Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta and current Georgia gubernatorial candidate, recently discussed the health care, teaching and housing shortages and affordability challenges facing Georgia as a result of political choices that have neglected communities, on the air for the first time as a governor candidate on SiriusXM Urban View with Lurie Daniel Favors.
Every single day, every week brings yet another challenge, Bottoms stated of the state under a likely second term under President Trump. Every state will face consequences from possible federal cutbacks and policy changes; however, Georgia will be hit hard in this second term.
Healthcare issues were a focal point of the interview and she stated that Georgia still hasn’t expanded Medicaid. In Georgia, 300,000 have no health insurance, she cited, which means that nine rural hospitals have already shut down, and others are likely to close soon.
“It is one of these issues that absolutely is a bipartisan issue” because hospital closures affect both Democrats and Republicans equally. Bottoms advocated for using some of Georgia’s $15 billion budget surplus to stabilize healthcare services and combat a loss in federal funding. “We’re going to have to dig deep into the budget”.
For investments in education, she advocated for free technical and community college, universal prekindergarten and salary increases for teachers, as Georgia faces a deficit of over 5,000 teachers.
“I want to raise our starting teacher pay to $60,000,” Bottoms vowed. She emphasized that affordability is an issue felt throughout the entire state, including an elderly resident who’s living solely on approximately $ 1,500 a month and has to spend most of it on rent.
“People are robbing Peter to pay Paul right now”.
