WIN List Endorses Local Librarian for HD 71: Jill Prouty

Jill Prouty and her family first moved to the Peachtree City area during her middle and high school years when her father, who worked for 30 years with the Federal Aviation Administration, was assigned to the Southern Regional Office adjacent to Hartsfield Airport. 

She attended Booth Jr. High School and McIntosh High School before moving with the family to North Carolina, where she graduated from high school. Her undergraduate degree in English with minors in History and Business is from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and her first job after college, which she calls a “happy accident,” lead to her career path. A just above minimum wage job cataloging for a library vendor, inspired her to obtain a master’s degree in Library Science from Clairon University of Pennsylvania. A visit to her older brother who had remained in Peachtree City lead to the romance which brought her back south and to a library job in Peachtree CIty. 

She celebrated a 20 year anniversary with the Peachtree City library last year where she is a self-proclaimed “unconventional” Library Administrator, supervising a staff of 17 and operating a facility of more than 30,000 square feet. Her husband Scott has been the stay-at-home father for their 16 and 14 year old sons. The family also operates a Jersey Mike’s sub shop.

Jill was raised in a Republican family and carried many of those traditional values with her well into her early adulthood. However, recent Republican leadership and policies prompted her shift to the Democratic party. “The GOP is going backwards in a lot of ways,” she said. “They want to hold the line and send us back to the 1950’s and that was not a good place for many of our citizens.”

Jill believes her public service experience at the library desk will translate well to representing  constituents under the Gold Dome. Her time as administrator for the library has taught her a skill set which will be helpful in the General Assembly, she says, because she has learned to set priorities, meet goals and collaborate with others. A quick learner, she looks forward to working across party lines to achieve better results for residents of the district who have recently felt abandoned by a Republican representative who had increasingly spent time away from his district and missed many votes.  

Once elected, Jill hopes to use her legislative platform as an advocate on the following issues:

MENTAL HEALTH – Jill is a determined advocate for mental health issues, particularly prevention of suicide. She knows firsthand the struggle families face when a loved one suffers from mental illness because her mother experienced numerous depressive episodes and in 2003 took her own life. Jill says Coweta and Fayette Counties desperately need in-patient mental health services because overcrowded local emergency rooms are poorly equipped to handle the needs of patients facing a mental health crisis. She pledges to work toward reforms of the Certificate of Need (CON) process which has prevented the construction of new in-patient beds for mental health services in the local area. 

ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE – As partner in a Jersey Mike’s sub franchise which employs 15, Jill understands the difficult decisions business owners make during changing economic conditions. She believes investing inemployees by providing health benefits is a key factor for employee retention in the currently saturated job market. However, some employees simply can’t afford to pay their share of this cost. “Nobody should have to choose between feeding their families and health coverage,” she said. Jill says Medicaid expansion in Georgia, long opposed by the GOP, would offset the rising costs of healthcare and reduce the cost of uncompensated care. The state projects a $27 billion budget for the 2020 fiscal year and the net cost to provide coverage for the half million Georgians currently not covered would be less than $150 million. “Georgia has the money,” she said. “It’s about making people and health care a priority.”

EDUCATION – Given her role as a mother to two teenage boys and her career as a librarian, it is no surprise to hear Jill values lifetime learning. She believes a focus on high stakes standardized testing, behavior issues in the classroom, and recent safety concerns have created a stressful environment for students. She hopes to work with community leaders and the state department of education to shift the culture of school environments toward a more joyful learning experience for students. Jill believes in paying teachers and administrators more to recruit and retain the best minds for our public schools. 

INFRASTRUCTURE – Jill commutes to work each day via Fischer Road and Hwy 34 into Peachtree City. She says better traffic flow along the major corridors in Coweta County is needed. While she is excited by the current economic growth in east Coweta County, she hopes this growth will be balanced with the need to preserve the rural character which people in the district dearly love. “The air we breathe and the water we drink are affected by development,” she says. “It is possible to strike this delicate balance and I am committed to working collaboratively with local government and the Georgia DOT to identify and implement solutions.”

REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM – Jill is dedicated to defending a woman’s right to reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy. She opposes HB 481, the state’s six-week abortion ban passed earlier in the year. According to the CDC, abortion rates in the U.S. are at historic lows across all age groups. Jill believes outlawing abortions will not stop abortions, but will make the procedure more dangerous for women. Jill trusts women to make their own decisions, in consultation with their doctors, about their own bodies.

Campaign website: JillforGeorgia.com

Campaign e-mail: voteforjill71@gmail.com

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Media Coverage:

Former Republican Jill Prouty stands out from MAGA hopefuls in Georgia special House race