Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to Georgia Focus. I'm John Clark on the Georgia
News Network. The Georgia Chamber of Commerce champions growth, innovation,
and prosperity for every Georgia business, from the bustling streets
of Atlanta to the serene landscapes of rural Georgia, to
make Georgia the number one place to do business in
the country. We're Georgia Today by Chris Clark, President and
(00:33):
CEO of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. Well, Chris Clark,
have you Chris Clark my cousin. That's right, not really,
but lady somewhere somewhere, somewhere bound to be. I'm glad
to have you in here. It's been a year, I know,
fast year. What's the latest? How about with the new administration?
(00:55):
How is Georgia businesses it changed any.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
So I think there's a lot lot of uncertainty in
the business community right now. You know, we have changes
in Washington about every twenty four hours now, and so
we're just trying to help Georgia businesses keep up, understand
what's happening, how to respond, not to worry too much,
to try to stick to the course. But as you know,
(01:20):
businesses like consistency, they like to know what's coming next,
and so there's been a little challenging. But I think
there's some good things coming from a regulatory standpoint that
businesses are excited about, and then things that we need
to continue to work through, like issues around tariff and workforce.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, Georgia is the number one pace through business in
the country. I guess it's still.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Eleven years in a row, longest record in history.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Oh, you're playing to keep that up as long as
you're around. We want to.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
You know, at some point, I'm sure that we'll slip
and make a mistake. But I think as long as
our economic developers in Georgia continue to recruit companies and
our communities continue to welcome and provide the workforce, we've
got assystem that's kind of hard to beat right now.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, Yeah, Well, I know one thing you've been working
on is tort reform. Yes, I want to talk about
that as much as you want to, because I know
that is something that's really big right now for you.
What is tort reform and what do you want to
do with it?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So a little historical President John, you know, in two
thousand and five, Governor Purdue and the General Assembly passed
what they called tort Reform at the time, which was
just trying to get a handle on frivolous lawsuits and
out of control jury verdicts and what happened, and they
passed that. Chambers supported it, our hospitals supported it, we
(02:46):
saw benefit from it, but over time the courts overturned
parts or pieces of it. And so for the last
fifteen years we've really been trying to help make this point,
and it's really come to ahead in the last few
years as we've seen a insurance rates not only just
(03:07):
go up, but insurers leave the state because they can't
afford the jury verdicts that come out. Then the other
thing that's happened is these runaway jury verdicts have driven
up the cost of health care and medical malpractice insurance
so that many of our hospitals now can't even find
(03:30):
underwriters in America. They have to go overseas to find
companies that will take care of them. And so those
issues and then a unique issue that's starting to occur,
which is these lawsuits are being funded.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Now like class action suits, not just by.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Big firms in London or in New York but by
the Chinese government or the Russian government, and so all
of that's come to a head and Governor Kemp spent
all last year traveling the state to listen to understand,
and then rolled out two bills. One is a very
(04:15):
broad bill to help address some of these issues. Uh.
And those are those are working their way through the
General Assembly now. And the business community, healthcare community, almost
every every business interest in Georgia, and quite frankly many
consumer groups have been working with the governor to try
(04:38):
to get these passed.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
You mentioned healthcare and being the one of the things. Sure,
I mean that's a big that's a big issue in
Georgia with small healthcare in small rural areas. What about that?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
It's it's huge. And I'll give you an example. Uh, and
this is from Insurance Commissioner.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
John King uses this example.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
The average obgyn and I've got probably two dozen counties
in Georgia without an obgyn. That obgyn comes out of college.
Let's say she graduated from the Medical College of Georgia
or Morehouse and decided to go back to Rule Georgia
to practice where she was desperately needed. She would probably
(05:25):
make about one hundred and eighty thousand dollars her first year. Now,
keep in mind she's got a medical right of debt
to handle, but her medical malpractice insurance would be one
hundred thousand.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Dollars a year.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
And so Georgia actually ranks the lowest in the country
for the number of doctors that we graduate that stay
in practice here, and their number one reason is the
high cost of medical malpractice. And so even as I
toured the state just a few weeks ago, I talked
to a doctor who has an OBGYN practice has four doctors.
He said, three of them have decided to leave the
(06:05):
state of Georgia and he can't continue. And so that
one rule hospital which provided OBGY in for probably ten counties,
now has no OBGY. And so that's the kind of
thing that we hope. Are you going to lower insurance rates.
It's hard to say so, but you can stabilize those rates.
(06:27):
And when Texas passed some similar legislation two years ago,
they did see a decrease in those med male rates
and saw their rural hospitals do better.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Well, have you seen much in the results of rural
hospitals maybe staying now that weren't gonna stay before or
maybe going now that we're gonna go before that may
have stayed. Have you seen changes in those No.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I think until you pass real reform, it's gonna be
hard for people to make those decisions until the insurance
can process them and we can and we can get
through some court cases. I mean I talked to a
group the other day in South Georgia had a uh,
you know, an unfortunate accident. Their medical malpractice rates, we're
(07:13):
gonna pay for for the case. It went to trial instead.
It was a huge finding against them, but the jury
said you should have done every test on this man
that came in, and they say, well, you know it
didn't call for every test. Well, now, in order to
keep their insurance, they're going to run every test. But
(07:36):
the impact of that's going to be you and I
are going to pay for it through our own insurance
rates for unnecessary you know, unnecessary tests that are happening.
So it's these kind of things are going to take
time to work through the system, but we're optimistic. We
appreciate Governor Kemp taking the lead on this.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
This is not an.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Easy issue to deal with. It's very technical and very
difficult but we're optimistic. I think when we talk about
rural health care, so much of that is also going
to rely on the federal government and how we do
payments on Medicaid Medicare, and so I think our rural
hospitals are still we've got work to do.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Let's put it that way, because I know a lot
of your members. You probably have small, smaller members that
they can't really afford big health care and they're paying
this and it's it's just astronomical.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
It's astronomical. And then when you think about rule George,
you have to add this component to it too, is
if if that community doesn't have a health care facility
or a certain number of docs locally, there's nothing we
can do to recruit.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
A company to go to that community.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Right, they've basically said we're out of business, and our
kids are not going to have opportunities to stay here.
They're going to have to move in order to raise
their family. So, I mean, it's a multifaceted issue that
we have to.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Deal it really is. The the healthcare in my hometown,
especially it happened healthcare went away. They have healthcare now
doctor's offices, but the hospital closed and in this close
and the next thing, you know, the the you know,
the whole whole place is just down down, It's just
it and it can't get back up.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
It's it's it's a little tongue in cheek to say,
but those hospitals are the heartbeat right of your communities,
just like you're downtown. You can't survive one without the other.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Yeah, yeah, I guess in Fitzgerald where you're from, right,
maybe maybe.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Dor dormantmorial is still open, but you know, there's only
a few doctors that practice there, and so you can
you can get your basic services, and if you need
anything else, you have to drive an hour to two
three hours away.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
What are some of the other legislative issues you're watching
right now? Uh, while the de sessions going on.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
So you know, at this point we're only a few
days left in the session. A couple of the other
kind of critical errors for us. One Governor Camp, the
House and the Senate introduced legislation to further reduce our taxes,
which everybody likes, love that. Yeah, not justire taxes, but
business taxes and a tax rebate. So the Chamber's been
very engaged and supported there. You know, another big area
(10:19):
because really going back to tort reform that has taken
up a lot of bandwidth. Is there several workforce development
issues that we've moved through. One I think the most
important I give credit to the Lieutenant Governor is a
childcare tax credit for working men and women of Georgia
so that they can afford quality health care in their
(10:41):
communities and they can get to work and provide that support.
That's we hear that everywhere we go and I'm so
proud of them for doing that. Another bill or several
bills to support literacy, mental health in our school system,
school safety. It's been a big priority of the Lieutenant
go oven Or Burns, I mean, excuse me, Speaker John
(11:04):
Burns this session. And then you know an interesting bill.
You know, we want Georgians to get the credentials they
need so they can go to work. Well, where we
have a little difficult or those men and women that
didn't graduate high school, they go back to get their GED. Well,
you can't go on and start working on your welders
(11:25):
degree until you get your GED. So we had a
pilot project that allowed you to get your GED and
get technical college credit at the same time. It's been
very successful, and so we have a bill this year
that will take that statewide so everyone can move back
get that degree that they want. And then the last
(11:47):
thing I'll mention is something we've worked on for many
years is reforming and improving our occupational licensure system in George.
Make it easy for veterans, for military spouses, for folks
that have been incarcerated to get that occupational licensing, and
to make it easier for men and.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Women to go through that system.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
And so all those are moving through and we are
optimistic that those will pass in the next few days.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Because you have somebody we talk about it. If they're
educated here, they stay here in Georgia, and you want
them to stay here in Georgia.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
And unless it's in the medical field and.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Right, they go out right.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
But other than that, we are seeing more Georgians, I think,
particularly since COVID that graduate here and want to stay here.
They see the opportunities. And a lot of that credit
goes to Governor Kemp for the large number of new
economic development projects that we've brought to the state in
the last five years that are ramping up right now.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
You know, we're here in Atlanta, and everything's in Atlanta.
But let's look outside of Georgia, because now you have
Tifton and you have Bruns where you have our visual
OFFICI right, what about outside of Atlanta? Now, what are
you looking to do outside of Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Well, I think it's important to give a little historical
context here too. If we go back to twenty seventeen,
eighty five percent of the economic growth in Georgia, of
the economic development projects were happening in the metro region.
Governor Kemp's last report showed eighty five percent of economic
(13:28):
development projects are outside.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Of the metro area.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
So they're going to places like Label and Tiffton and
all Benny and Bambridge. Bambridge is just growing it. So
we have really seen a rule renaissance in the last
six years of projects that now realize that they're good
talents there, they're great downtowns, there's a live work play
(13:51):
component that they want to be in and so we're
optimistic about that. I think as we look at our organization,
what we focus on making sure that those rural communities
as well as Atlanta quite frankly, have affordable housing, workforce
level housing, healthcare, education, and we have the right infrastructure
(14:12):
right right, I'm noticing that more in the smaller towns,
the Valdosta's, the Aubany's, the Dawson's, my hometown, I'm noticing
it more that they're really they're really growing and they're building,
and there's optimism there that I want to stay. And
you know, we've got more retirees obviously in the system,
and they're retiring and staying in those communities. But the
(14:35):
fact that young men and women are maybe they do
go to Georgia Tech or they go to Georgia right well,
instead of going to New York or Chicago or Charlotte.
Now they're going back to Dawson and they're coming back
to Fitzgerald. And I think having the broadband infrastructure that
we've invested at the federal and the state level over
the last ten years has really helped.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Out a lot. Today, just just a few minutes ago
before you came here, you send out a pressure release
that says that eighty two thousand Georgians are employed now
in clean tech. Can you talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
I'd love to. You know, we're fond of saying that
we're the buckle of the battery belt. If you look
at what Governor Kemp has recruited to Georgia over the
last five years, and you have Hyundai building electric and
soon you know, hybrid vehicles, and you've got Kia expanding
building hybrid and electric vehicles.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
And you've got.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Battery manufacturers all up and down the interstate, you've got
solar manufacturing. All of those feed into what it's called
clean tech, and we're creating jobs every day. And those
aren't just the manufacturing side of the jobs, although those
are very important. We're seeing that growth. It's the engineering
side of it, it's the support industry sector, and so
(15:53):
this is one of those sectors that we believe is
going to grow exponentially over the next twenty five years.
In Wargia. Consumers are demanding it. It's what they want,
and the market has responded to it. Well. We've got
to make sure and part of our work with that
press release was to make sure that we've got the
workforce prepared because those are some different skills. And you know,
(16:15):
I was touring sk battery last year, and I'm prepared
to go into a manufacturing plant. So I'm dressed like
I'm going to a normal manufacturing plant. Tour and the
blue jeans and my boots on, and we get in
and you know, they dress us and hairnets and white
lab coats, and I realized that everyone in that facility
(16:37):
is in a clean tech facility, which is something was
unheard of ten years ago. And that's what we're seeing
over and over these extraordinarily new age high tech using
artificial intelligence robots to build the next generation advance manufacturing,
clean tech and all kind of flows and fit together.
(17:01):
But we now have more of those types of jobs
in Georgia than we've ever had in manufacturing in our history.
And companies are still coming here, suppliers for Hyundai, you know,
we just had the Hyundai ribbon cutting down on the coast.
More suppliers coming in that field, and so we're very
bullish on the clean tech and working with our friends
(17:22):
at JP Morgan Chase to build out those career pathways.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Where'd you go to that one? Where was it?
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Just right outside Savannah on Ice sixteen. It's the meta
plant that will build Hyundai Genesis Kia.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
And behind it as a battery plant on that area
right there, Yes, I sixteen. There's a lot of growth
out there, I mean growing like crazy.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
It is unbelievable. I mean, you know, three miles of
projects just with Hyundai alone. But then you've got all
the distribution coming out of the Port of Savannah and
distribution centers now as far in as Dublin, and so
that sector. We were talking with our friends at DOT
the other day we might need to expand and wide
(18:07):
and I sixteen, I know, I mean you can't even
get it to Savannah now because you can't construction work
going on. But so yeah, that whole area, and to
give credit to the economic developers down there in the
chambers that have just done an incredible job working on
workforce development, housing, all the things to make that coastal
empire just an incredible economic engine.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
If you took.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Atlanta out of Georgia as an economic engine and Savannah
became the economic engine with our other communities, we'd still
have a larger economy than Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Oh yeah. Also I noticed it up around Brazleton. They've
exploded up.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
There, and again a lot of that is clean tech
led by sk Battery Jackson EMC have really done an
incredible job. And so yeah, I mean you're you're seeing
it on all c every corridor.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I seventy five.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
North, you've got q Seals, You've got the great growth
up from Cartersville up to Dalton, You've got it up
in the Jackson Gainesville area. The other way out with
Rithan being built with back Salta, with all the growth
out twenty and now more opportunities I think down south
(19:24):
of seventy five outside of Macon, and then obviously all
the way down down the other way, and then obviously
Kia and Columbus anchoring the other parties.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
True, that's true. That's another thing. That's another area that
is growing. I was douning yesterday as a matter of fact,
and that's.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Exploding, incredible everywhere.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
It goes to show just what you said Governor Kip
had done. He brought a certain amount of business to Georgia.
He really brought it to Georgia.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Brought it to Georgia. I mean, we've just finished on
six years of record economic development. I don't know that
we'll ever see this many jobs created in our in
the future again.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
But part of what we have to do, I think.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
As business leaders and community leaders is to say, how
do we make sure that our kids ai proof their careers.
How do we make sure that we get the types
of jobs in our communities that we want so that
our grandchildren have somewhere to work twenty five thirty years fround.
So that's part of our job at the Chamber. But
the Governor's given us an incredible platform to build all
(20:27):
great foundation to.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Build off of. To that, I would like to find out,
what do you what if you joined the Chamber? What
do you get out of? What are the benefits so sure?
Speaker 2 (20:37):
So you know, companies join the Georgia Chamber for a
variety of reasons. I'd say the two main reasons. Number one,
companies that are heavily regulated or multi jurisdictionally regulated, and
they care about what happens with policy and government affairs
at the federal and state level. That's what we're doing
(20:59):
every day fighting for small businesses. The other large group
that we have are the mom and pop main street
businesses in Georgia that actually join us or our local
chambers to get access to our healthcare. We own a
healthcare company that provides low cost health insurance four one
K and other benefits for small businesses. And then the
(21:20):
third reason companies join us is because they want to
network and build their brand, and if you want to
sell statewide, if you want to be part of that network.
At we're one of the biggest chambers in the country
and the largest organization in the state of Georgia.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Now you can still be a member of your local
Chamber of Commerce. Absolutely it then joins you as well.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
You can do that, and we recommend that because our
local chambers provide such.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
A critical role at the local level. It's where the
rubber meets the road.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
We're that next level up to provide the state, but
we're all part of the chamber family, as we call it.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Back to the in Tifton and Brunswick, we had offices,
you had Tifton and then you.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Later we opened Brunswick too, five years ago.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Why did you choose those areas well?
Speaker 2 (22:11):
We chose Tifton quite frankly, because we at the time
Southwest Georgia was really suffering and our members wanted us
to do more. They want us to do programming, they
want us to fly the flag to help coordinate economic development,
and Tifton is just so centrally located. It just made
(22:32):
sense and the community of Tifton just so wanted us
and celebrated us, and then Brunswick became important to us
because again, when you look at what's happened on the coast,
we need to be there to have connections. We've got
great chambers there locally. They were asking for us to
be there, and then we got there right before Hyundai.
(22:53):
But you know, working with partners like Gulf Stream and
SCAT and others, there's just such a demand and such
an opportunity on the coast. We wanted to be there
to have somebody on the ground every day to work
with those companies.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
You have the Georgia Chamber Foundation as well, what does
that do.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
So that's really the thought leader for the business community
and the state. Those men and women wake up every
day looking at data, looking at what comes next. They're
writing the policy, they're developing a variety of workforce development programs.
They're looking at the data every day and translating that
(23:32):
so business leaders like you can look at it, use it,
and so they really get us the data, the information
so that our lobbying team can go share that with
legislators to make the right decisions at the capitol.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Later this year, you will be having the luncheons in
various cities and all that too, what are they about
and where should they go to find out more information
on those?
Speaker 2 (23:57):
So sure, So we have a variety of programs all
over Georgia and including our regional programs, and then we
obviously do programming with our local chambers. Our focus this
year is on our new strategic plan called Georgia twenty fifty,
which is literally giving businesses data that's looking twenty five
years in the future to say, as you're making business
(24:17):
decisions or you're making family decisions or decisions about what
your kid's going to major in, here's what you need
to know is going to happen. And so we're going
to travel the state share that information, have some dialogue
and you can go to GA Chamber dot com slash
events to register.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
For those and you'll have The congressional luncheon will.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Be in August in Columbus. This year, Columbus decided to
go back to Columbus. We were in Athens the last
two years and we're happy to be back down with
our friends in Columbus.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Good good, well, I appreciate you coming on today and
tell us all about everything and where can everybody look
at for more information on Georgia Chamber where they are.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Just go to ga a chamber dot com or follow
us on any of your social media platforms.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Good Chris, thank you so much for I appreciate it.
Appreciate you. Thank you. That's Chris Clark, President and CEO
of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. You can visit them
at GA Chamber dot com. GA Chamber dot com. For
questions and comments about today's program, you can email me,
John Clark at Georgiannewsnetwork dot com. Thanks for listening. I'll
(25:28):
talk to you next week right here on your favorite
radio station on Georgia Focus
Welcome to Georgia Focus. I'm John Clark on the Georgia
News Network. The Georgia Chamber of Commerce champions growth, innovation,
and prosperity for every Georgia business, from the bustling streets
of Atlanta to the serene landscapes of rural Georgia, to
make Georgia the number one place to do business in
the country. We're Georgia Today by Chris Clark, President and
(00:33):
CEO of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. Well, Chris Clark,
have you Chris Clark my cousin. That's right, not really,
but lady somewhere somewhere, somewhere bound to be. I'm glad
to have you in here. It's been a year, I know,
fast year. What's the latest? How about with the new administration?
(00:55):
How is Georgia businesses it changed any.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
So I think there's a lot lot of uncertainty in
the business community right now. You know, we have changes
in Washington about every twenty four hours now, and so
we're just trying to help Georgia businesses keep up, understand
what's happening, how to respond, not to worry too much,
to try to stick to the course. But as you know,
(01:20):
businesses like consistency, they like to know what's coming next,
and so there's been a little challenging. But I think
there's some good things coming from a regulatory standpoint that
businesses are excited about, and then things that we need
to continue to work through, like issues around tariff and workforce.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, Georgia is the number one pace through business in
the country. I guess it's still.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Eleven years in a row, longest record in history.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Oh, you're playing to keep that up as long as
you're around. We want to.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
You know, at some point, I'm sure that we'll slip
and make a mistake. But I think as long as
our economic developers in Georgia continue to recruit companies and
our communities continue to welcome and provide the workforce, we've
got assystem that's kind of hard to beat right now.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, Yeah, Well, I know one thing you've been working
on is tort reform. Yes, I want to talk about
that as much as you want to, because I know
that is something that's really big right now for you.
What is tort reform and what do you want to
do with it?
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So a little historical President John, you know, in two
thousand and five, Governor Purdue and the General Assembly passed
what they called tort Reform at the time, which was
just trying to get a handle on frivolous lawsuits and
out of control jury verdicts and what happened, and they
passed that. Chambers supported it, our hospitals supported it, we
(02:46):
saw benefit from it, but over time the courts overturned
parts or pieces of it. And so for the last
fifteen years we've really been trying to help make this point,
and it's really come to ahead in the last few
years as we've seen a insurance rates not only just
(03:07):
go up, but insurers leave the state because they can't
afford the jury verdicts that come out. Then the other
thing that's happened is these runaway jury verdicts have driven
up the cost of health care and medical malpractice insurance
so that many of our hospitals now can't even find
(03:30):
underwriters in America. They have to go overseas to find
companies that will take care of them. And so those
issues and then a unique issue that's starting to occur,
which is these lawsuits are being funded.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Now like class action suits, not just by.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Big firms in London or in New York but by
the Chinese government or the Russian government, and so all
of that's come to a head and Governor Kemp spent
all last year traveling the state to listen to understand,
and then rolled out two bills. One is a very
(04:15):
broad bill to help address some of these issues. Uh.
And those are those are working their way through the
General Assembly now. And the business community, healthcare community, almost
every every business interest in Georgia, and quite frankly many
consumer groups have been working with the governor to try
(04:38):
to get these passed.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
You mentioned healthcare and being the one of the things. Sure,
I mean that's a big that's a big issue in
Georgia with small healthcare in small rural areas. What about that?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
It's it's huge. And I'll give you an example. Uh, and
this is from Insurance Commissioner.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
John King uses this example.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
The average obgyn and I've got probably two dozen counties
in Georgia without an obgyn. That obgyn comes out of college.
Let's say she graduated from the Medical College of Georgia
or Morehouse and decided to go back to Rule Georgia
to practice where she was desperately needed. She would probably
(05:25):
make about one hundred and eighty thousand dollars her first year. Now,
keep in mind she's got a medical right of debt
to handle, but her medical malpractice insurance would be one
hundred thousand.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Dollars a year.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
And so Georgia actually ranks the lowest in the country
for the number of doctors that we graduate that stay
in practice here, and their number one reason is the
high cost of medical malpractice. And so even as I
toured the state just a few weeks ago, I talked
to a doctor who has an OBGYN practice has four doctors.
He said, three of them have decided to leave the
(06:05):
state of Georgia and he can't continue. And so that
one rule hospital which provided OBGY in for probably ten counties,
now has no OBGY. And so that's the kind of
thing that we hope. Are you going to lower insurance rates.
It's hard to say so, but you can stabilize those rates.
(06:27):
And when Texas passed some similar legislation two years ago,
they did see a decrease in those med male rates
and saw their rural hospitals do better.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Well, have you seen much in the results of rural
hospitals maybe staying now that weren't gonna stay before or
maybe going now that we're gonna go before that may
have stayed. Have you seen changes in those No.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I think until you pass real reform, it's gonna be
hard for people to make those decisions until the insurance
can process them and we can and we can get
through some court cases. I mean I talked to a
group the other day in South Georgia had a uh,
you know, an unfortunate accident. Their medical malpractice rates, we're
(07:13):
gonna pay for for the case. It went to trial instead.
It was a huge finding against them, but the jury
said you should have done every test on this man
that came in, and they say, well, you know it
didn't call for every test. Well, now, in order to
keep their insurance, they're going to run every test. But
(07:36):
the impact of that's going to be you and I
are going to pay for it through our own insurance
rates for unnecessary you know, unnecessary tests that are happening.
So it's these kind of things are going to take
time to work through the system, but we're optimistic. We
appreciate Governor Kemp taking the lead on this.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
This is not an.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Easy issue to deal with. It's very technical and very
difficult but we're optimistic. I think when we talk about
rural health care, so much of that is also going
to rely on the federal government and how we do
payments on Medicaid Medicare, and so I think our rural
hospitals are still we've got work to do.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Let's put it that way, because I know a lot
of your members. You probably have small, smaller members that
they can't really afford big health care and they're paying
this and it's it's just astronomical.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
It's astronomical. And then when you think about rule George,
you have to add this component to it too, is
if if that community doesn't have a health care facility
or a certain number of docs locally, there's nothing we
can do to recruit.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
A company to go to that community.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Right, they've basically said we're out of business, and our
kids are not going to have opportunities to stay here.
They're going to have to move in order to raise
their family. So, I mean, it's a multifaceted issue that
we have to.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Deal it really is. The the healthcare in my hometown,
especially it happened healthcare went away. They have healthcare now
doctor's offices, but the hospital closed and in this close
and the next thing, you know, the the you know,
the whole whole place is just down down, It's just
it and it can't get back up.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
It's it's it's a little tongue in cheek to say,
but those hospitals are the heartbeat right of your communities,
just like you're downtown. You can't survive one without the other.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Yeah, yeah, I guess in Fitzgerald where you're from, right,
maybe maybe.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Dor dormantmorial is still open, but you know, there's only
a few doctors that practice there, and so you can
you can get your basic services, and if you need
anything else, you have to drive an hour to two
three hours away.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
What are some of the other legislative issues you're watching
right now? Uh, while the de sessions going on.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
So you know, at this point we're only a few
days left in the session. A couple of the other
kind of critical errors for us. One Governor Camp, the
House and the Senate introduced legislation to further reduce our taxes,
which everybody likes, love that. Yeah, not justire taxes, but
business taxes and a tax rebate. So the Chamber's been
very engaged and supported there. You know, another big area
(10:19):
because really going back to tort reform that has taken
up a lot of bandwidth. Is there several workforce development
issues that we've moved through. One I think the most
important I give credit to the Lieutenant Governor is a
childcare tax credit for working men and women of Georgia
so that they can afford quality health care in their
(10:41):
communities and they can get to work and provide that support.
That's we hear that everywhere we go and I'm so
proud of them for doing that. Another bill or several
bills to support literacy, mental health in our school system,
school safety. It's been a big priority of the Lieutenant
go oven Or Burns, I mean, excuse me, Speaker John
(11:04):
Burns this session. And then you know an interesting bill.
You know, we want Georgians to get the credentials they
need so they can go to work. Well, where we
have a little difficult or those men and women that
didn't graduate high school, they go back to get their GED. Well,
you can't go on and start working on your welders
(11:25):
degree until you get your GED. So we had a
pilot project that allowed you to get your GED and
get technical college credit at the same time. It's been
very successful, and so we have a bill this year
that will take that statewide so everyone can move back
get that degree that they want. And then the last
(11:47):
thing I'll mention is something we've worked on for many
years is reforming and improving our occupational licensure system in George.
Make it easy for veterans, for military spouses, for folks
that have been incarcerated to get that occupational licensing, and
to make it easier for men and.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Women to go through that system.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
And so all those are moving through and we are
optimistic that those will pass in the next few days.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Because you have somebody we talk about it. If they're
educated here, they stay here in Georgia, and you want
them to stay here in Georgia.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
And unless it's in the medical field and.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Right, they go out right.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
But other than that, we are seeing more Georgians, I think,
particularly since COVID that graduate here and want to stay here.
They see the opportunities. And a lot of that credit
goes to Governor Kemp for the large number of new
economic development projects that we've brought to the state in
the last five years that are ramping up right now.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
You know, we're here in Atlanta, and everything's in Atlanta.
But let's look outside of Georgia, because now you have
Tifton and you have Bruns where you have our visual
OFFICI right, what about outside of Atlanta? Now, what are
you looking to do outside of Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Well, I think it's important to give a little historical
context here too. If we go back to twenty seventeen,
eighty five percent of the economic growth in Georgia, of
the economic development projects were happening in the metro region.
Governor Kemp's last report showed eighty five percent of economic
(13:28):
development projects are outside.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Of the metro area.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
So they're going to places like Label and Tiffton and
all Benny and Bambridge. Bambridge is just growing it. So
we have really seen a rule renaissance in the last
six years of projects that now realize that they're good
talents there, they're great downtowns, there's a live work play
(13:51):
component that they want to be in and so we're
optimistic about that. I think as we look at our organization,
what we focus on making sure that those rural communities
as well as Atlanta quite frankly, have affordable housing, workforce
level housing, healthcare, education, and we have the right infrastructure
(14:12):
right right, I'm noticing that more in the smaller towns,
the Valdosta's, the Aubany's, the Dawson's, my hometown, I'm noticing
it more that they're really they're really growing and they're building,
and there's optimism there that I want to stay. And
you know, we've got more retirees obviously in the system,
and they're retiring and staying in those communities. But the
(14:35):
fact that young men and women are maybe they do
go to Georgia Tech or they go to Georgia right well,
instead of going to New York or Chicago or Charlotte.
Now they're going back to Dawson and they're coming back
to Fitzgerald. And I think having the broadband infrastructure that
we've invested at the federal and the state level over
the last ten years has really helped.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Out a lot. Today, just just a few minutes ago
before you came here, you send out a pressure release
that says that eighty two thousand Georgians are employed now
in clean tech. Can you talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
I'd love to. You know, we're fond of saying that
we're the buckle of the battery belt. If you look
at what Governor Kemp has recruited to Georgia over the
last five years, and you have Hyundai building electric and
soon you know, hybrid vehicles, and you've got Kia expanding
building hybrid and electric vehicles.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
And you've got.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Battery manufacturers all up and down the interstate, you've got
solar manufacturing. All of those feed into what it's called
clean tech, and we're creating jobs every day. And those
aren't just the manufacturing side of the jobs, although those
are very important. We're seeing that growth. It's the engineering
side of it, it's the support industry sector, and so
(15:53):
this is one of those sectors that we believe is
going to grow exponentially over the next twenty five years.
In Wargia. Consumers are demanding it. It's what they want,
and the market has responded to it. Well. We've got
to make sure and part of our work with that
press release was to make sure that we've got the
workforce prepared because those are some different skills. And you know,
(16:15):
I was touring sk battery last year, and I'm prepared
to go into a manufacturing plant. So I'm dressed like
I'm going to a normal manufacturing plant. Tour and the
blue jeans and my boots on, and we get in
and you know, they dress us and hairnets and white
lab coats, and I realized that everyone in that facility
(16:37):
is in a clean tech facility, which is something was
unheard of ten years ago. And that's what we're seeing
over and over these extraordinarily new age high tech using
artificial intelligence robots to build the next generation advance manufacturing,
clean tech and all kind of flows and fit together.
(17:01):
But we now have more of those types of jobs
in Georgia than we've ever had in manufacturing in our history.
And companies are still coming here, suppliers for Hyundai, you know,
we just had the Hyundai ribbon cutting down on the coast.
More suppliers coming in that field, and so we're very
bullish on the clean tech and working with our friends
(17:22):
at JP Morgan Chase to build out those career pathways.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Where'd you go to that one? Where was it?
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Just right outside Savannah on Ice sixteen. It's the meta
plant that will build Hyundai Genesis Kia.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
And behind it as a battery plant on that area
right there, Yes, I sixteen. There's a lot of growth
out there, I mean growing like crazy.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
It is unbelievable. I mean, you know, three miles of
projects just with Hyundai alone. But then you've got all
the distribution coming out of the Port of Savannah and
distribution centers now as far in as Dublin, and so
that sector. We were talking with our friends at DOT
the other day we might need to expand and wide
(18:07):
and I sixteen, I know, I mean you can't even
get it to Savannah now because you can't construction work
going on. But so yeah, that whole area, and to
give credit to the economic developers down there in the
chambers that have just done an incredible job working on
workforce development, housing, all the things to make that coastal
empire just an incredible economic engine.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
If you took.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Atlanta out of Georgia as an economic engine and Savannah
became the economic engine with our other communities, we'd still
have a larger economy than Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Oh yeah. Also I noticed it up around Brazleton. They've
exploded up.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
There, and again a lot of that is clean tech
led by sk Battery Jackson EMC have really done an
incredible job. And so yeah, I mean you're you're seeing
it on all c every corridor.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I seventy five.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
North, you've got q Seals, You've got the great growth
up from Cartersville up to Dalton, You've got it up
in the Jackson Gainesville area. The other way out with
Rithan being built with back Salta, with all the growth
out twenty and now more opportunities I think down south
(19:24):
of seventy five outside of Macon, and then obviously all
the way down down the other way, and then obviously
Kia and Columbus anchoring the other parties.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
True, that's true. That's another thing. That's another area that
is growing. I was douning yesterday as a matter of fact,
and that's.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Exploding, incredible everywhere.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
It goes to show just what you said Governor Kip
had done. He brought a certain amount of business to Georgia.
He really brought it to Georgia.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Brought it to Georgia. I mean, we've just finished on
six years of record economic development. I don't know that
we'll ever see this many jobs created in our in
the future again.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
But part of what we have to do, I think.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
As business leaders and community leaders is to say, how
do we make sure that our kids ai proof their careers.
How do we make sure that we get the types
of jobs in our communities that we want so that
our grandchildren have somewhere to work twenty five thirty years fround.
So that's part of our job at the Chamber. But
the Governor's given us an incredible platform to build all
(20:27):
great foundation to.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Build off of. To that, I would like to find out,
what do you what if you joined the Chamber? What
do you get out of? What are the benefits so sure?
Speaker 2 (20:37):
So you know, companies join the Georgia Chamber for a
variety of reasons. I'd say the two main reasons. Number one,
companies that are heavily regulated or multi jurisdictionally regulated, and
they care about what happens with policy and government affairs
at the federal and state level. That's what we're doing
(20:59):
every day fighting for small businesses. The other large group
that we have are the mom and pop main street
businesses in Georgia that actually join us or our local
chambers to get access to our healthcare. We own a
healthcare company that provides low cost health insurance four one
K and other benefits for small businesses. And then the
(21:20):
third reason companies join us is because they want to
network and build their brand, and if you want to
sell statewide, if you want to be part of that network.
At we're one of the biggest chambers in the country
and the largest organization in the state of Georgia.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Now you can still be a member of your local
Chamber of Commerce. Absolutely it then joins you as well.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
You can do that, and we recommend that because our
local chambers provide such.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
A critical role at the local level. It's where the
rubber meets the road.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
We're that next level up to provide the state, but
we're all part of the chamber family, as we call it.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Back to the in Tifton and Brunswick, we had offices,
you had Tifton and then you.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Later we opened Brunswick too, five years ago.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Why did you choose those areas well?
Speaker 2 (22:11):
We chose Tifton quite frankly, because we at the time
Southwest Georgia was really suffering and our members wanted us
to do more. They want us to do programming, they
want us to fly the flag to help coordinate economic development,
and Tifton is just so centrally located. It just made
(22:32):
sense and the community of Tifton just so wanted us
and celebrated us, and then Brunswick became important to us
because again, when you look at what's happened on the coast,
we need to be there to have connections. We've got
great chambers there locally. They were asking for us to
be there, and then we got there right before Hyundai.
(22:53):
But you know, working with partners like Gulf Stream and
SCAT and others, there's just such a demand and such
an opportunity on the coast. We wanted to be there
to have somebody on the ground every day to work
with those companies.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
You have the Georgia Chamber Foundation as well, what does
that do.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
So that's really the thought leader for the business community
and the state. Those men and women wake up every
day looking at data, looking at what comes next. They're
writing the policy, they're developing a variety of workforce development programs.
They're looking at the data every day and translating that
(23:32):
so business leaders like you can look at it, use it,
and so they really get us the data, the information
so that our lobbying team can go share that with
legislators to make the right decisions at the capitol.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Later this year, you will be having the luncheons in
various cities and all that too, what are they about
and where should they go to find out more information
on those?
Speaker 2 (23:57):
So sure, So we have a variety of programs all
over Georgia and including our regional programs, and then we
obviously do programming with our local chambers. Our focus this
year is on our new strategic plan called Georgia twenty fifty,
which is literally giving businesses data that's looking twenty five
years in the future to say, as you're making business
(24:17):
decisions or you're making family decisions or decisions about what
your kid's going to major in, here's what you need
to know is going to happen. And so we're going
to travel the state share that information, have some dialogue
and you can go to GA Chamber dot com slash
events to register.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
For those and you'll have The congressional luncheon will.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Be in August in Columbus. This year, Columbus decided to
go back to Columbus. We were in Athens the last
two years and we're happy to be back down with
our friends in Columbus.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Good good, well, I appreciate you coming on today and
tell us all about everything and where can everybody look
at for more information on Georgia Chamber where they are.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Just go to ga a chamber dot com or follow
us on any of your social media platforms.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Good Chris, thank you so much for I appreciate it.
Appreciate you. Thank you. That's Chris Clark, President and CEO
of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. You can visit them
at GA Chamber dot com. GA Chamber dot com. For
questions and comments about today's program, you can email me,
John Clark at Georgiannewsnetwork dot com. Thanks for listening. I'll
(25:28):
talk to you next week right here on your favorite
radio station on Georgia Focus
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