“Governor Kemp- supporting business, harming Georgians”; Fayette County News; 6-12-23

“Governor Kemp- supporting business, harming Georgians“; 6-12-23

Kemp is like Donald Trump. He leads Georgia’s GOP; no one goes against him. If anything goes right, he takes credit. Whether he deserves it or not-and often he doesn’t. But CON, Medicaid expansion, and Data Centers are Kemp (and GOP) healthcare failures. 

Kemp says Georgia is the top state for business. Georgia is good for business in that business taxes are very low. For example, the movie industry has found that it is cheaper to do business in Georgia versus New York or California. The movie industry creates a lot of jobs; there is a rationale to having low taxes for them. Of course, that means that individual taxpayers are the ones funding state government.

However, there are industries which have significant costs for our state. Why are we promoting their expansion?

A prime example is Data Centers, which are problematic from an environmental and cost/benefit standpoint (https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/abfba1). Data centers are massive buildings which contain computers to process our increasingly massive electronic needs, like Bitcoin. They create few jobs- but have significant environmental problems. Specifically, for every tax dollar lost via the tax exemption, only 24 cents was gained, per a 2022 state audit  (https://capitol-beat.org/2024/03/suspension-of-data-centers-tax-break-clears-general-assembly/#:~:text=24%20cents%20on%20the%20dollar ).

They are expanding rapidly in Georgia, even though there are no publicly available studies done to project pollution and the effect they have on our environment. Local communities are just told to take it on faith that the environment will be protected.

They use a tremendous amount of water to cool their operations, leading to local water shortages. Data Centers also use a high level of electricity, leading to expansion of the grid via the burning of more fossil fuels like coal (https://georgiarecorder.com/2024/05/08/governor-vetoes-tax-breaks-for-data-centers-homestead-exemption-increase-and-higher-ed-assistance/ ). They also create high levels of noise pollution. 

In recognition of these issues, the General Assembly passed HB 1192 which suspended (for 2 years) the excessive tax breaks given to the industry. The idea was that the state needed time to examine the environmental impact Data Centers are having Georgia, which is  unknown. 

But Kemp vetoed it, saying it would harm the industry by “undermining the investments made by high-technology data center operators” (https://apnews.com/article/georgia-kemp-veto-tax-breaks-data-centers-ee11e95f3a5ac9f6e9019401c35c2e88 ). Notably, in his veto message Kemp completely ignored the clear environmental issues that Data Centers are creating for Georgia’s citizens. The Sierra Club called the veto “beyond disappointing” and stated that “Georgia communities will see higher levels of air and water pollution”(https://www.sierraclub.org/georgia/blog/2024/05/press-release-response-gov-kemp-s-veto-hb-1192-pause-tax-breaks-data-centers ).

And then there was the aborted CON/Medicaid expansion deal. Behind the scenes, the General Assembly had a compromise that it was working towards. In return for taking away regulatory measures governing hospital creation/expansion (known as CON), the legislature would pass a bill fully expanding Medicaid.

CON was created 50 years ago to ensure that unneeded hospitals (usually privately owned, for-profit) did not spring up in affluent areas. These hospitals seek out well insured patients, gutting the financial base of non-profit and public hospitals which serve medically indigent and underinsured people. As shown by the recent Atlanta Medical Center closing, such hospitals are already under severe strain due to payer mix.

The legislature passed a new bill which will now prohibit CON from regulating the construction of new hospitals in Georgia counties with less than 50,000 residents (https://apnews.com/article/georgia-health-care-hospitals-certificate-need-con-aa09dd79d34f912e0103b0e0b444693f ). That means that in two thirds of Georgia’s counties, we will see unneeded facilities springing up, gutting existing local hospitals treating the less fortunate among us.

In return, the legislature was about to pass legislation which fully expands Medicaid, as has been done in 40 other states. But then the Governor contacted legislative leaders to kill progress on the bill.

The background is that our Governor did not want to be embarrassed by the failure of his failed “Pathways” program, which was supposed to add 100,000-345,000 new people onto Medicaid (https://gbpi.org/money-matters-comparing-the-costs-of-full-medicaid-expansion-to-the-pathways-to-coverage-program/ ). But only 3,000 have been added.

Without going into details, normal Medicaid expansion would have the Federal government picking up a much larger proportion of Medicaid expenses. It would cost Georgia taxpayers significantly less per enrollee while providing 430,000 more Georgians with health insurance coverage (https://www.cbpp.org/blog/6-months-into-georgia-pathways-program-over-400000-people-still-lack-health-coverage-expanding ). Why are we letting our federal tax dollars go towards expanding health insurance coverage in NY and California but not here?

Kemp is term limited. My prediction is that he will be running against Senator Jon Ossoff in 2026. Remember his failures when he does.