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| Contact Information
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| Birthday: November 5
Spouse: Marjorie
Assistant: Carmen Alexander
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| Capitol Phone: (404) 656-0083 Fax Phone: (229) 377-5544
District Phone: (229) 377-2593
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| eMail Address: Raganh@Mail.Grady.pub.lib.ga.us
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| Capitol Address: 421-A State Capitol /
Atlanta
, GA 30334
/ Fulton
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| District Address: 1296 Crine Boulevard, NW /
Cairo
, GA 31728
/ Grady
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| Profession:
Retired Vo-AgTeacher
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| Political Party and District Information
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| Political Party: D
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| State Senate District: SS 11
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| Biographical Information
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SENATOR HAROLD RAGAN
11th District
Harold J. Ragan of Cairo was first elected to the Senate from southwest Georgia in 1986. He
represents the 11th Senate district and has become one of the Senate's most influential
members.
Ragan, a Democrat, chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee and serves as vice-chair of the
Education Committee. Senator Ragan is a member of the powerful budget-writing
Appropriations Committee and the Health and Human Services Committee. In addition to his
standing committee assignments, Senator Ragan currently serves on a number of interim
study committees and state commissions including the Indigent Care Trust Fund Study
Committee, the Georgia Tobacco Community Development Board Overview Committee, and
the Linked Deposit Loan Program Study Committee.
In 1993, Senator Ragan authored legislation which created the Technical and Adult Education
Funding Study Committee and the Senate Ethanol Study Committee. He chaired both panels
after they were established. Senator Ragan served as a member of the Joint Health Care
Personnel Shortage Study Committee which recommended creation of the Health Care
Personnel Policy Commission and its legislative liaison committee. He also chaired the
Vo-Tech and Agricultural Education Study Committee of the Senate Appropriations panel.
During the 1999 session, Ragan introduced, obtained passage, and later chaired the Senate
Study Committee on Vocational Student Organizations. This committee recommended an
annual appropriation of $50,000 to each of six vocational student organizations: DECA,
FBLA, FHA, TSA, VICA, and VOCA.
During his career in the Senate, Senator Ragan has actively served as a member of many
important interim legislative study committees including: the Senate Study Committee on
Rural Economic Development; the Joint Senate-House Study Committee on Area Planning
and Development Commissions; the Joint Senate-House Educational Assessment Study
Committee; the State Services for the Sensory Impaired (Sight & Hearing) Committee; the
Senate Committee on Confined Swine Feeding Operations; the Senate Cotton Warehousing
and Marketing Committee; and the Senate Committee on Cable TV. Senator Ragan has also
served on the University System Laboratory Equipment, Rehabilitation Technology, and
Eminent Scholars Endowment Study Committee and on the Joint Senate-House Study
Committee on the Creation of a State Agency for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
The Cairo lawmaker is vice-chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus. He has also
represented Georgia on the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee of the Southern
Legislative Conference (SLC) and served on the SLC's Education Committee. He also
served on the Agriculture and Forestry Committee of the National Conference of State
Legislatures (NCSL).
During the 1999-2000 Legislative Session Senator Ragan successfully sponsored and passed
legislation which will improve the lives of Georgia's citizens. In 1999 Senator Ragan authored
SB 34, the Southern Dairy Compact, which provides for Georgia to become an official
member of the multi-state Dairy Compact and to floor the minimum price which dairy
producers receive for the milk they produce. He passed legislation which will allow veterans
who are state employees to purchase up to two years of retirement time for active military
service. He sponsored legislation which establishes a procedure for the certification,
processing, and labeling of organic food and feed and also passed a new law that requires
prisoners pay their own legal fees when filing a writ of habeas corpus.
During his tenure in the Senate, Ragan successfully sponsored legislation which set conditions
for the filing of subdivision development plats with county court clerks. He also steered
legislation through the General Assembly which allows counties to use revenues from the
insurance premiums tax to provide services to residents of incorporated areas such as police
and fire protection, garbage collection, and street lights. This is designed to reduce the ad
valorem millage difference between taxpayers who live in cities and those who live in
unincorporated areas
Senator Ragan was also instrumental in restoring funding for needed vocational education
coordinators for south Georgia which had been eliminated during budget cuts in previous
years.
In 1994 Senator Ragan successfully guided legislation through the General Assembly which
expanded the scope of practice of the state's qualified optometrists in an effort to improve
access to health care in rural Georgia.
Born November 5, 1928 in Cook County, Georgia, Ragan graduated from Cairo High School.
Senator Ragan received his Associate of Agriculture Degree from Abraham Baldwin
Agricultural College in 1949. He received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Agriculture
Education, Master of Education Degree, and his six-year Specialist Degree in Agriculture
Education from the University of Georgia. In 1986, after 33 years of experience as a
vocational agriculture teacher and FFA advisor, Senator Ragan retired from education.
Senator Ragan served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War, was commissioned after
Officer Candidate School, and retired from the Air Force Reserve in 1981 with the rank of
lieutenant colonel.
Active in community and professional organizations, Senator Ragan is a member and past-
president of the Cairo Rotary Club. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of the
Abraham Baldwin College Alumni Association and was honored as the Alumnus of the Year
for 1987. Senator Ragan is a member of the Cairo-Grady County Chamber of Commerce
and was named Grady County Citizen of the Year in 1979 by the Chamber. He is a Scottish
Rite Mason and a Shriner.
Senator Ragan's many honors include: Honorary FFA State Farmer, Honorary American
Farmer, and Honorary Georgia Young Farmer. Senator Ragan served as a Director and also
as President of the Georgia Vocational Agricultural Teachers Association. In 1992, the
association presented him with their Outstanding Service Award. Ragan is a lifetime member
and past-president of the Georgia Vocational Association.
Earlier this year Senator Ragan was inducted as a charter member of the newly established
Georgia Agricultural Education Hall of Fame. In 2000, he has also been honored with the
Georgia Peanut Commission's distinguished service award. During the summer of 1999 at the
Family and Consumer Science Teachers Association's Annual Meeting Senator Ragan was
given the organization's "Distinguished Legislative Award." Also last year Senator Ragan was
honored by the Georgia Hospital Association with their "1999 Session Legislative Leadership
Award." The Georgia Vocational Association named Ragan as the 1999 "Georgia Legislator
of the Year" and he received the Georgia Optometric Association's 1999 "Award of Merit."
In 1998, Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health acknowledged Senator Ragan for
his "Outstanding Contribution to Highway Safety in Georgia. "
Senator Ragan and his wife Marjorie, are the parents of three grown sons: Hal, Tom, and
Tim. The Ragans are members of the First United Methodist Church of Cairo where Senator
Ragan is a lay speaker. He has served his church as chairman of the Administrative Board,
the Council on Ministries, and as a church lay leader.
Ragan represents the 11th Senatorial District, which includes Decatur, Grady, Seminole,
Early, Miller, and Mitchell Counties and portions of Colquitt and Thomas Counties.
July 2000
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