Macon Magazine

36 maconmagazine.com | April/May 2025 BY PAIGE HENSON A Doctor Under the Dome Y ou get the idea that Georgia House Representative, Anissa M. Jones, P.C. (aka "Dr. Nissa"), feels she can accomplish just about anything. That she will meet any challenge with positivity, clarity, and wisdom. After all, she is a keen scholar with post-graduate degrees in both Holistic Care (Life University in Marietta) and International Business (Macon's own Wesleyan College). She is the first board-certified African American chiropractor in Macon, an active city leader representing organizations like NewTown Macon, and an astute businessperson with her own thriving health and wellness practice on Cherry Street. Beginning in January, she took on another role, being a Georgia Representative. Rep. Jones, 54, has also penned a book to inspire others looking for new paths — "From Tragedy to Triumph: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Starting Over." As of today, only one new copy is available on Amazon. The book sales were brisk. Jones' credentials in civic work and her numerous awards, coupled with a high-voltage "can do!" energy, might have one wondering if she runs on an Energizer Bunny battery pack or perhaps harbors one of Elon Musk's secreted Neuralink chip implants. But no, it's much more personal than that. She will tell you her drive likely stems from fully recognizing and embracing her life's passion, which she says is empowering others. It's as simple as that. She took that mindset to the Georgia State Capitol, known popularly as the Gold Dome, for the first time this session and let MM in on her thought process. Confidence count A couple of weeks into the 2025 legislative session, Jones and her colleagues were balancing an amended state budget — dubbed a "Midyear Budget." Per usual, it included spending through the end of the fiscal year, which falls in late June. Budget crafting is satisfying, bipartisan work when it's in the enthusiastic hands of Georgia representatives. Yet who could have predicted this year might not allow for business-as-usual? As fate would have it, Jones' first weeks as a newbie in the Georgia House had coincided with the tempestuous beginning of a new U.S. Presidential administration. First off, an unexpected budget problem arose when Georgia Governor Brian Kemp learned that half of the Hurricane Helene "clean-up and rebuild" funding promised to the state by the previous administration was being pulled back. The first half of the total amount funded had been disbursed immediately after the storm in September 2024; the second half would come in early 2025. When newly elected President Trump backed down on sending the money in order to converse dollars for new tax cuts and to bring down the nation's deficit, Anissa and her fellow representatives on both sides of the aisle got to work immediately. They allocated emergency funding to the hardest hit areas, mostly in south Georgia, where some roads remained nearly impassable due to massive storm debris. This state-alone funding package included $145M to the Governor's Emergency Fund for clean-up and an additional $150M for farmers and timber owners impacted by the storm. By mid-February, the House budget proposal was sent to the Georgia Senate for discussion and approval. In early March lawmakers passed an amended and record-breaking $40B midyear budget to keep all state services, including Medicaid, afloat through June. Eighty million dollars of that amount are earmarked for urgently needed Hurricane Helene disaster relief. Governor Kemp signed off on the budget. Jones says this early example of bipartisan cooperation represents a situation where state leaders — within a limited forty non-consecutive-day window — must agree to eschew politics in order to successfully address any major challenges stemming from federal decisions. "Even though federal actions usually play some role in legislative discussions and decision-making, our focus as a state legislative body remains largely unchanged. From the beginning of this year, we made decisions A n i s s a J o n e s , G e o r g i a H o u s e R e p r e s e n t a t i v e

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