Ga. lieutenant governor launches Red Tape Rollback plan

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - Georgia Lt. Governor Burt Jones has announced his 2024 legislative priority, the Red Tape Rollback initiative.

Going into 2024, Jones is looking to cut through the red tape and make things easier for small businesses to get started and then succeed.

“It’s about focusing on small businesses,” said Jones. “And focusing on unneeded regulations, whether it’s in permitting or licenses and things of that nature, is to try and make a business. Make it smoother for them to operate and really do what they do best.”

As a business owner himself, Jones says one of the things that slows business owners down is obtaining licenses and permits. Through this initiative, he hopes to streamline the paperwork process.

“A big thing that we’re seeing right now when you have a shortage of truck drivers, we ought to make it easier for people to be able to get CDLs,” said Jones.

“People who move here from other states, whether they could be doctors or dentists and things of that nature, we’ve heard of individuals having to wait, you know, somewhere in between six to eight months, you know, just to have their license; recognize your medical license. Recognize here in the state of Georgia. So those are things that we feel like we can work on,” he said.

Kerrie Wilson is the Commercial Truck Driving Program chair at Southern Regional Technical College. She says that the time it takes to get a CDL license in the state of Georgia is one of the factors contributing to the shortage.

“It has contributed to exasperate the driver’s shortage that was already in effect that was already happening when the new federal regulations took effect,” said Wilson.

Now looking to streamline licenses is just one example of what Jones is trying to accomplish through this initiative.

To learn more about his initiative, click here.

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