- UPDATE, May 6, 2024: As we feared, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones put SB 354 on the Senate floor after being educated from here on the fact that it dismantled the existing process that requires the verification of lawful presence for applicants for covered occupational licenses. According to Gov. Kemp’s website, SB 354 was a a “high priority” for Lt. Gov. Jones. Kemp signed SB 354 into law on May 2. Readers can catch up on SB 354 here.
“I think right now, we’ve got more laws on the books than we can enforce, and I think this ought to be a good time, now more than ever, to, uh, show that we are really conservatives, and we are really about small government, and that’s about, uh, repealing useless pieces of legislation, things of that nature.” – Lt Gov Burt Jones
Georgia Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones was a guest on the Martha Zoller radio show, Nov.6, 2023 to talk about his rollout of the effort to reduce regulation and make businesses more efficient. He calls it the “Red Tape Rollback initiative.”
- Note: We hope and trust that the Lt. Gov will not help pass the sure-to-come efforts to dismantle laws that we fought hard to put in place to deter illegal employment and illegal immigration – like OCGA 50-36-1 as an example. And we are happy to hear about concerns with public safety. Maybe this means there will be a focus on strengthening and beginning to enforce our anti-sanctuary city laws. Because we now have sanctuary counties.
Audio here. Transcript by Rev.com below.
My cost: $22.00 and about an hour.
Update: Nov 8, 2023: Later in the day many state Senators stood with Lt. Gov Jones to support his Roll Back Regs for business initiative. Photo below.
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Martha Zoller:
It is the Martha Zoller show. We’re gonna continue our discussion on what is happening in Israel with Hamas and all of that, but we’re gonna bring it back closer to home right now, because the best thing we can do, as Americans, as Georgians, is to do the best we can with what we have here in this country. Uh, there are a lot of things that are out of our control, and I know that that is frustrating to people.
And joining me right now is Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones, who has been working hard in the off session, uh, on kind of letting people know what his plans are gonna be going forward into the next legislative session. Uh, Lieutenant Governor Jones, thank you for being with me today.
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Hey, Martha. Good to be with you. Hope you’re doing well this morning-
Martha Zoller:
Thank-
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
… and thank you for having me on.
Martha Zoller:
Sure thing. Tell us about this red tape rollback initiative and what it’s going to do.
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Yeah. I mean, it’s a pretty simple concept. We always talk about being conservative, uh, Republicans and have less government and things of that nature. But you know, every year, ever since I’ve been up in the legislature, we always pass more and more bills, more and more legislative, uh, that people have to, uh, abide by either, either from a business standpoint or individually.
And I said, “You know what? The second half of the biennial, uh, why don’t we, uh, start, uh, taking some, some, uh, legislation off the books and useless, uh, uh, regulations and things of that nature?”
Uh, because I think right now, we’ve got more laws on the books than we can enforce, and I think this ought to be a good time, now more than ever, to, uh, show that we are really conservatives, and we are really about small government, and that’s about, uh, repealing useless pieces of legislation, things of that nature.
And, uh, it’s gonna range from, I, I gave the Senators a, uh, I gave ’em kind of free, free fall, just told ’em to, you know, “Bring to us what you think, uh, uh, in, in your area doesn’t, doesn’t warrant, uh, uh, being on the books, and we’ll look at it and talk, uh, look at [inaudible 00:02:00] repealing it, uh, this upcoming session.”
Martha Zoller:
You know, in Texas, they do two-year budgets, and in the off year, they do oversight. They just, they go basically through the budget looking th- for problems like you’re talking about.
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Mm-hmm.
Martha Zoller:
Senator Isakson, before his death, he had introduced that a number of times in, um, the United States Senate on the federal level. And you know, I don’t, it’s not, it didn’t go anywhere. But you know, it’s not a bad idea, and we used to, a long time ago, have this thing where e- a department a year went through kind of an up and down view of almost every line in their budget. So I love this idea of looking for where we’ve overlapped, looking for regulations, all of that sort of thing, because there are some tools in place that we could use that would really make us more efficient.
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Oh, no question. Yeah. Looking at agencies and duplication of services and things of that nature [inaudible 00:02:55] definitely s- something that I’m glad you told me that, uh, Johnny Isakson, that was his i- his idea at the federal level, because you know, I’ve always, uh, admired, uh, his service to our state and everything.
And, and, uh, you know, and it does. It needs to be looked at every, uh, um, o- occasionally, you know. What are we doing? How can we, uh, serve the people of Georgia better, uh, whether it be through, uh, eliminating some regulatory things that are not needed, duplication of services and things of that nature?
And I, I figured there’s no better time than the second half of a biennial, when a lot of people are looking at their reelections and things of that nature, um, that it, it’d be nice for ’em to be able to go home and, and tell people, “Instead of, instead of more restraints that we’ve put on, uh, citizens, there, here’s some of the things that we did to, uh, to alleviate some of the burdens that we might have and, uh, whether it be an interpersonal level or business level or whatever.” So we’re excited about it and, uh, I appreciate you having me on to showcase it.
Martha Zoller:
Well, one of the things you’re also looking at is expanding the definition of small business. And we know that most Georgians work for what’s defined as a small business. So how would that help? And how would that work?
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Well, you know, I mean, yeah. I don’t know how, how you can, uh, you know, I, I consider, uh, my business a small business, you know, but I, but some people might not, uh, consider that.
But I will say this, uh, because the things that, um, when, when companies are trying to get permitting or, and, and things of that nature, either at the local level or through Secretary of State’s Office, uh, th- they need to, I always tell people, “There needs to be a, some sort of a timeframe in which they know that they can, uh, expect a result.”
You know, and, uh, so many times, I see businesses held up, uh, by either local, uh, permitting processes or engineering processes, things of that nature, or the Secretary of State’s level, where they’re just trying to get somebody to call ’em back and, and, and issue a, a renewal license, things of that nature.
So we’re, we’re gonna look at all those things and see what, what we can do better. Uh, there’s always places that we can improve. And, um, and, uh, and so that’s what, that’s what the nature of this exercise is and the, and the upcoming session is gonna be about.
Martha Zoller:
So school safety, I know, is something you’re focusing on, you talked about last week.
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Sure.
Martha Zoller:
And, um, uh, I’m on the State Board of Education and, and I, you know, it’s something we think about. And I will tell you, too, that Will Schofield, who’s the longest serving superintendent in the state of Georgia, he, he’s the superintendent for Hall County, one of the things he’s doing is he says, “If you look at school shootings, it’s usually somebody we know. It’s somebody who was-“
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Mm-hmm.
Martha Zoller:
“… affiliated with our school, maybe went to our school, worked at our school.” G- Generally, it’s not-
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Sure.
Martha Zoller:
… some random person that just comes into the school. And what they’re doing is, um, teaching, from teachers all the way down to students, how to interact, how to deal with difficult situations, how to, how to deal with their feelings and all of that kind of stuff. So he’s all for hardening schools and doing those ki- things, but he’s making huge, uh, progress in lowering the level of violence in the schools in Hall County across the board by teaching these skills. And I think that’s something worth looking at.
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Mm-hmm. No. I’d definitely love to speak with him about that, Martha. Maybe you could fac- can facilitate that [inaudible 00:06:15].
Martha Zoller:
I would absolutely do that. (laughs)
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
What, what we, uh, what we rolled out, uh, it was a grant program that, it really got misconstrued, misrepresented-
Martha Zoller:
I agree. Yeah.
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
… in the media is, uh, is i- it was, it was basically a grant program for those school systems’ school boards that would want to participate, uh, and, and they could use dollars to, uh, to beef up security, to hire off-duty police officers, things of that nature.
And, uh, and also, if, if they so choose, they could, they could have a staff member, uh, who would be, um, uh, if, if gone through the proper training, could, training, could be, also serve as the on-staff, uh, security [inaudible 00:06:54] as well. But of course, you know, the, the liberal media blew it up as if we were trying to arm every schoolteacher.
And at the end of the day, we’re not taking anything away from the local school boards and what their abilities are, uh, in governing, uh, school systems. All we were trying to do is for those systems that really can’t afford, uh, to be able to have, uh, extra security, law enforcement agencies on, on the staff, uh, then they would be able to be given a, a grant that could potentially help ’em do that.
So, um, but I love your concept about what your Hall County Superintendent’s doing and would love to… All, all we’re trying to do is find the best way possible that we can ensure that our schools are safe, our kids and our teachers are safe. And, and we’re gonna explore every option, uh, there is out there to do so.
Martha Zoller:
Absolutely. So tell us a little more about what you’re working on for this next session, because I know we’re, we’re in the throes of hearings and study groups and all that kind of stuff. What’s on your radar?
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Uh, I know. I know. Well, you know, well, well, we’ve got a special session coming up, obviously, with the, um, you know, having to look at the maps that a judge, uh, you know, ruled, uh, against the maps we’d drawn, so we’re gonna have to do that here in a couple weeks right after, um, Thanksgiving, I guess.
But, uh, you know, this coming session, it’s gonna be a lot like sessions in the past. We’re gonna look at, uh, you know, how we can, uh, continue to make, uh, the, um, uh, Georgia economy one of the best and the state to do business in.
We’re gonna look at how we can improve our K-12 education. I’m a big proponent of, of, uh, of the school choice measure that we put forth this past year.
And obviously, public safety is a huge, a huge thing every year. And we’re gonna continue to do things to see how we can la- help local and state governments with, uh, public safety.
And, and, uh, and so, um, you know, those are all, those are all a- all measures that are, that are, um, that are at the legislature every, every session. And we’ll, we’ll continue to look at how we can best put our, put our spin and touches on the, on the whatever the final p- product looks like at the end of the session.
Martha Zoller:
If people need to interact with your office, uh, Lieutenant Governor, how can they do that?
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Oh, yeah. They can go to, uh, Burt, uh, Jones for GA, burtjonesforga.com, uh, or they can, uh, go to lieutenant governor for Jones, uh, for, on the, uh, official side, luca- luca- lieutenantgovernorburtjones.com on the official side. And, and, uh, and we’re one of those, um, Martha, we’re one of those that we aim to please. We’ve got a great, uh, customer service or public relations, uh, team that ne- any time somebody has an issue, they can give us a call. We’ll be happy to, uh, uh, try to, try to best assist ’em in whatever their issues are.
Martha Zoller:
Yeah. I mean, I’m getting great feedback on your constituent services through your office, so I wanted to make sure people knew how they could do that.
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
Sure. Absolutely. Well, I appreciate you having me on today, Martha.
Martha Zoller:
Thanks.
GA Lt. Gov Burt Jones:
And always a, always a pleasure to be with you.
Martha Zoller:
Thank you so much. Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones, about his rollout of trying to reduce regulation and make businesses more efficient. This is one of the things he promised to voters when he was elected, and it’s one of the things he’s, he is trying to do now. We’ll be back on the Martha Zoller show.
