Support Georgians’ Economic Security

Many Georgians experience barriers to economic security in an economy where despite its strengths, opportunity is not available for all. About 14% of Georgians live in poverty.  Far too many poor Black and Brown Georgians are forced to pay court and jail fines and fees that make it harder to meet their basic needs. We should enact and expand programs that help lift families out of poverty, create economic stability, and limit the size and scope of our carceral system. Because of this, GBPI is prioritizing the following policies: 

• Expand eligibility for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF) and increase the TANF benefit.   
• Enact meaningful paid family medical leave for public and private sector workers and provide funding to support it.   
• Invest a portion of the state’s surplus dollars in a child care trust fund with increased state appropriations for the Childcare and Parent Services (CAPS) program to serve more families with low incomes and support child care providers.   
• Increase the state minimum wage to meet a livable standard of pay and tie it to inflation to help ensure equitable growth over time.   Increase the pay for Georgia’s public benefit eligibility workers to promote better access to safety net programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which helps reduce food insecurity.    
• Provide robust funding for Georgia’s Unemployment Insurance system, including modernizing it equitably, centering workers and their needs.  
• Reduce and eliminate excessive fines and fees practices, including the use of private companies to provide misdemeanor probation supervision, to protect Georgians experiencing poverty from being punished or criminalized due to lack of economic resources.   
• Enact a state Baby Bonds program to invest in Georgia’s next generation and improve opportunities for economic mobility and wealth creation.  

At the federal level, GBPI advocates for safety net policies that support vulnerable Georgians. For example, GBPI carefully tracks federal spending trends in TANF in SNAP—which work to mitigate poverty and hunger—and fights to ensure these programs have robust funding.