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DEL.ICIO.USPerdue says he’d campaign against a sales tax for transportation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Sonny Perdue promised a group of rural lawmakers on Thursday that, should the November ballot include a referendum on regional sales taxes for transportation, he’ll campaign against it.
The House is scheduled to vote on S.R. 845 today.
News of the 4 p.m. meeting with the governor comes from a Republican lawmaker who was one of 30 or so members of the bipartisan rural caucus, invited to the session by Perdue.
Two Democrats, Charles Jenkins of Blairsville and Barbara Reece of Menlo, both attended the meeting and gave essentially the same account. Both continue to support S.R. 845.
“I don’t remember his exact words, but he did say he was going to campaign against it through November,” Reece recalled.
Remember that the governor has established a 527 organization called Perdue PAC, which would be able to act as a treasury for such a campaign. No doubt many organizations that support the sales tax for transportation also contributed to Perdue PAC.
S.R. 845 would permit the creation of regional alliances empowered to levy a one-cent sales tax for all forms of transportation, including rail. Read more detail about amendments to the current version here.
In the meeting, the governor reportedly cited several reasons for opposing the legislation. First, it would take transportation policy out of the hands of the state. Money would flow primarily to metro Atlanta.
According to this lawmaker, the governor also said it made no sense to vote for what he called a tax increase at the same time the House is calling for a tax cut.
Perdue isn’t the only one applying heat to House members. Washington-based Americans for Tax Reform has notified those who have signed a no-new-taxes pledge put out by the organization that voting in favor of S.R. 845 would be a violation of that oath.
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Comments
By Analchord
March 27, 2008 11:04 AM | Link to this
Perdue’s correct: Lets stop all new taxes and see how it plays out. Just stop taxing Georgia. Lets see what happens.
Perdue 08: Less taxes, more prayers.
By HighTaxesToCome
March 27, 2008 1:40 PM | Link to this
Instead of signing these mindless pledges to these Washington groups, our Reps should answer to the people first and reduce spending. All those pledges and “no tax” groups focus so much on the revenue side of the ledger that they are partly to blame for the big spending. With their tunnel vision of keeping taxes low and spending high, they are ironically locking in big tax increases for the long term. Shame, shame, shame.
By JohnM
March 27, 2008 3:36 PM | Link to this
I’ve got news for Sonny-Bubba. If he does campaign against this, and it fails to pass in November, I will personally start a recall petition to fire his sorry a**.
By GOP Terrorist
March 28, 2008 3:30 PM | Link to this
I say we put a prison on Tybee island and water-board all the liberals. Neocons rule.