Kelley: Committed to rural broadband, health care and tax cuts
Members of the State House might not be in session right now, but they sure stay busy especially as the fall campaign enters the final weeks and home stretch for the forthcoming midterms in November.
State Rep. Trey Kelley is no stranger to this bustling about from one stop to the next, especially as statewide offices are up on the ballot this year. Kelley, who is running unopposed for his 16th district seat once again, doesn’t have to spend time in Polk County convincing voters to give him another term in office.
Instead, he’s out across the state working on behalf of Secretary of State Brian Kemp and others to help them get elected on Nov. 6.
Yet the work of government also remains in the forefront of his mind. He’s been involved in committee work happening outside of the general assembly’s 40 days in the spring to look for solutions to a wide variety of problems.
One of those in the forefront of his mind is helping rural communities connect to global commerce via faster broadband internet, which also has the added benefit of providing areas without fast access.
“We know every aspect of our lives now is impacted by the internet, and having a strong high speed internet connection for all parts of the community is important,” Kelley said. “For issue like health care with telemedicine. Kids need an opportunity to do their homework and not have to drive to a fast food restaurant to use their Wifi. It touches every part of our lives.”
He said the house passed in 2017-18 session that closed in the spring initiatives to encourage broadband-ready communities and projects to get underway, and also to get providers to make the investments needed in infrastructure and equipment to increase rural connectivity.
Unlike the internet local and state leaders want, the process remains a slow one.
“We’re trying to support the climate that will lend itself to expansion,” Kelley said.
That means getting companies adverse to spending revenue dollars on digging lines or building cell towers to make those investments, and to sweeten the pot Kelley said tax reforms can be put in place to make affordability for upgrades a real option.
Investment in internet infrastructure has thus far come down population density, meaning that areas with a larger amount of potential customers get better internet speeds, while those who live too far away from the city limits find themselves with few competitive alternatives for broadband.
The tax incentives companies can use to make upgrades in rural communities and expand broadband into a wider area – like say rural Polk County versus just Cedartown and Rockmart and the immediate surrounding areas – becomes viable.
“They’re private companies, and they have to look at the bottom line,” Kelley said. “They need a certain number of customers to make it feasible per linear mile, and in rural communities it’s hard to get that per home requirement. We’re trying to find ways to cut that cost down to get them to extend into certain areas of the state.”
He added that during the past legislative session, the inclusion of electric member cooperatives as potential providers of broadband increases competition and makes rural expansion feasible.
Another area where Kelley hopes the community can take a greater role is providing donations to Polk Medical Center and other rural health care centers across the state through a tax credit program that now provides a 100 percent, dollar for dollar match.
The Rural Hospital Tax Credit program, launched several years ago at a 70 percent match and has since grown over sessions to make it a dollar-for-dollar match, allows individuals, couples or businesses to make donations and receive tax credits back on state income withholding.
Those donations – capped at $60 million, and $4 million just for Polk Medical Center who is part of a growing list of hospitals who are eligible to receive funds – are now in a pre-application process that started on Oct. 1. People can still preapply, but they are being handled on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Donations locally have tallied up since the program began to more than $500,000 for Polk Medical Center, and the money thus far is being used in a variety of ways from providing AEDs on schools, to helping with programs like Live Well Polk.
His goal ultimately is to continue to support programs like that, and to make sure that when they are implemented they provide the greatest amount of benefit to communities like Polk as possible.
“Improving rural health care and improving rural broadband have got to be two of our top priorities moving forward,” Kelley said. “I also remain an advocate for tax reform, and lowering them further.”
He said cuts in 2019 and 2020 that will go down to 5.5 percent aren’t enough, and he wants them as low as possible.
“I want us to keep that ball rolling, I want us to continue to work on cutting our state’s income taxes,” Kelley said.
He also said that he’s been tasked by the house speaker to undertake a review of how local property taxes are being assessed and collected, to make sure there’s an “equitable system in place for all our citizens.”
“We want to make sure that property is being assessed the same in Polk County as it is in Floyd, Haralson, Glynn or Fannin County,” Kelley said.
He said problems arise on a local level when there are “conflict of interest issues” between entities like a county commission or tax assessor.
“The board of commissioners and tax assessors are supposed to work completely independent of each other,” Kelley said. “A tax assessor isn’t supposed to care at all what the budget constraints or surpluses are on a local community at that time. Tax assessors are supposed to be looking at properties on a fair market basis, and we do feel like there’s been some issues across the state and we’re looking to see how we can clear up those conflict of interests.”