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October 24, 2006

Jeannie Babb Taylor seeks 3rd House seat

By Charles Oliver

Jeannie Babb Taylor describes herself as a “citizen candidate.”

Taylor, 34, is making her first run for office this year, challenging Republican Rep. Ron Forster as the Democratic candidate for the District 3 seat in the Georgia House of Representatives. District 3 includes most of Catoosa County and parts of western and southern Whitfield County.

“I was concerned that the state is declining and performing poorly in a number of different areas,” Taylor said.

According to Taylor, more than 1 million Georgians have no health coverage.

“Over 70 percent of those people live in families where someone works full time,” she said.

Taylor says the state ranks poorly on many educational measures, too.

“Georgia ranks 49th in the nation in high school graduation rates. Depending upon what studies you look at, between one-third and one-half of Georgia students don’t graduate,” Taylor said.

Taylor proposes several measures she says would help improve the lives of working people in Georgia.

For one, she wants the state to raise its minimum wage to $7.25 an hour from the current $5.15 an hour. She says that would put more money into the pockets of the working poor.

Taylor also says she would support changes in the tax code that would remove some of the burden from middle class taxpayers.

In education, Taylor says she wants the state to restore more than $1 billion it has cut in recent years from local education. She also says she would protect funding for the HOPE scholarship and related programs.

“I’ll also work to make sure our schools get the money they need and that it isn’t spent on pork barrel projects,” she said.

Taylor said she would also work to expand PeachCare, the state program that provides health insurance to children in low-income families.

Taylor says that Republicans, such as Forster, pay more attention to big business, and she would like for the state government to focus more on ways to help small businesses, which she says are vital to the state’s economy.

Taylor also criticizes Republicans for what she says is neglecting the environment.

Taylor is a lifelong resident of Catoosa County. She is married to Derek Taylor, and she has six children.

Taylor graduated from Ringgold High School and has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Bryan College in Dayton, Tenn. She says she has served as chief financial officer and owner of several small businesses.

Her Web site is www.voteformom.com.

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