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AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2007 > April > 19
Thursday, April 19, 2007
House Republicans introduce flat tax plan
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Setting the stage for next year, House Republican leaders introduced a sweeping proposal Thursday to overhaul Georgia’s tax code by eliminating most taxes in favor of a flat income tax and sales tax.
The proposal from House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) would eliminate all state, county and city property taxes, and all taxes on fuel, insurance premiums and estates in favor of a so-called “fair tax.”
The fair tax would include a 5.75 percent income tax and a 5.75 percent “business value added tax,” or sales tax. Georgians essentially pay a 6 percent income tax and 4 percent sales tax now, along with local property taxes.
Richardson was leading the floor session this afternoon and was not immediately available for comment about his 38-page bill.
But during previous interviews, Richardson has declared the state’s taxing system is broken.
“I’m convinced that the tax structure that has an income tax, sales tax and property tax is hurting our economy,” Richardson said in an interview in December. “I’m going to try to do everything in my power to keep Georgia’s economy moving forward positively, reducing the tax burden on citizens and encouraging economic developing so that our people have jobs.”
A spokeswoman for Richardson said the speaker introduced the bill today along with several other House Republican leaders with the expectation that it would not come up for a vote until next year. Legislators plan to discuss the idea over the summer.
The idea comes from a former economic policy adviser to President Reagan whom Richardson recently hired to study overhauling Georgia’s tax system. Richardson is working with Arthur B. Laffer, an economist considered by many as the “father of supply-side economics.” Along with Laffer, the speaker has hired Donna Arduin, a former fiscal advisor to several governors, including Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Jeb Bush of Florida.
Richardson’s political action committee, MMV Alliance Fund, is paying Laffer and Arduin’s firm the initial $50,000 cost of its study through private donations.
Cosponsoring the bill with Richardson are House Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons Island), House Speaker Pro Tem Mark Burkhalter (R-Alpharetta), House Majority Whip Barry Fleming (R-Harlem) and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Larry O’Neal (R-Warner Robins).
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: politics
Trauma trust goes to governor
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State lawmakers have approved legislation setting up a trust fund for Georgia’s financially troubled trauma care hospitals.
One problem: Senate Bill 60 does not put any money in the trust. Other bills that would generate funds for the hospitals are still awaiting decisions in the General Assembly.
The legislation would also create a nine-member Georgia Trauma Care Network Commission to raise state and federal funds, grants and donations, and distribute the money to the state’s trauma care hospitals. Businesses seeking start-up money to become trauma care centers would also be eligible for the funds.
State Rep. Larry O’Neal (R-Warner Robins), who carried the bill on the House floor, said the state’s network of trauma care hospitals needs $85 million at a minimum.
“We have a trauma system now that, if anything, is lessening in size and effectiveness, instead of growing in size and effectiveness,” O’Neal told the House moments before it approved the bill on a 158-1 vote. “It might be one of the most important pieces of legislation — at least in my opinion — that I have ever been involved with in my entire life.”
The bill has already passed the Senate and now is on its way to Gov. Sonny Perdue’s desk for his signature.
Georgia lawmakers, meanwhile, are considering several bills to raise money for the hospitals, including one that would require Georgians and tourists who rent a car for less than 30 days to pay a 3.5 percent surcharge. The money would go toward improving the state’s trauma care network. The Senate approved that measure Tuesday.
Georgia is in a “trauma care crisis” with two-thirds of Georgia’s 152 hospitals operating in the red, the Joint Comprehensive State Trauma Services Study Committee reported in January. The hospitals are suffering financial losses from uninsured or underinsured patients and decreasing Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates. Georgia absorbs an estimated $170 million in uncompensated trauma care annually, according to the committee.
Outside metro Atlanta, most Georgians live far from trauma centers, and the long distances put victims of car and other accidents and shootings at risk of dying before they can receive medical care.
With only 15 trauma care centers spread across the state, it can sometimes take hours for a trauma victim to reach one, the committee’s report said. The report says Georgia’s trauma death rate is 20 percent higher than the national average and 700 lives likely could be saved yearly if the state could reach the national average.
DeKalb Medical Center, losing millions of dollars overall in recent years, announced last month that it is leaving Georgia’s trauma network. Hospital officials said DeKalb’s emergency room is already on trauma diversion status an average of 22 days a month, meaning that the hospital does not have staff available to provide adequate trauma care. That sends ambulance patients to other nearby hospitals.
“I just commend to you Senate Bill 60, which is a start,” O’Neal said. “It is vital that we get this commission set up.”
Permalink | | Categories: Health Care
