State
State Elected Officials List
While the Chamber is constantly advocating on behalf of our members, we encourage the community to communicate with their delegates and help them be informed.
Download the contact list for Douglas County’s:
- State Senators
- State Representatives
- Governor
- Lt. Governor
- Secretary of State
Regional Business Coalition
The Regional Business Coalition of Metropolitan Atlanta (RBC) is a not-for-profit association of over a dozen local Chambers of Commerce throughout the metro Atlanta region.
Each year, the RBC, in conjunction with all local metro Atlanta Chambers of Commerce, adopts a legislative agenda that outlines the core legislative issues agreed upon by the local Chambers. The RBC focuses primarily on three key public policy issues: transportation, air quality and water quality.
For more information on the RBC, visit their website – www.atlregionalbusiness.org
Atlanta Regional Commission
The Atlanta Regional Commission is the regional planning and intergovernmental coordination agency for the 10-county Atlanta region. Since 1947, ARC and its predecessor agencies have helped focus the region’s leadership, attention and resources on critical issues.
For more information about the ARC, visit www.atlantaregional.org.
Douglas County Day at the Capitol
Each year, the Douglas County Chamber and Douglas County Government organize a Day at the Capitol. This event is open to all Chamber Members and encourages locals to visit state legislators as we communicate the Chamber’s Legislative Agenda and hear feedback from them on what’s going on at the Capitol during the Legislative Session.
This year, 34 members gathered to make the trip to Atlanta. After meetings with state legislators, they met Governor Nathan Deal. Attendees included Don Barbour, At&T; Ken Bernard, Sherrod & Bernard, P.C.; Kali Boatright; Mark DeNyse, DeNyse Companies; Marigold Edwards, JC Freedom House; Michelle Elliot, Freedom World Financial Ministries; Isaac Essel, Serenity Empire Personal Care Home; Rita Fasina-Thomas, Strategic Business Services; Folasade Fasina-Thomas; Diana Ford, Avolon Accounting & Charter CFO Services; Jessica Fulton, MBP; Myesha Good, Junior League of DOuglas County; David Good, Red Ink Consulting; Marcia Hampton, City of Douglasville; Tonya Jackson, RA-LIN & Associates, Inc.; Chairman Romona Jackson-Jones, DC Board of Commissioners; Edwin Jones, Bright Star UMC; Ray Kathe, Synovus Bank; Candy King, Kaiser Permanente; Margaret McCarley, Brookview Apartment Homes; Gail Moore, Custom Plastics & More; Drake Peaugh, Chapel Hills Golf Club; Howard B. Ray, HRC Engineers, Surveyors & Landscape Architects; Mayor Rochelle Robinson, City of Douglasville; Priscilla Robinson, Freedom World Financial Ministries; Mayor Pro-Tem Richard Segal, City of Douglasville; Gil Shearouse, Water & Sewer Authority; Vonda Thorpe, Day Star Tabernacle; Ingrid Tolliver-Bailey, Craig Wire Products, LLC; Devan Walker, Holiday Inn Express-Atlanta West; Randy Whitaker, Bank OZK; Jerry Williams, Douglas County Democrats; Candy Yu, Avolon Accounting & Charter CFO Services.
This event takes place each February. Check our Events Calendar for more information on registering for this event next year.
2018 Chamber Legislative Agenda
The Douglas County Chamber’s Legislative Agenda is created out of the Government Affairs Committee and then approved by our Board of Directors.
Download the 2018 Legislative Agenda
Economic/ Workforce Development:
- We support tax policies and other economic development tools that encourage investment in Douglasville and Douglas County businesses, enhancing our global competitiveness and creating more jobs for our community. We oppose legislative measures that would negatively impact our business climate, are discriminatory in nature or would harm our ability to create, attract, retain and expand jobs in our community.
- We believe Development Authorities are at the core of most economic development projects in the state. We oppose legislative measures that seek to inhibit development authorities from recruiting and retaining quality jobs to our state and local community.
- We encourage incentives to train and educate needed workforce in the growing fields of industrial maintenance, STEAM, and related career pathways in order to fill numerous available jobs. The Chamber currently promotes these fields to elementary, middle and high school students, parents and counselors with regard for career pathway options with the College and Career Institute (CCI) and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Advanced Manufacturing, and Mathematics) Programs.
- We urge Congress to require remote sellers to collect sales tax and distribute the funds back to the consumer’s state. Once the state receives the sales tax, the state should be required to remit the appropriate sales tax revenue to local governments within their state. Such legislation to assist state and local governments to uniformly collect existing sales taxes should be expedited and not be tied to broader federal tax reform, as it has no impact on the federal tax burden.
Transportation:
- We strongly support the funding for studying, planning, designing, and construction of a redesigned I-20/I-285 interchange on the western side of Atlanta to improve the safety, speed and traffic flow from the West, which affects every county in West Georgia.
- We strongly encourage our government partners at the local, state, and federal level to study, design, plan, and construct a redesign of the Bright Star Bridge/I-20 corridor to include on/off ramps at I-20, which could safely accommodate flow and greatly relieve pressure along I-20 at Hwy 5, Chapel Hill Road/Campbellton Street, and other interior corridors. We view this also as an economic catalyst for positive growth in the County and region.
- We strongly support two of the most important projects defined in the Douglas County Comprehensive Transportation Plan: the Lee Road Widening and the Lee Road Extension. The Lee Road Widening project is expected to bid soon, and it is very important to have support for full construction funding for this project in order not to delay implementation. The Lee Road Extension is the next important phase of the plan for this corridor. Support is also needed to obtain preliminary engineering funds through the regional transportation planning process. These two projects along with the expected completion of the Lee Road Interchange will positively impact existing and future mobility and create new opportunities for quality economic development in Douglas County.
Water:
- We support amending the Georgia Erosion and Sedimentation Act, so as to allow for the certification of certain local water and/or sewer authorities and storm water utilities as “local issuing authorities” by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.
- We support workable inter-basin water transfer regulation and the continued management of our region’s water resources to meet the needs of our growing population and industrial sectors.
Education:
- We request adequate funding to provide an education of excellence to every student. Given the undisputable positive impact of public education on the long-term economic prosperity and well-being of our community, we ask that public education operating budgets be funded fully under current state funding laws and no less favorably should the funding formula be changed.
- We urge the General Assembly to align legislative initiatives with state constitutional provisions regarding the control, management, and funding of our public schools.
Healthcare:
- We support local hospitals and emergency medical providers by requesting improved reimbursement levels for Medicaid providers (who provide essential, but unprofitable services such as emergency care), maintaining the current Certificate of Need (CON) process that has served Georgia and our community well, and continuing to look for ways to help avoid costs associated with unfunded mandates and defensive medicine.