Cagle stresses jobs in Columbia County talk

Creating conditions that help lead to job growth should be a governmental priority, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle said during a speech Thursday at Savannah Rapids Pavilion.

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Jim Blaylock/Staff

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle was the keynote speaker at the Post-Legislative Breakfast at Savannah Rapids Pavilion. He said Georgia provides a good entry into the American marketplace.

"Jobs (are) how people experience the American dream," he said at the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce's Post-Legislative Breakfast.

Georgia is the host to 17 Fortune 500 companies, is home to the world's busiest airport and maintains a quickly growing seaport business, Mr. Cagle boasted.

"There is no place abroad you can enter the American marketplace better than through Georgia," he said.

As a means of training a highly qualified vocational work force, Mr. Cagle said he is promoting the continued construction of "career academies," which couple a traditional educational setting with a technical institution. Such academies exist in Newnan, Dalton, and Walton County, but Mr. Cagle said he hopes to help open five to six more schools this year in other Georgia communities.

He also discussed the state's water crisis and health care.

Currently, 1.7 million Georgians are without health insurance. That translates into an extra $1,000 in health insurance premiums each year for the typical family of three to cover the excess cost, Mr. Cagle said.

Expanding the state's clinic network to treat common ailments will lower health costs and might lower insurance costs, he said.

Mr. Cagle also boasted the passage of a state water management plan during this year's legislative session. The plan streamlines the process for construction of new state reservoirs.

After the breakfast, he conducted an inspection of some Columbia County sheriff's deputies, toured the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital and held a town hall meeting at the Evans Government Complex.

During the town hall meeting, he fielded questions about water, taxes and sex offender laws from about 50 people, most of them area public officials.

Augusta Mayor Deke Copenhaver asked Mr. Cagle whether he saw an end in sight to the political in-fighting that marked the most recent legislative session in Atlanta.

Mr. Cagle said lawmakers should be able to talk about issues without turning the discussions into personal attacks.

"If you're just going to operate from what's politically expedient, you may regret it 10 years from now," he said.

Mr. Cagle also said at the meeting that the state, which spends about half its budget on education, needs to fix its school funding formula.

In addition, he said some state agencies, such as the Department of Transportation, need to bring operations into the 21st century.

"We spend more in right-of-way acquisition than we do in road construction," he said.

Reach Donnie Fetter and Betsy Gilliland at (706) 724-0851.