STATE INCOME TAXES

In 2024, our Georgia state government enacted a multi-year plan to switch our state's major source of revenue - state income taxes - from an outdated system called a graduated income tax system in which tax brackets had not been updated to reflect present day income ranges, to a flat rate income tax system in which every Georgian pays a flat rate income tax (5.19% initially that is scheduled to decrease in the coming years) regardless of income amounts.

This new flat rate plan also misrepresents that progressively increasing the standard deductions over the coming years will help everyone, but that is only a face value understanding. Standard deductions lessen the taxable amount but the wealthy ends up getting taxed the same as the non-wealthy, meaning that the non-wealthy ends up with less for daily living expenses after effectively paying more in state income taxes.

While a flat rate income tax system seems simple and therefore attractive as a political point, this flat rate system will benefit the wealthy and cost more for working and middle-class Georgians, making the wealthy wealthier and the poor poorer, essentially making climbing the financial ladder even more difficult and non-feasible for the working class, and effectively widening the gap between wealthy and non-wealthy, making the middle-class nonexistent.

As Governor, I plan to do the work to restructure our state's income tax system to put in place a graduated / progressive income tax system that is fair, reflects modern day income ranges and puts money back in the hands of working and middle-class Georgians by more proportionately taxing income ranges for everyone, and so as not to diminish one of our state's most important revenue streams [in favor of sales tax increases which would affect everyone], thus allowing for opportunities such as investing in growing our state's Child Tax Credit for young families, offering tax credits for public school teachers and first responders, and addressing dire needs in our children's public education system.

MINIMUM WAGE UPDATE

As Governor, I will work to seek bipartisan support to prioritize passing legislation to raise our state's minimum wage to an amount that more closely matches a minimum living wage in our state.

This would not only help low-income residents make ends meet and have the opportunity to become less dependent on other governmental programs and more willing to spend growing our economy, but also make our state more desirable for new residents.

A couple of the top reasons families opt for homeschool or choose private schools in Georgia is due to safety concerns and bullying, and a desire to customize curriculum. But, not every family can afford to choose private schools or homeschool.

As a daughter of two teachers, and a mom of neurodivergent children who will probably be attending public school, I strongly believe that a good education should be the right of every child, regardless of their family's financial status.

ADDRESSING BULLYING PREVENTATIVELY & PRIORITIZING A CURRICULUM THAT WORKS

As Governor, I plan to work with our state Department of Education to assess modifying our public school curriculum to include a social-emotional learning program as a preventative measure against bullying in our pre-K - 12 schools, helping students to understand their emotions, learn to communicate their emotions and choose healthy ways to emotionally regulate.

Additionally, as Governor, I plan to work with our state Department of Education to assess modifying our public school curriculum to prioritize lessening teacher stress and student stress, while also emphasizing students learning critical thinking skills and focusing on teaching students to think outside the proverbial box encouraging questions, without taking away from solid foundations such as memorizing multiplication times tables. Sacrificing solid foundations for a curriculum that focuses solely on conceptual understanding does not support our students and adds to both teacher and student stress. Supporting teachers to help students understand different ways to learn and how they learn best, and can advocate for themselves will also help undergird the solid foundations students need to thrive in high school and beyond. I am confident I can work with GA Department of Education to find a mix that will actually work for our students, and for our teachers.

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE OF PRE-K

And, as Governor, I will aim to prep our state to eventually expand our pre-K program by tackling the biggest issues with moving away from a lottery-dependent pre-K program that fails to give all pre-K aged children in Georgia a head start on their education: funding and locations. Every child has the opportunity because it is accessible currently, but if every child had a guaranteed spot, this would set up every child for success in Kindergarten, allow for less stress on young families, and less stress on families applying for the lottery pre-K program who have multiple children (twins, triplets, etc). Solving these two issues and setting Georgia up for future success in this will be a top priority. We can build upon our pre-K program and we should prepare to do so now.

Here in the southeast, most states, Georgia included, do not have greenhouse gas emissions goals or renewable energy portfolio standards; net-zero emissions targets are left up to the large utilities in the region. We are falling behind the wave of the future and losing out on economic growth and savings because of this lack of initiative and lack of investment.

As Governor, I plan to push for a bipartisan political focus on environmentally-friendly ideals in the south, leading our southeastern region in the inevitable pursuit of alternative energy usages on a state level instead of both expecting large energy companies to lead this mission and allowing large energy companies to benefit from this mission. The south must catch up to the world around us, and, as Governor, I will aim to make Georgia into a regional leader in this endeavor. We are behind the times and progress must be made for our region and for our state to be desirable for economic investment and growth; this will help us diversify our portfolio in terms of seeking businesses to invest in our state. I plan to work with our neighboring states, Georgia state legislators, and state agencies such as GA Public Service Commission (PSC), GA Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA) to accomplish the below goals.

RENEWABLE ENERGY PORTFOLIO STANDARDS

As Governor, I plan to bring Georgia into the 21st century by introducing and seeking bipartisan support for passing legislation for a GA Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio (REP), allowing our state to set standards and goals, and additionally, setting up a trackable renewable energy certificates system to demonstrate compliance.

SOUTHERN REGIONAL GREENHOUSE GAS INITIATIVE, A CAP-&-INVEST SYSTEM

The southeast is very far behind in focusing on renewable energy and energy efficiency goals compared to other regions and states nationally, however, I plan to take the lead in the southeast and collaboratively work with our neighboring states as far north as North Carolina and as far west as Texas, both of which already have REPs and have made great strides in their renewable energy standards and energy efficiency goals.

Creating a southern regional greenhouse gas initiative with a cap-and-invest system will help our entire region fully utilize federal assistance, and work together to collectively benefit in multiple ways, including bringing economic growth to the area and revitalizing our schools and public education transportation, simultaneously prioritizing energy savings and funds for schools, and the safety of all children in the southeast.

GA GREEN BANK: ENERGY EFFICIENCY FOR EDUCATION

As Governor, I plan to work closely with the aforementioned existing state agencies and legislators to create a new Green Bank, a quasi-public entity that will use limited public dollars to attract private capital investments to use for clean energy goals related to public education.

This Green Bank, funded through the Southern Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative's cap-and-invest system, limited public dollars, private capital investments and federal funding opportunities, will offer C-PACE loans to school districts and counties for the sole purposes of energy efficiency updates to our public schools, namely electrifying student transportation (a much-needed long term solution to funding for outdated school buses), EV power charging infrastructure (likely through partnerships with Georgia Power and other large energy companies), and retrofitting solar power and batteries to public schools to simultaneously lower school energy bills, help with electrical grid reliability and resiliency, and free up educational funds for school districts long term.

CONSERVATION EFFORTS: POLLINATORS

GA DOT has already created over 15 pollinator habitats along roadsides across only 7 counties and has plans for more, however Georgia only has voluntary guidelines for minimizing pesticide harm.

Protecting native pollinators by creating pollinator habitats is important for agriculture health, reducing maintenance costs, preventing roadside erosion, and, coupled with reforestation efforts, has the potential to help with natural disaster recovery. This endeavor also benefits farmers and related industries including a portion of small businesses.

As Governor, I plan to set statewide goals to phase out the use of pollinator-killing neonicotinoid pesticides, with a prohibition on usage of these harmful pesticides on state lands.

Additionally, I plan to work with Georgia Association of Conservation Districts (GACD), a non-profit which partnered with GA DOT, a state agency, to make the current pollinator habitats happen, to determine ways to expand funding sources in addition to the existing publicly accessible Roadside Enhancement and Beautification Fund and the special wildflower license plates program. This is an endeavor that will benefit the state overall in financial ways, namely in cutting maintenance costs and in preventing erosion, and is therefore something that we should collaboratively work towards investing in.

Roughly 15% of Georgians struggle with food insecurity, a problem affecting many children and seniors. Urban areas struggle as do rural areas which face "food deserts" where local supermarkets may be over 10 miles away for some residents. And, our state's food banks are heavily strained due to SNAP cuts and the rising cost of groceries and fuel costs pushing more residents to use food banks.

Additionally, Georgia faces a statewide issue regarding quickly dwindling landfill space. Addressing food insecurity issues in the below ways, will also help slow down the emergency aspect of this statewide issue as we collectively work to find long term solutions to dwindling landfill space and this statewide waste management problem.

LEGISLATION ADDRESSING FOOD INSECURITY

As Governor, I plan to introduce and work to pass with bipartisan support legislation that will require large food retailers, manufacturers, and wholesalers— specifically those generating over 2 tons of food waste weekly — to donate excess edible food to charity and recycle remaining scraps. This legislation would apply mainly to supermarkets, hotels, universities and manufacturers. There already exists liability protection under federal law (Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act) so, as Governor, I would also introduce and work with our state legislators to pass legislation for liability protection for the affected large food retailers, manufacturers, and wholesalers under GA state law as well.

FOOD INSECURITY: CREATING A LONG TERM SOLUTION FOR RURAL GA

As Governor, I plan to also collaborate with all state police departments and law enforcement organizations in Georgia, all major local food banks, and GA Department of Public Health to team up to resolve the logistical issues surrounding the donation of specific vehicles that have been seized and forfeited to mobile food pantry programs and food banks in our state. Addressing this and solving the logistical problems with vehicle storage, any vehicle or refrigeration repairs, operational compliance including acquiring permits and health code adherence will ultimately help make this a program that will allow food banks to get the increased quantity of food from the above legislation actually to the residents in rural counties that may or may not have a way to get to the food bank nearest them, accounting for gas prices and access to a vehicle.

CONTINUING GROWTH OF GHFTH PROGRAM

As Governor, I plan to continue to grow the Georgia Wildlife Federation's Georgia Hunters for the Hungry Program to additionally combat lessening food insecurity in our state.

LEGISLATION ADDRESSING WASTE MANAGEMENT

As Governor, I plan to introduce and work to pass legislation for mandated source separation and recycling statewide, requiring all counties to mandatorily participate within a realistic set number of years. This legislation will help address the statewide waste management and landfill space issues, and will require counties to develop, implement, and enforce recycling plans. This will require residents and businesses to separate recyclables from household trash to address the statewide issue of dwindling landfill space. Setting a statewide goal of recycling 15% of all solid waste by a certain future year will give counties a chance to collaboratively work with state agencies for funding assistance as well as promoting economic growth, bringing in new businesses, and giving small businesses like our Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) already operating within the state of Georgia a chance to grow.

SUPPORTING CURRENT PROPOSED LEGISLATION - LOWERING PRESCRIPTION DRUG COSTS

As Governor, I plan to support the current legislation underway (SB314) that is due to be effective July 2026. SB314 will, if passed, establish a state wholesale prescription importation program allowing the state to import common prescriptions from Canada to help lessen some prescription costs for Georgians. This bill is currently in committee and contingent upon funding. As Governor, I plan to support the prioritization of this program, if it is passed.

Additionally, as Governor, I plan to support the current legislation underway (HB196, SB60, and SB91) that aims to cap the high markups created by Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) and help reduce pricing of prescriptions, specifically those priced significantly higher than the actual cost of the medications.

EXPANDING MEDICAID

Additionally, as Governor, I will support a full Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansion and work to assess the discontinuation of the Georgia Pathways to Coverage program which has proven to be too costly with too low enrollment. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, this Medicaid expansion will unfortunately not be as beneficial as it once was, however it will still be worth it to help as many Georgians get coverage as possible, even with the new obstacles in place; the discontinuation of the Georgia Pathways to Coverage program may still help those who will inevitably fall through the new Medicaid expansion cracks created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's new administrative hurdles, so assessing the long term benefits of this program is crucial for future-planning for Georgians, and I look forward to finding a balanced solution that doesn't hemorrhage money and helps as many Georgians as possible.

Our state's process for addressing infrastructure upgrades causes too much traffic and therefore lengthy commutes unrealistic to families, in the effort to solve road problems and infrastructure problems reactively and in the effort to address growth preventatively.

As Governor, I will work to open up bidding on our state's infrastructure contracts to local qualified contractors, by lowering the threshold for public works competitive bidding from the recent GA HB137 that was enacted and adopted in May 2025 that increased the threshold under the premise that the increase would reduce administrative burdens for smaller scale projects instead of revising the process. By lowering the threshold for bidding, and by revising and simplifying the bidding process, we could both support local Georgia businesses competing for state infrastructure projects and cut back on administrative burdens.

Additionally, I plan to work to update our process for starting infrastructure upgrades by making sure that we are working with local authorities wherever infrastructure projects are located in an effort to address detours and coordinating with rush hour and school traffic issues, so our infrastructure upgrades are as non-disruptive as we can realistically make them for residents.

Incoming businesses to Georgia although wonderful for our state's economy and for slightly increasing job availability, should not come at the cost of our residents' health or financial wellbeing.

Our Public Service Commission approved 6 rate increases for Georgia Power customers within the past several years, catering to the corporate profit margins of Southern Company, Georgia Power's parent company, (including poor business decisions regarding Plant Vogtle's 2 newest reactors), instead of advocating for the residents of Georgia.

As Governor, I plan to issue a statewide moratorium to pause the construction of data centers and allow all counties a chance to reassess their industrial and commercial building codes to ensure the safety of local residents and environmental impact.

This moratorium will also allow the state level to focus on assessing the current legislation regarding regulations for data centers so that Georgians stop paying the costs of data centers in their utility bills, their air and water quality, and their health through the environmental impact of data centers.