Dr. Alexander Ruder of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta testified on this “benefits cliff” during recent state budget hearings. Speaking on workforce development, he noted that we are having difficulty moving entry-level employees up a career ladder because many can’t afford to take a pay raise.

 

He has agreement from “both sides” that this is an actual problem. Both the right-leaning Georgia Center for Opportunity and the left-leaning Georgia Budget and Policy Institute have written extensively on benefits cliffs.

 

Georgia became a national leader on criminal justice reform because the right and the left were willing to put down their partisan talking points and address some fundamental and basic problems that were incarcerating non-violent citizens and permanently inhibiting their contributions to society well after their public debt had been paid.

 

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