TIFTON – State legislators tasked with crafting a plan to tackle rural Georgia’s woes started off their work with an issue that dogged them this legislative session: broadband access.

A few proposals that came out of a 2016 study group stalled earlier this year, partly because of skepticism from many of the same state lawmakers who now sit on the newly formed House Rural Development Council.

“Tell me why I shouldn’t look at asking for y’all to come up with something that guarantees us 100 percent of that tax exemption you’re getting will be used in rural Georgia,” Rep. Ed Rynders, R-Albany, said to Internet service providers on Tuesday.

Rynders was referring to a plan to give up state revenues from a sales tax on equipment used to build out broadband networks in underserved communities. Several rural lawmakers have questioned whether waiving the tax would actually lead to a boost in coverage in the areas that need it most.

The tax break is among the changes that service providers say would help spur expanded broadband services in areas with smaller customer bases where companies have been reluctant to invest limited resources.

Lawmakers clearly aren’t sold on that idea. But trying to find a strategy that will connect more Georgians to broadband is one of the complex issues facing the council, which held its first meeting this week at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton.

“I think it’s ironic that here on the rural development council we’re having a conversation about rural broadband access that’s livestreamed and most of rural Georgia won’t get to watch it because of limited access,” said Rep. Dominic LaRiccia, R-Douglas.

The council, which includes more than two dozen lawmakers, was formed earlier this year during a legislative session that saw rural matters rise in prominence. A handful of tax credit bills designed to benefit rural communities passed and were signed into law.

The new panel, which will hold meetings in rural communities across the state this year, will now go to work on crafting a more comprehensive plan.

“This is a two-year task, so don’t think that we’re going to solve this in a day, in a month or in a year,” said Rep. Jay Powell, R-Camilla, who is co-chairing the council.

House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, told the group to “leave no stone unturned” when exploring ways to extend economic opportunity to areas of the state that are struggling.

“Your zip code or your county of residence should not dictate your lot in life,” Ralston told the group. “Moving to the big city should not – cannot – be the only way to get ahead.”

But that is currently what is happening, according to Mathew Hauer, a demographer with the University of Georgia Carl Vinson Institute of Government.

The majority of rural Georgia residents who relocated in 2013 settled in an urban area of the state. About 38 percent of those who left rural Georgia landed in metro Atlanta, where most of the state’s job growth has occurred.

Seven urban counties – Chatham County in Savannah and six metro Atlanta counties – account for two-thirds of all Georgia’s population growth since 2010, he said.

This has left many rural counties with aging and poorer populations. Altogether, rural Georgia is losing about $71 million every year in annual income, Hauer said.

“For a lot of communities in rural Georgia, they have more people dying than being born and they have more people moving out than moving in, and that is a very strong headwind,” Hauer said.

In fact, 11 counties had more residents just before the Civil War started a century and a half ago than they did in 2010, he said.

These population losses hit communities hard, making it difficult to support hospitals, fill college classrooms and attract industry. It also leaves families with diminished hopes that their children stick around.

How best to go about reversing these grim trends is the council’s charge. That means trying to address several unwieldy topics, such as the spotty broadband service, lagging K-12 education and an unprepared local workforce.

“We will, in some way or another, decide on a plan to tackle all of them, because (addressing just) one of them is not going to solve any problems,” Powell said Tuesday.

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jnolin@cnhi.com.