About Senator Jack Hill

ABOUT JACK

First elected in 1990, Senator Jack Hill (R-Reidsville) has served nine terms in the State Senate. He has supported conservative, compassionate issues such as helping save community hospitals, encouraging economic development and practicing fiscal responsibility.

Jack is Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He also serves on the Ethics, Natural Resources and the Environment, Regulated Industries and Utilities and Rules Committees as well as ex-officio for the Committee on Assignments and Finance Committees. Past chairmanships include: K-12 Education, Ethics and Higher Education.

FAMILY VALUES

Jack is a retired independent grocer from Tattnall County and is a native of Reidsville. He graduated from Reidsville High School and Georgia Southern College. He and his wife Ruth Ann, a retired elementary school principal, are the parents of three children and seven grandchildren and are members of the Reidsville Baptist Church.

MILITARY SERVICE

Jack served for 33 years in the Georgia Air National Guard as a unit commander and as State Inspector General. He retired from the United States Air Force Reserve as a Reserve Forces Officer assigned to the Selective Service System with 37 years total service.

COMMUNITY LEADER

An active community leader, Jack is the former chairman of the Tattnall County Development Authority. He is a Lion and Rotarian and headed a historic preservation project that won a national award.

SENATE SERVICE

Jack headed the Senate Rural Policy Study Committee which recommended a package of economic development legislation adopted by the 1992 and 1993 General Assemblies, including an expansion of the state's job tax credit aimed at spurring new and expanded industry in economically depressed areas of the state.

He also chaired the Senate Rural Hospital and Health Care Study Committee, which highlighted the plight of rural hospitals and has worked tirelessly through the years to help save community hospitals. Jack led efforts to increase reimbursement rates through restructuring as critical access hospitals.

He has been a proponent of Early Voting legislation, which he introduced in 1999. Early voting was eventually passed as part of the package of federally mandated election reforms.

He successfully sponsored legislation in 1993 and in 1998, which requires state government to take a leadership role in encouraging recycling and sets goals for the purchase of recycled materials.

Jack also sponsored legislation in the 1995 General Assembly, which adds a five percent surcharge to fines imposed in criminal cases to fund local victims' assistance programs. He also was the author of a constitutional amendment, which encouraged the creation of regional industrial parks by allowing tax-base sharing.

As Appropriations Chairman, he led the Senate in changing the budget process in Georgia to a results-based form. His efforts to base funding on clearly defined purposes and measurements, Program Budgeting, has been adopted by the state and the result is Georgia has joined more progressive states utilizing this approach.

Georgia has maintained a “Triple A” Bond rating, the highest rating awarded throughout these years, as recognition of Georgia’s business-like handling of state government.

Human Services have greatly benefited from Jack's leadership. Developmentally Disabled waiver slots have been increased by hundreds of slots in the past few years. The Senate led the way in amending the 2006 Amended Budget to provide funds for families declared ineligible for the Katie Beckett Waiver.

Georgia Southern University, East Georgia College and technical colleges in the Fourth District have received over $200 million in capital outlay funding during his tenure. He is quick to add that the entire local delegation worked to secure these funds.

Jack has been a long-time supporter of Georgia's Public Libraries. In 2005, he led an effort to create a $2 million renovation and repair fund, which began a process of modernizing libraries under a priority list developed by the State Library Board. In 2006, he led the way in securing $2 million in Joint Senate/House onetime funding for books and materials for libraries across the state.

In 2006, Jack headed a study committee on assessing the value of grassroots arts programs and has been successful in increasing funding for the arts.

Recently, Jack served as Gov. Perdue's appointee to the three-person team who negotiated a joint venture with the State of South Carolina to begin the process of building a new port in Jasper County, S.C. on the Savannah River. This agreement will provide the basis for an Interstate Compact once permitting is complete.