“My life has been about leading and serving, and I hope you will give me the opportunity to continue to do both.” — Hunter Hill
Good Stewardship of Our Children’s Future - Results in Education
In Georgia, we currently rank 48th and 49th nationally in SAT Scores and high school graduation rate, respectively. Georgia has the potential to be the most improved state in the country with respect to education, but it will take strong leadership to make this happen.
Over the last few years, the Georgia General Assembly has passed a variety of efforts to improve public education. Our current Senator opposed each one.
HB 881 created an alternate method for forming charter schools. A new special state commission will review and approve charter applications rejected by local school systems.
Sen. Doug Stoner voted NO.
HB 1133 institutes new tax credits for private citizens and corporations who donate money to nonprofit scholarship organizations that fund scholarships for children to attend private schools.
Sen. Doug Stoner voted NO.
Governor Perdue’s “IE2 Commission” recommended HB 1209 that allows public school systems to bypass state regulations if they meet certain performance goals.
Sen. Doug Stoner voted NO.
SB458 would allow students at schools that lose their accreditation to attend another public or private school of their choice to receive the education they deserve.
Sen. Doug Stoner voted NO.
Now more than ever, we need leaders who embrace solutions in education that have proven results, not politicians who oppose positive change for the sake of petty, partisan posturing.
If elected, Hunter Hill will be a strong advocate for innovation and excellence in education. He will encourage the development of charter schools, support school choice programs that allow less affluent children the opportunity to go to private schools if they meet the entrance requirements. He will support performance bonuses for educators in low performing schools. Hunter will also propose expanding Pre-K programs for at-risk children to help give them the head start they need to achieve in school.
“I look forward to working with the Board of Education to 1. Create a testing and assessment system capable of measuring student progress, 2. Implement a teacher pay scale that is partially based on results of increased student progress, 3. Expand school choice, and 4. Implement a funding program that is student-centered, transparent and encourages flexibility” – Hunter Hill
Good Stewardship of Opportunity – Creating more jobs
-
Taxes
: The way to create more jobs is to take less from those that offer them – the small business owner. Hunter Hill will attract businesses to our community by working to lower the tax burden to both the individual and businesses. Hill supports the Fair Tax; however, he will support tax reform that broadens the tax base and lowers marginal tax rates. He believes the best tax would tax consumed income once, at a flat rate. Hunter also believes that we need to reduce the state income tax as it is not a tax on the wealthy, but a tax on becoming wealthy. The tax code should not be a barrier to economic opportunity.
-
Illegal Immigration
: Hill is a great supporter of legal immigration, but illegal immigration is a critical economic issue, and without bold leadership, it will only worsen over time. Illegal immigration affects our tax revenue, public education, health care spending, apprehension costs, and our job market. The solution to this problem is to enforce our laws that are currently on the books. Also, we have to put pressure on the Federal government to help us with this problem by making the tough decisions to enforce these laws. Hunter’s solution is one of information, documentation and follow-through. We need to inform the public that we will no longer tolerate illegal immigrants coming to America. Secondly, we need to fully enforce our laws on employers who hire individuals without the necessary documentation. The fine to the employers would go toward a fund to handle the additional costs of focusing on this issue, and it would be substantial enough to shy employers from the risk of getting caught. By solving this challenge, we will open the door to more jobs for our citizens that need work.
-
Improve Public Transportation
: Without a healthy and well-funded public transportation system, Georgia is not offering an equal opportunity to the job market. As your next State Senator, Hunter Hill will get the job done. Atlanta, as the capitol of the Southeast, has to have a world-class public transportation system, and this is certainly something we can accomplish in the next 10 years with focused and effective leadership. Solving this challenge will take a detailed plan and the necessary funds to implement it, and Hill will push for increased funding of infrastructure improvements without raising our taxes.
- “Raising our taxes is the easy answer, but it is certainly not the best solution to funding our transportation needs. Now is the time to work to solve this issue with real solutions, not easy answers. We must look for opportunities, and they are there, to fund our key infrastructure needs without raising taxes.”
– Hunter Hill
Good Stewardship of Our Tax Dollars - Making Government More Responsible
In these tough economic times, nothing is more frustrating than continued wasteful spending by our government. As our next State Senator, Hunter Hill will work to make government spending 100% transparent. The Georgia Public Policy Foundation recently released an interactive Web site that tracks, down to the penny, more than $14 billion in spending throughout Georgia's 180 school systems and more than 2,000 schools.
Visit http://reportcard.gppf.org/ to see what we are capable of with respect to transparency in government spending. Hill will work to ensure that all of our tax dollars will be tracked with a similar system. This will allow taxpayers to hold government accountable for how they spend our dollars.
Hill also supports the Taxpayer Protection Act, sponsored by some of Cobb’s other Senators, which requires state budget surpluses in excess of inflation plus population growth to go into a reserve fund. When the state reserve fund hits 10% of the previous year’s state budget, additional surplus funds will be used to pay off state debt or cut taxes.
Good Stewardship of Health Care for Our Families - Affordable & Accessible Health Care
In Georgia today, roughly 20% of Georgians do not have health insurance. The result is a massive financial burden on uninsured families, taxpayers paying for the uninsured, and those who are insured who end up paying higher premiums. Hunter Hill proposes an innovative plan to create a safety net for our uninsurable citizens, lower the costs of health care for everyone, and increase personal choice as it relates to health and health care. Health insurance costs for the State, taxpayers, and small businesses will drop when we do the following:
1. Fix the third party payment system, which takes customer choice and satisfaction out of the standard two-party transaction. We can do this by continuing to work to implement individual ownership, personal responsibility, and portable HSA’s and HRA’s into our system.
2. Encourage the Federal Government to follow Georgia’s lead in reducing the tax burden to individuals who buy their own health care.
3. Make the spending of Medicaid dollars more efficient – Give patients the information they need to make better choices (incentives for healthy living, make accounts transferable)
4. Create a Safety net for Georgia’s uninsurable citizens.
If we take these steps, thousands of Georgia families will finally be able to access quality and affordable health insurance and health care.
Good Stewardship of Our Families’ Budgets - Lower Gas Prices
Soaring gas prices are damaging every family budget in Georgia. The overall price of fuel is largely a federal issue, but there is something we can do on the state level to offer some relief. A significant portion of state taxes on gasoline is tied to the price of fuel. As prices go up, the state reaps a huge tax windfall. That’s not right. Hunter Hill will propose a cap on the state gas tax to help alleviate high prices.
