Senator John Albers at Business Connection

Senator John Albers, Deputy Whip of the 56^th District in Georgia, spoke at the Business Connection in January (prior to the Georgia legislative session starting).  Along with being a member of the Economic Development, Education and Youth, Ethics, and Finance Committees, he is the Vice Chairman of the Finance, Public Safety, and Science and Technology Committees. 

Pam Santoro & Senator John Albers

Highlights  from Senator Albers:

Georgia has a balanced budget with no debt.  It has the lowest cost per government for all fifty states.   The state grew by 18% adding another congressional district. 

Senator Albers is working on a bill to raise the dropout rate in high school.   Students who don’t finish high school have a higher chance of ending up in jail than high school graduates do.  Plus he’s working on state charter schools.

In tax reform, Georgia is moving away from income/capital gains structure to sales tax usage based on the economy (like Texas and Florida).   

As an incentive to establish and keep jobs in Georgia, we may need to take the tax off energy for businesses.   

There’s a need for retraining workers for the technology jobs in Georgia.   Students should focus on science, technology, engineering, and math.   Currently, there are 5,400 open technology jobs in Georgia.  

They are also working on a military bill of rights to help soldiers.   The University of Phoenix enables soldiers to go to school from anywhere in the world with 25% off tuition and free books for the military.   

2012 will be a great year!