The Marietta Daily Journal – Governor hopeful Pennington calls for tax reform cut

Gov. Nathan Deal was given two big issues when he took office by his predecessor, Dalton Mayor and gubernatorial hopeful David Pennington told the Cobb Regional Republican Women.

One was comprehensive tax reform led by an income tax cut. The other was the controversial T-SPLOST, the largest tax increase in Georgia history.

Deal chose to join forces with Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and promote the T-SPLOST, which metro Atlanta voters rejected.

“We need comprehensive tax reform led by an income tax cut,” Pennington told the group of about 60 gathered at the Williamson Bros. Bar-B-Q restaurant last week. “We were the second least competitive state in the Southeast until a month ago when North Carolina passed their tax reform. They’ve officially made us the most uncompetitive state in the Southeast. And how’s that working out for Georgia?” Pennington asked, saying Georgia has lost 14 percent of its jobs paying more than $50,000 a year and added 15 percent to its Medicaid rolls during the recovery.

“Our unemployment rate in the last three months has gone from 8.3 percent to 8.8 percent while Alabama’s went from 6.7 down to 6.4, so I would say the tax strategy we have right now doesn’t seem to be working real well,” he said.

Eliminate state middle management

While it’s great to talk about the 180,000 jobs that were created since Deal took office, most of them have been minimum wage and part-time jobs, Pennington said. Whether it’s operating one of the worst prison systems in the country, allowing potholes on I-75 that would be expected in Detroit, or underfunding education, Pennington said the state government is in need of an overhaul.

“I think there’s a lot that can be cut obviously because our state basically is and a lot of other states have become middle management,” Pennington said. “And we know what we did in business a long time ago in middle management because the Internet, computer, things like that, we eliminated it.”

via The Marietta Daily Journal – Governor hopeful Pennington calls for tax reform cut.