Jones: Georgia lawmakers dusting off scripts for another run at tax reform | Online Athens

ATLANTA — Television viewers have long recognized summer as a time for reruns, and Republican legislators trying to make Georgia the first state in a half-century to end a major tax sounds like the political version of that phenomenon.

The last to succeed was Alaska, which got rid of the state income tax after striking oil. Now, instead of paying taxes, every Alaskan gets a check from the state, courtesy of oil profits.

In Georgia a few years back, then-Gov. Sonny Perdue wanted to get rid of income taxes, but economists told him he first needed to build up a large cash reserve for the transition. That reserve ended up being used to cushion the state in recession.

Also a few years ago, then-House Speaker Glenn Richardson pushed a plan to get rid of property taxes. But that was defeated by local officials worried about ending their main source of revenue, with little faith the state would replace it.

The most recent failure was in 2010 when Speaker David Ralston and Senate leaders appointed a commission to devise a way to get rid of income taxes. When the commission hatched its plan behind closed doors and then delivered it to the legislature, it fell lifeless to the floor.

Now, various junior GOP legislators from the House and Senate have independently come up with separate legislation to again attempt the end of income taxes. A Senate study committee met Wednesday to build momentum. Several witnesses bloodied from the last effort offered impressions.

“I think the big problem in that package was secrecy,” said Virginia Galloway, executive director of Americans For Prosperity. “The people of Georgia distrusted it from day one because they felt like they were in the dark.” She recommended getting various grassroots organizations involved in crafting any new proposal.

Christine Ries, a Georgia Tech economics professor who was part of the 2010 reform council, agrees credibility was missing.

“As academics and as politicians, you all know our level of trust in the community is not real high right now,” she said. “You can go out and tell people, ‘We’ve got the numbers. We’ve done a study. We promise you we’re going to stick to this. We’re going to actually keep lowering rates.’ You can tell them all you want, but all the time people would just say, ‘I don’t believe you. I don’t trust you. I don’t trust them.’”

via Jones: Georgia lawmakers dusting off scripts for another run at tax reform | Online Athens.