 / January 15, 2020 by Wesley Tharpe A package of measures designed to boost funding for Georgia’s ailing transportation network is the biggest tax item to pass this year’s General Assembly, but lawmakers also approved several other tax bills that in some cases carry sizable revenue costs. Legislators gave their approval to 10 tax bills besides the transportation package, House Bill 170. […] Read more » State Budget State Taxes Wesley Tharpe
Blog Wesley Tharpe Transportation Reforms, Questionable Tax Breaks Drive This Year’s Tax Agenda April 17, 2015 / January 15, 2020 by Wesley Tharpe A package of measures designed to boost funding for Georgia’s ailing transportation network is the biggest tax item to pass this year’s General Assembly, but lawmakers also approved several other tax bills that in some cases carry sizable revenue costs. Legislators gave their approval to 10 tax bills besides the transportation package, House Bill 170. […] Read more » State Budget State Taxes Wesley Tharpe
Author Blog Budget and Taxes Taifa Smith Butler GBPI Put its Stamp on 2015 Legislative Session April 13, 2015 / January 15, 2020 by Taifa Smith Butler Georgia lawmakers left Atlanta early this month with significant accomplishments in hand and without approving some measures the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute flagged as troubling. Legislation to generate about $900 million more a year for transportation maintenance grabbed most of the headlines after the General Assembly convened in mid-January. But other bills with big […] Read more » State Budget Taifa Smith Butler
Alan Essig Blog And Now it’s Time to Say Sine Die April 2, 2015 / January 15, 2020 by Alan Essig | 10 Comments on And Now it’s Time to Say Sine Die As the 2015 legislative session comes to an end so does my time in Georgia. After 25 years in Georgia, the last 11 as executive director of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, I move to Michigan in a few weeks. It certainly has been a long, strange trip. It’s hard to believe how far […] Read more » Alan Essig Medicaid Expansion State Budget
Blog Claire Suggs Time Runs Short to Boost Transparency, Parental Roles in Statewide School Plan March 25, 2015 / January 17, 2020 by Claire Suggs | 1 Comment on Time Runs Short to Boost Transparency, Parental Roles in Statewide School Plan Gov. Nathan Deal’s proposal to create a statewide Opportunity School District (OSD) to take over persistently low-performing schools could pass out of the Georgia house and sent for the governor’s signature as soon as this week. This train needs to slow down to give lawmakers time to add better provisions for transparency, accountability and parental […] Read more » Education K-12
Author Blog Budget and Taxes Wesley Tharpe Worker Justice State Transportation Repair Plan Veers Off Course March 24, 2015 / January 17, 2020 by Wesley Tharpe | 2 Comments on State Transportation Repair Plan Veers Off Course As published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on March 24, 2015 The bill lawmakers are pushing to answer Gov. Nathan Deal’s call for more money to fix Georgia’s roads and bridges made a sharp turn in the wrong direction last week. State senators put their stamp on a version their House colleagues passed by including a […] Read more » State Taxes Wesley Tharpe
Blog Cash and Safety Net Increasing Access to Child Care Helps Georgia’s Women, State Economy March 23, 2015 / January 17, 2020 by GBPI Admin Guest blogger Kelly Dolan is executive director of the Atlanta Women’s Foundation At the Atlanta Women’s Foundation, we know that advocacy is one of the most effective ways to combat the sort of interrelated root causes of social problems and systemic factors that are detailed in our Breaking the Cycle of Generational Poverty in Metro […] Read more » Economic Security Melissa Johnson Safety Net
Author Cash and Safety Net Featured Library Melissa Johnson Policy Areas Reports Child Care Assistance: Georgia’s Opportunity to Bolster Working Families, Economy March 23, 2015 / January 17, 2020 by Melissa Johnson Georgia is now turning away people who apply for child care financial assistance through a state program designed to help low-income families due to worries the program itself could run short of money. Georgia’s Department of Early Care and Learning said last Friday budget concerns are causing it to make the child care assistance unavailable […] Read more »
Alan Essig Blog Senate Transportation Bill Escalates Pain for Education, Other Needs March 19, 2015 / January 17, 2020 by Alan Essig | 1 Comment on Senate Transportation Bill Escalates Pain for Education, Other Needs Georgia’s state senators could inflict more than twice the pain contemplated by their House counterparts if they move forward with plans to fix roads and bridges with a raid on the general fund to the tune of $442 million. The version House members sent to them proposes a “mere” $168 million whack from the general fund, […] Read more » Alan Essig Budget Budget & Taxes Budget Cuts Education State Budget State of Working Georgia State Taxes
