Wednesday, August 29, 2007
News Georgia's economy is great — if you're rich
Posted by John F. Sugg on Wed, Aug 29, 2007 at 1:40 PM
There's an old cliche that a Democrat governor will promise (and sometimes deliver) to leave the citizens of a state better off than when he took office. A Republican governor measures success by whether he is better off. Certainly Gov. Sonny Perdue, with his Florida land deal, plays to type.
And it appears poor Georgians are feeling the pain. Census Bureau information released Tuesday shows 13.5 percent of Georgians were poor, compared to 12.4 percent in the 2003-2004 period, and 12.5 percent in the 2000-2001 period, when the state was in a recession (and when a Democrat was governor).
Alan Essig, executive director of the liberal-leaning Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, points to even more discouraging news from the Census. About 17.6 percent of Georgians did not have health insurance coverage in the 2004-2006 period, giving Georgia the 10th highest uninsured rate in the country, according to Essig's review of the Census data. Nationwide, the number of uninsured was 47 million (15.3 percent), up 2.2 million since 2005. An additional 600,000 children nationwide were uninsured in 2006 compared to 2005.
"Despite American families' continued struggle to afford health insurance for their children, some of Georgia's representatives in Congress continue to oppose legislation that would extend health insurance to millions of uninsured children across the country," Essig said in a statement. "As they return to Washington, Georgia's leaders should rethink that position," said Essig.
The Census Bureau data shows that 470,000 of Georgia's children were living in poverty in 2006. The 2006 related child poverty rate was 19.7 percent, up from 15.7 percent in 2001. Child poverty was unchanged as compared to last year.
Essig said it is particularly disappointing that five years after the recession, child poverty rates in Georgia are not improving.
In 2006, median household income in our state stood at $46,832. This was not a statistically significant change from the 2005 level, but was still $1,566 below the 2001 level in inflation-adjusted terms. This shows that despite five years of recovery since the 2001 recession, many low- and moderate-income households have not regained ground lost during the downturn.
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