Vision for Georgia

Dear Friends,

I have a vision for Georgia. You probably have a vision, too! Incredibly, almost all Georgians I talk with have about the same vision of what we want our State to look like in the future. I say "incredibly", because we have been talking about it for years and years, and we still are not on a credible path to accomplish that vision.

We all want our children to finish high school (at least) with a solid education so they can compete and win in the global job market of the future. We want a transportation system that is fast, convenient and not constantly choked on automobile traffic. We want clean air and water, and we want wildlife and natural areas protected for the generations that follow us. We want economic growth and good jobs in all parts of the State - jobs that are held by legal, tax paying members of our society. We want reasonable access to good medical care everywhere in Georgia. And we want the lowest taxes and the least governmental interference in our lives as possible.

As we work to build this shared vision of Georgia's future, we have to recognize that we are facing long term, strategic challenges. These are not just "problems" that we can "solve" and then forget about. For too many years, we have seen our government simply react to whatever is the "crisis of the day" - struggling to "fix the problem", at least until the newspapers and TV reporters lose interest.

What we really need to do is design, build, and carry-out a sensible, practical, strategic plan-of-attack to achieve the future we all want for our State. And we won't just put our plan on the shelf to gather dust with all the others from years past. We will follow our plan, understanding that along the way it may need to be changed as necessary to meet changing circumstances. But we will never lose sight of the vision that the plan was built achieve!

What we don't need is another "blue ribbon" study commission or another "scientific evaluation" of the problems. We already know what we want, and we already have access to the best strategic thinking and scientific study available on these subjects.

A big part of my responsibility as your next Governor will be to mobilize the best thinking and the outstanding leadership available, within all the various groups and communities throughout our entire State, to build a broad-based consensus on how we plan to build our future - a truly bi-partisan, strategic plan-of-attack to achieve our shared vision of Georgia's future.

The primary election is just over 6 months away - on July 20, 2010. I sincerely want to know what you think about the future of Georgia. Is your vision the same as mine? Which challenges are the most important? And how should we deal with them?

I look forward to hearing from you!

Best regards,

David Poythress