ATLANTA (January 13, 2020) | Today, Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan (R – Carrollton), President Pro Tempore Butch Miller (R – Gainesville), Senate Majority Whip Steve Gooch (R – Dahlonega), Sen. Chuck Hufstetler (R – Rome), Sen. Dean Burke (R – Bainbridge) and Sen. Randy Robertson (R – Cataula) outlined the 2020 session legislative priorities for the Senate Majority Caucus.
This year, the Senate Majority Caucus plans to introduce legislation that includes fixes for marketplace facilitators’ collection of tax revenue, limits for Pharmacy Benefit Managers and measures to curb surprise billing, as well as additional funding to improve infant and maternal mortality rates.
“What we are focused on as a caucus are solutions that will bring the greatest relief to the most Georgians as quickly as possible,” said Sen. Dugan. “These priorities work together to accomplish that goal and are greatly needed to keep Georgia a competitive state to do business and a great place to raise a family. I look forward to working with all members of the General Assembly on these and other initiatives important to all Georgians.”
“These priorities are essential because they represent issues important to all parts of our state,” said Sen. Miller. “We all need access to quality healthcare, we all want increased transparency in health care costs, and we all want improvements to our tax infrastructure to maximize the revenues available for our state. I look forward to working with my fellow senators to perfect these proposals and bring improvements to lives of all Georgians.”
“Rural broadband is an issue that we have been working on for over three years now,” said Sen. Gooch. “Over the last year, we have been mapping out the broadband deserts across the state to identify where the needs truly are. This session, we plan on finding new incentives we can use in conjunction with federal funds to close that gap and make broadband more accessible to all Georgians.”
“As it stands, our state is missing out on potentially millions of dollars of revenue due to not collecting the existing sales tax on marketplace facilitators,” said Sen. Hufstetler. “We will quickly move on a proposal to bring much-needed tax revenues to the state that are currently owed, but are not being collected.”
“As a physician, my focus is always on making people better tomorrow than they were today,” said Sen. Burke. “As a former OB/GYN, the issue of maternal mortality is near and dear to my heart. We will be proposing budgetary measures designed to address this issue and work to help improve maternal and infant mortality outcomes across the state.”
“Many of our local law enforcement agencies are having a hard time recruiting and retaining law enforcement officers,” said Sen. Robertson. “What we’re looking for is the ability to build a database of qualified individuals so that in the event of a disaster, law enforcement agencies can pull names from the database to meet staffing needs.”
Specific legislation addressing these priorities will be introduced soon.
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For Immediate Release:
Andrew Allison, Acting Director
andrew.allison@senate.ga.gov
404.656.0028