State of Georgia Governor Canidates

Tuesday, November 2nd will be the state of Georgia's Governor elections. I decided it'd be good to do a post on the two candidates and easily lay out what they want to get done if elected.

Nathan Deal

Nathan Deal is the Republican candidate for Governor. Here are his ideas:

• Economy: 1) Has a specific plan to bring new jobs to GA - fundamental to this goal is a pro-growth, business-friendly economic environment. He plans to do this with comprehensive regulatory and tax relief. 2) "Real Prosperity" will give tax relief for families and small businesses which will put steps into place to fuel growth and development.
• Education: "Real Results" - Plans to strengthen public schools and improve student achievement - will prioritize funding for education, protect teachers jobs to keep small class sizes and focus on enhancing science, technology, engineering and math education - Deal's idea includes making separate schools that focus more on these topics than others. Just like the difference between research colleges and technological colleges.
• Illegal Immigration: Implement a statewide program that will give law enforcement the power to work with federal authorities to enforce the laws. He authored legislation that would end birthright citizenship to babies born in US to illegal parents. He will continue working to fight illegal immigration. According to Nathan Deal's website, "New immigrants have forever been an important part of our American culture, but our system must be orderly, sustainable, and in accordance with the rule of law."
• Right to Life: Pro-life. Will end funding for abortion in Georgia
• Healthcare: Will continue fighting the recently passed Healthcare Bill. Deal will also fight the number of lawsuits and 'jackpot jury' trials that drives up the cost of healthcare.
• Budget and Taxes: 1) Work to ensure that taxpayer dollars are used effectively by enacting a zero-based budgeting (expenditures in departments must be approved, both increases and decreases, instead of traditional budgeting where managers justify increases). Hopes this will eliminate wasteful funding while also creating additional funding for education, transportation, public safety and healthcare. 2) Will eliminate marriage penalty tax and reduce corporate income tax by 1/3. This will help create jobs and ensure Georgia taxpayers are the beneficiaries of improved efficiency in government.

Roy Barnes

Roy Barnes is the Democrat candidate for Governor. Here are his ideas:

• Jobs: 1) Immediate Solution - Believes that making businesses more energy efficient will lower costs and will help create more room for job growth. 2) Training - Believe if we reinvest in higher education then it will help create job opportunities. 3) Focus - If we focus on create incentives for medical research, then the increased research could help raise the number of jobs. 4) Incentive - Reinstate the property tax relief so families can afford to buy houses, raise a family and start businesses. 5) Value-added Agriculture - produce and process our agriculture in state and the production will increase job opportunities. 7) Green Jobs - Take advantage out of our abundance of greenery. This could stimulate trade, reduce pollution, and create jobs. 8) Tourism - Take advantage of all our fantastic scenery and landscape throughout the state of Georgia
• Education: 1) Public Education - Do not have furloughs for teachers and cuts from education budgets. Cannot have a great education if you cut its budget. 2) Raise teachers salaries to show how important teachers are to the operation and success of our schools. 3) Focus on emphasizing math and reading, reducing class sizes, and make the number of days given to standardized testing so that Georgia children every opportunity to succeed in their classes and on their tests. 4) Work to guarantee that both active and retired public education employees receive their pension and health benefits and not lose anything that was apart of that agreement.
• Transportation: 1) Have an elevated, light-rail system that will help workers who live in the suburbs of Atlanta get home quicker and make our Atlanta highways less clogged with cars. 2) Improve and expand our states highway system. Also have a railway connect all major cities in Georgia to help improve access for businesses, workers and visitors.
• Water: 1) Need to focus on repairing leaky pipes and updating inefficient municipal water infrastructure. Offer incentives for owners and consumers to use more green technology that lowers use of water. 2) Need to create new reservoirs in North Georgia so that we can increase our capacity for water storage and/or find new alternatives to store water effectively. 3) We should not wait for the courts to make a decision on this topic, we need to start working immediately to make all these ideas become a statewide priority.
  
• Restore Georgians trust in their Government

After reading both sides, I hope you have a clearer idea on who you would like to vote for. Everyone of us should go out and vote before or on November 2nd. It's important to have our voices heard and for us to have some control of our future.

What are your opinions on these two candidates and who will you be voting for?