Stating Her Mission: One-on-one with Stacey Abrams

Sep. 10—VALDOSTA — When Stacey Abrams spent a couple of days in Valdosta this past week, the Valdosta Daily Times had a chance to catch up with the Georgia gubernatorial candidate.

After stops at Valdosta State University and John W. Saunders Memorial Park, Abrams visited The Times office and elaborated on her plans for Medicaid expansion, investment in financial aid for college students and redistributing state funds as part of her tax break plan. She also revealed her plans to address workers rights and racial disparities in the state's criminal justice system.

VDT Reporter Malia Thomas: You're passionate about several different pressing issues: affordable college tuition, the expansion of Medicaid and reproductive rights. ... What will be your top priority? What is the first thing that you're going to do?

Abrams: "Medicaid expansion, definitely. Medicaid expansion has the effect of becoming the single largest economic development investment in Georgia history. It's $3.5 billion every year. It provides insurance for half a million people. It creates 64,000 jobs. And, what's so important is those jobs are created near the populations that didn't have insurance. And, so these aren't going to be jobs concentrated in the wealthiest areas of Georgia.

"They are necessarily going to be jobs created, where communities have been left out and left behind. When you do Medicaid expansion, you also tackle the issues of mental health which is a huge issue for our students and for our young people.

"You help people who are working hard right now. They're making minimum wage, up to $9 an hour, and will suddenly be able to get access to health insurance. They're currently making too much for Medicaid and too little for the Affordable Care Act. This (plan) gives them the coverage they need.

"It will reduce the pressure on law enforcement. Because right now law enforcement is spending its money on mental health care, because we won't ... expand Medicaid and it will also create the opportunity in the state of Georgia to save hospitals. We have now seen six hospitals either shut down or be prepared to shutdown under this governor and we can't afford it.

"We're a fast growing state. Why are we losing access to health insurance? It is solely the responsibility of the current governor. and that is why it's so critical that Medicaid expansion move first."

VDT: As we all know, this isn't your first rodeo. I do recall you saying last night (at John W. Saunders Park) that the last governor's race was decided by about 54,000 votes and your latest memo said that you and (Brian) Kemp are statistically tied up. Considering the margins here are razor thin and considering your voter turnout efforts in places like South Georgia, how do you think you'll be able to turn it around for this upcoming election?

Abrams: "We know that since 2018, 1.4 million new voters have been added to the rolls. The majority of those voters actually skewed Democratic. The issue is engagement. and that is why we are going everywhere and talking to everyone. These are voters who don't traditionally show up in polling.

"My mission is to find voters where they are. It's what I've done, not just for the last four years; it's what I've done during my entire career as Democratic leader. We were able to stave off a Republican takeover of the House in a supermajority by going to find voters in places where they weren't expected. It's never going to show up in the traditional ways.

"But I try not to show up in traditional ways. That's one of our methods for actually growing the electorate. Instead of trying to change a person's ideology, my goal is to change behavior and get those who do not vote (to) show up."

VDT: At the John W. Saunders rally, you mentioned the death of Brianna Grier (a Georgia woman who died this summer after falling from a moving patrol car after her arrest); instead of having medical care, she ended up getting entangled with law enforcement. So let's clarify your position (on addressing mental health care). When it comes to your budget priorities, do you plan on using some of that funding to give the community more access to mental health resources, things of that nature?

Abrams: "Absolutely. The bill that was passed this year by a bipartisan legislature creates mental health insurance parity. What it says is that if you have insurance, you can spend it equally; you essentially get equal coverage for fiscal health care and mental health care.

"The challenge is that we have 1.4 million Georgians without insurance. Medicaid expansion will add half a million people to that pool and that community are the people who are the most likely to have the police called when they have a mental health crisis, instead of being able to get preventative or ongoing care.

"My mission is to cover those community members with health insurance so they can get the mental health support they need, the substance abuse treatment that they need.

"Without that investment, the new laws in Georgia are basically window dressing. They do not solve the problem. In fact, they don't address the challenges because the very communities that are being denied access to health care, access to housing, access to services will continue to be left out and left behind unless we expand Medicaid in Georgia."

VDT: You mentioned underserved communities. What are your other budget priorities as far as positively impacting lower income families?

Abrams: "One of those foundational ways to move the community forward is education. We know that Georgia has for 20 years underfunded education. We've had these moments of equal funding, but that equal funding is based on a formula from 1985.

"My first responsibility is to actually update the funding formula so that we recognize that 21st century education cannot be based on 20th century knowledge.

"That also means that we have to invest in our educators by increasing their salaries. We are losing teachers at an alarming rate. and one of the issues is their pay and it is insufficient, that the starting salary in Georgia is less than the starting salary in Mississippi. The current governor has actually refused and he disagrees with my intention of raising starting salaries to $50,000 for our teachers, and then raising salaries across the board by $11,000 over four years, but I also want to make certain we help local school boards raise the salaries of paraprofessionals, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, those very workers are the low income members of our community.

"But in addition to increasing their pay by adding Medicaid expansion, they get access to benefits. So now you've raised their wages and you've raised their access to health care. Those two pieces are the most likely to guarantee their opportunities.

"But the third piece is housing. Affordable housing is a critical issue in Valdosta and across South Georgia. It's across the country, across the state.

"By improving access to affordable housing, you've now tackled the three major issues wages, health care and housing. That's how we move people from being in the lower middle class or the working class into the middle class by giving them the ability and the freedom to actually thrive."

VDT: Speaking of education, and you kind of touched a bit on this. But ... what is your plan as far as getting students access to funding to need-based financial aid?

Abrams: "Georgia has a law that allows for need-based financial aid. Unfortunately, the current governor refuses to put money into this process. Georgia has $1 billion sitting in a reserved, unrestricted fund for the purpose of education.

"My intention is simply to do with that money what we promised and that is to invest in our students. So the first stage will be to use $300 million from that fund to actually invest in need-based aid and restoration of free technical college.

"I am also going to push for the expansion of gaming in Georgia to include casinos and sports betting because that can generate up to $350 million every year, which means that we will create a permanent source of revenue that will fund financial aid, will reduce the reliance on debt and will increase the likelihood that students who may lose HOPE (scholarship) because their GPA falls don't actually lose access to education."

VDT: To go back to Medicaid and health care in general. Can you describe your personal feelings when you found out that the Atlanta Medical Center after over 100 years of service was closing down? I know you've mentioned that it would put our communities in jeopardy and have negative ramifications for the state as a whole?

Abrams: "I used to drive past the Atlanta Medical Center every single day on my commute to the Capitol. and what this means for the community is devastating. The day after the announcement happened, we helped hold a press conference.

"On one corner, you saw people coming to work in their scrubs, but instead of going to work knowing that they had a life that they were building, they knew that their jobs will be ending in a matter of weeks.

"On the corner, there were people being wheeled into the hospital, people whose lives depended on access to that service ... We know 50,000 people who were indigent or charity cases in 2020. If those patients had had access to Medicaid expansion, then the hospital would have been reimbursed for their care.

"And while Medicaid expansion may not be the only issue, it is a salient and it is a major issue. and we know it works because it has worked in 38 states.

"Georgia is losing hospitals at a rate that is not happening in states that have expanded Medicaid. When we lose AMC, we're not only losing a hospital that is an anchor for the community, we're also losing one of our five level one trauma centers.

"Grady Hospital does not have the capacity to fully absorb what has been coming to AMC. AMC has saved law enforcement, it has saved legislators and it has saved lives of just regular community members. and that will no longer be possible.

"And what should be concerning to everyone is that from Dade County near the Tennessee line down to Athens, if we lose AMC, the very next hospital they can get to, if they get turned away from Grady, is down in Macon. Yes, yes, there's only one, there are only two level one trauma centers in metro Atlanta, which is half the population of Georgia.

"So if you're in Dade County, and Grady can't accept you, the closest hospital with level one trauma is in Macon.

"And this is because Brian Kemp has refused to expand Medicaid. ... Think about it as a single moment in time. This has been for years of refusing $3.5 billion every year, on top of four previous years of refusing that same money.

"If that infusion of capital had happened longitudinally, we would still have the Atlanta Medical Center."

VDT: and what's your strategy for rectifying this?

Abrams: "First expanding Medicaid, which means that we're pouring an infusion of capital, but Georgia also has a $5 to $6 billion surplus that is unrestricted and accessible for any of the state's needs.

"I liken it to a house that had a roof leak and the basement floods. Under previous governors, for the last 20 years, we've been told to patch the roof and just bail out the basement. We actually have the resources to replace the roof and fix the plumbing. If we do that then we create opportunity for millions of Georgians who've been told that they aren't entitled to support, or that we can't afford it.

"We can do all of the things I'm suggesting — raise wages for our teachers and law enforcement. We can expand Medicaid. We can provide need-based financial aid for our students. We can fully invest in our schools, all without raising a dime in taxes. Because we have the money.

"It's just the current governor refuses to write the check. Instead, he wants to give the money to his friends and give money to the wealthiest Georgians. I want to invest in Georgia. and the question is, what do we want: someone who's willing to give grift to his friends or give a gift to Georgia, of really fixing the problems that we have?"

VDT: Speaking of investing in Georgia, I remember you being critical of Kemp's planned tax break at the VSU rally. What is the issue you find with his approach, and what are your plans for aiding Georgians?

Abrams: "On average, 20% of Georgians at the bottom will get $27. The middle income Georgians, towards about 40%, will get $193. At the top, if you make more than $600,000, they'll get about $10,000 or more because we have a 5% flat tax.

"So if you are wealthy, you are going to get an extraordinary sum of money. and basically, from that point of about $600,000 and up, you'll get an average of $10,000, and most Georgians will only see between $27 and $193 in tax relief. Only 50,000 people will get that money a total of $500 million between them.

"The tax break has been written into law, but what Brian Kemp is proposing is extending it. He wants to take the surplus and instead of investing that money in solving problems, he wants to give the very same wealthy people even more, so they'll get $20 or $30,000.

"My point is that instead of shifting the tax burden, and shifting the tax responsibility to the lowest and middle income, Georgians ... instead we should be investing in the very needs of our middle class and working class families and they will tell you it's education, it's health care, it's housing: the tenants of financial freedom."

VDT: This is unrelated to what you were talking about last night, but I was looking through your social media. and one thing did stick out to me is that you had some statements showing support of labor unions. Being the daughter of a shipyard worker and a librarian, labor-related issues are important to you, of course. However, I do notice that, though it is not as bad as it used to be, there is still an anti-union predisposition that is kind of prominent in the South. How do you plan on advancing these organizations and making them more prevalent in the state's workforce?

Abrams: "I believe in workers' rights, and I know that labor unions have been essential in guaranteeing rights, even those who are not members of unions. The reason we have the ability to have a two-day weekend, the reason that we have paid leave whenever it happens, is that so much of our wage structure is based on the work of labor unions.

"I stand with labor, because I know that labor helps move communities forward. I will work to expand access to workers rights. I will expand access through apprenticeship programs to increase the number of young people or anyone who wants to go into the building trades or into construction or into nursing, so they can guarantee their wages.

"But let's talk about domestic workers. The National Domestic Workers union was founded right here in Georgia, and it gave women, especially working women, Black women, for the first time equity in how they were treated. That was created by Dorothy Bolden in the 1950s. and what that led to is Black women and domestic workers at large finally being included in Social Security.

"There are basic rights like gender equity, that can only be secured when we are working with labor unions. and my mission is to ensure that anybody who wants to join a union can do so in the state of Georgia."

VDT: Piggy backing off of that, I do notice that ... you were passionate about social justice, social reform ... So how would you plan on taking care of disparities when it comes to treatment that certain communities face in regards to law enforcement, medical care and things of that nature?

Abrams: "What has been so disingenuous about the current governor's administration and his propaganda is that he ignores the very real issue of racial disparity.

"We saw that with Ahmaud Arbery in Glynn County. We have seen it with others across the state. Racial violence is real. Racial discrimination is real. We've seen it happen with the spa shootings.

"We must have a governor who acknowledges that racial diversity is both an opportunity, but some see it as a threat, and our leadership has to acknowledge and protect those communities. I will and I do, and the first step of protection is acknowledgement, being able to speak aloud the challenges we face.

"I point out that I have two brothers, one who has been in and out of the carceral system. I want law enforcement to protect others from his bad behavior, but he shouldn't lose his humanity just because he loses his freedom.

"And that is why I want to invest in making sure that we take care of our correctional workers ... correctional workers make less than a living wage in the state of Georgia, which means they can't take care of your families, let alone take care of the prisoners who are in their care.

"We also need to make certain that when you are released that you have the ability to actually be on a path to redemption and reform as opposed to recidivism. and that means we need to pay our community supervision officers or probation parole officers a living wage. I'm the only candidate proposing to do that across the board.

"We have to have a governor who actually believes that when you go to prison, you don't lose, you shouldn't lose, your humanity. But for others, we have to also address the fact that, yes, we want law enforcement that does its job and we want to support them. But when they do something wrong, when there's racial bias, there has to be accountability.

"And unfortunately, the current governor has lied about my position. and my position is we don't have the luxury of being disingenuous about the reality of racial violence from police. I believe that, hopefully, we hold law enforcement accountable. ... Protect them and support them when they're doing right. When they make mistakes, it erodes community trust if we don't (hold them accountable).

"More than anything, my mission is to make certain that equity is achieved in Georgia. People of color are 48% of the population. Right now, we're 12% of the business revenue, which means the economic inequities are not only persistent, but they have an effect on every other facet of our lives.

"So going back to the conversation about financial freedom, social justice and financial security, often move hand in hand. The more you are able to take care of yourself and your family, the better your communities do, that the stronger our communities are. and so my mission is to help our communities achieve financial freedom and financial equity that they deserve so that we can take care of ourselves, take care of our communities and uplift all of Georgia."

The Valdosta Daily Times has extended an invitation to the office of Gov. Brian Kemp to visit the offices of the newspaper for a one-on-one interview with a reporter.