News

Friday Facts

Friday Facts: May 29, 2020

It’s Friday! This is Week 11 of the Friday Facts’ focus on the coronavirus pandemic across the nation and in Georgia. View previous editions here. View the Foundation’s near-term proposals here. Share your ideas: Email us at info@georgiapolicy.org. While the roads across the state have been a little less traveled, the Georgia Department of Transportation has put its overhead signs to good use during the pandemic. Quotes of Note “It is rather tiring having to point this out as often as we do, but it remains the case that people … Continue Reading →

Friday Facts

Friday Facts: May 22, 2020

It’s Friday! This is Week 10 of the Friday Facts’ focus on the coronavirus pandemic across the nation and in Georgia. View previous editions here. View the Foundation’s near-term proposals here. Share your ideas: Email us at info@georgiapolicy.org. Quotes of Note “I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws, and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can … Continue Reading →

Foundation News

Recent Foundation Publications

The Georgia Public Policy Foundation’s 2020 publications are listed below by date of publication. Click on a link to read. May 15: Simple Change in Law Can Save Georgia Taxpayers Over $80 Million, By Benjamin Scafidi and Heidi Holmes Erickson. Between 2009 and 2020 – once local schools received discretion over Georgia’s Early Intervention Program – the number of students classified as EIP increased 107%, from about 57,000 students to over 118,000. May 8: School Choice Can Help Ease Georgia’s Looming Fiscal Issues, by Marty Lueken and Benjamin Scafidi. If … Continue Reading →

Friday Facts

Friday Facts: May 15, 2020

It’s Friday! This is Week 9 of the Friday Facts’ focus on the coronavirus pandemic across the nation and in Georgia. View previous editions here. View the Foundation’s near-term proposals here. Share your ideas: Email us at info@georgiapolicy.org. Quotes of Note “Families vary in why they want to send their children to different schools, and assuming a specific reason, such as getting higher test scores, and then concluding a program has succeeded or failed based on that reason condemns a program even if it is providing what it should: a … Continue Reading →

Foundation News, News

Foundation Joins Plea for Georgia to allow Online Vision Care

Dear Governor Kemp, We the undersigned organizations, representing a variety of constituencies, urge you to suspend your state’s prohibition on ocular telehealth services during this time of crisis. Patients, underserved communities and taxpayers would all benefit from your timely action. Georgia, along with the rest of the country, is facing a pandemic that has dramatically affected the ways Georgians live and work. Leaders such as yourself have been quick to act—and we applaud your executive orders allowing flexibility in the ways that Georgians can receive healthcare services. These measures help … Continue Reading →

Friday Facts

Friday Facts: May 8, 2020

It’s Friday! This is the eighth Friday Facts edition to focus on the coronavirus pandemic across the nation and in Georgia. View previous editions here. View the Foundation’s near-term proposals here. Share your ideas: Email us at info@georgiapolicy.org. Quotes of Note “The kind of city that we in the West like, the sort of jostling city where everybody is packed together and we carouse late at night … like London, Paris, Sydney and San Francisco, are all far more vulnerable. The cities are going to have to reinvent themselves, and … Continue Reading →

Healthcare, In The Press

On COVID-19, Don’t Let the Perfect be the Enemy of the Good

This commentary by Dr. Gary Voccio, Director of Public Health for Northwest Georgia, was published May 3 in Hometown Headlines of Greater Rome and is excerpted with permission. By Dr. Gary Voccio Are we ready to open up? Doesn’t matter. We’re going to; we can’t exist otherwise. The real question is how we reopen in a way that gives us our best chance to stay open. If we do it wrong, the pandemic will speed up again, our hospitals will get overrun again, and we’ll need to go into lockdown … Continue Reading →

Foundation News

Friday Facts: May 1, 2020

It’s Friday! This is the seventh Friday Facts edition to focus on the coronavirus pandemic gripping the nation and Georgia. (View previous editions here.) View the Foundation’s near-term proposals here. Share your ideas: Email us at info@georgiapolicy.org. Quotes of Note “The main barriers to maintaining usual care by telemedicine require changes that are unlikely to come from the federal level. Commercial reimbursement, Medicaid reimbursement and credentialing are the states’ domain. Only 20% of states require payment parity between telemedicine and in-person services. Fortunately, both the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid … Continue Reading →

Friday Facts

Friday Facts: April 24, 2020

It’s Friday! This is the sixth Friday Facts edition to focus on the coronavirus pandemic gripping the nation and Georgia. (View previous editions here.) View the Foundation’s near-term proposals here. Share your ideas: Email us at info@georgiapolicy.org. Quotes of Note “Since the coronavirus pandemic began, this nation has hemorrhaged jobs, largely in the private sector. … [M]aybe it’s time to downsize government employment at every level, especially at the state and local levels where it increased from 6.4 million workers in 1960 to 19.5 million workers by 2017. Such numbers make a mockery of the idea that America … Continue Reading →

Foundation News, Press Releases

News Release: Study Finds Georgia’s Proposed Pension Reforms Fall Short

NEWS RELEASE | For Immediate Release April 21, 2020 Contact: Benita Dodd  benitadodd@georgiapolicy.org (404-256-4050) Study Finds Georgia’s Proposed Pension Reforms Fall Short Even before COVID-19, a problem existed Atlanta – The Georgia Public Policy Foundation and Reason Foundation released an Issue Analysis today that examines recent legislation intended to address the out-of-control costs in the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia. “Proposed Reforms to Georgia’s Teacher Pension System Missed the Mark,” the Issue Analysis by Reason Foundation’s Jen Sidorova and Len Gilroy – who is also a Senior Fellow with the Georgia Public … Continue Reading →

Foundation News, Press Releases

Foundation President Kyle Wingfield Welcomes Kemp Plan to Reopen Georgia Businesses

NEWS RELEASE | For Immediate Release April 20, 2020 Contact: Benita Dodd  benitadodd@georgiapolicy.org (404-256-4050) Foundation President Welcomes Kemp Plan to Reopen Georgia Businesses Atlanta – Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s announcement today that some businesses closed because of COVID-19 will be allowed to begin reopening on Friday, April 24, (with appropriate precautions) was welcomed as a timely first step by Kyle Wingfield, president and CEO of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation. The broader public health state of emergency Kemp declared statewide will continue through May 13. “The strictest measures on Georgians always had to … Continue Reading →

Friday Facts

Friday Facts: April 17, 2020

It’s Friday! This is the fifth Friday Facts edition to focus on the coronavirus pandemic gripping the nation and Georgia. View previous editions here. View the Foundation’s near-term proposals here. Share your ideas: Email us at info@georgiapolicy.org. Quotes of Note The quote below, from an op-ed by the president and the chairman of the Cato Institute, appeared Thursday in The Wall Street Journal. The Georgia Public Policy Foundation is also privately funded, and we couldn’t have said it better.  We wouldn’t criticize others for taking aid. In our communities and … Continue Reading →

Friday Facts

Friday Facts: April 10, 2020

It’s Friday! We’re sending out this week’s Friday Facts one day early, in acknowledgment of the Easter Holiday Weekend beginning tomorrow with Good Friday. This is the fourth Friday Facts edition to focus on the coronavirus pandemic gripping the nation and Georgia. (View previous editions here: March 20 here, March 27 here and April 3 here.) View the Foundation’s near-term proposals here. Share your ideas: Email us at info@georgiapolicy.org. Quotes of Note “The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling … Continue Reading →

Foundation News, Friday Facts

Friday Facts: April 3, 2020

It’s Friday! This is the third Friday Facts edition to focus on the coronavirus pandemic gripping the nation and Georgia, and the innovative approaches to reduce its impact. (View the March 20 edition here and March 27 here.) View the Foundation’s near-term proposals here. Share your ideas: Email us at info@georgiapolicy.org. Quotes of Note “Regardless of how long this goes on, now is the crunch time for us to lessen the peak, to make the bull’s eye smaller so that we don’t overrun our healthcare network.” – Gov. Brian Kemp, … Continue Reading →

Foundation News, Press Releases

News Release: Foundation Names Director of Policy and Research

News Release | For Immediate Release March 31, 2020 Contact: Benita Dodd  benitadodd@georgiapolicy.org (404-256-4050) Foundation Names Director of Policy and Research Atlanta – Christopher Denson has joined the Georgia Public Policy Foundation as Director of Policy and Research. Denson brings to the Foundation nearly a decade of experience in the healthcare arena in Georgia, most recently as Director of Outreach at HCA Memorial Health, a 612-bed Level 1 trauma center serving a 32-county region in Southeast Georgia and South Carolina. Before that, he was Manager of Health Policy Consulting for Leavitt Partners … Continue Reading →

Friday Facts

Friday Facts: March 27, 2020

It’s Friday! This is the second Friday Facts edition to focus on the coronavirus pandemic gripping the nation and Georgia, and the innovative approaches to reduce its impact. View the March 20 Friday Facts here. The Foundation has compiled a list of state-focused proposals, “Near-Term Proposals as Georgia Tackles COVID-19.” Share your ideas: Email us at info@georgiapolicy.org. Quotes of Note “No society can safeguard public health for long at the cost of its overall economic health. Even America’s resources to fight a viral plague aren’t limitless – and they will … Continue Reading →

Friday Facts

Friday Facts: March 20, 2020

It’s Friday! This Friday Facts edition is a coronavirus-focused issue, in light of the unprecedented and uncertain situation in Georgia and as officials and communities work on reducing the impact of COVID-19. To share your thoughts and suggestions, please email the Georgia Public Policy Foundation at info@georgiapolicy.org. Read Kyle Wingfield’s update on Foundation operations during the coronavirus outbreak here. Quotes of Note “There is nothing like American business. This is what Adam Smith meant when he talked about ‘the invisible hand’ of the marketplace. No government agency directed these companies … Continue Reading →

Friday Facts

Friday Facts: March 13, 2020

It’s Friday! Postponed: The Foundation’s event scheduled for Wednesday (March 18) has been postponed out of an abundance of caution. “Brexit: The Good, the Bad and the Messy” will be rescheduled and take place in May instead. Registrations can be refunded or applied to the rescheduled event in May; contact Susan Benson at sbenson@georgiapolicy.org. Quotes of Note “[A] claim that health care is a right does impose obligations upon others. We see that by recognizing that there is no Santa Claus or tooth fairy who gives resources to government to … Continue Reading →

Press Releases

News Release: Legislature’s Tax Relief Efforts ‘Commendable’

News Release | For Immediate Release March 9, 2020 Contact: Benita Dodd at benitadodd@georgiapolicy.org (404-256-4050) Foundation CEO Calls Legislature’s Tax Relief Efforts ‘Commendable’ Atlanta — Georgia Public Policy Foundation President Kyle Wingfield praised the Georgia General Assembly today for continuing to work on tax relief for Georgians as the session moves toward Crossover Day on Thursday. “Georgia’s hardworking citizens and small business owners deserve to keep more of the dollars they earn. It’s commendable and encouraging that our legislators are working to keep the commitment made in 2018 legislation: to lower the income tax rate,” Wingfield … Continue Reading →

Friday Facts

Friday Facts: March 6, 2020

It’s Friday! Quotes of Note “It’s fashionable for Democrats – and, if polls are to be believed, many Republicans too – to believe that something must be done about the supposedly intolerable influence of money in American politics. Indeed, there is a lot of money in American politics, as the ongoing Democratic primary (and every election in recent memory) makes clear. But after Super Tuesday, it seems clear that candidates cannot buy their way into the White House.” – Eric Boehm “There is no doubt that we are seeing significant … Continue Reading →