The election-year political pandering between the House and Senate over who is offering the best tax cut must take a back seat to the economic realities that state budget makers face. Legislators should put the proposals aside and move on to other important business that remains before them.

The state's revenue from existing taxes has already started going south, the national economy is almost assuredly in recession and Georgia has a host of problems yet to be addressed.

Local school districts are still paying a heavy price for the "austerity cuts" the state imposed on them. About 1.7 million Georgians have no health insurance, 300,000 of them children. Patients are needlessly dying in the state's understaffed mental hospitals, a crisis so severe that it has drawn the attention of the U.S. Justice Department. Child protective services are in disarray.

Taxes

Yet both chambers are warring over whether to repeal the property taxes Georgians pay on vehicles or implement a 10 percent reduction on the state's income tax rate. In a game of brinkmanship with the Senate, the House has suggested both should be enacted —- an action that would mean a $1.5 billion annual hit to the state treasury.

Gov. Sonny Perdue, the state's first Republican governor since Reconstruction and not one to ever be associated with the tax-and-spend crowd, has provided wise counsel to fellow Republicans not to overreach on tax cuts. Perdue's spending plan for the next fiscal year has already slashed $140 million in aid to local schools. If the economy continues to worsen, more reductions in other state-financed programs will have to be ordered —- forcing city, county and school officials to raise local taxes.

Moreover, Georgia ranks 51st among the states and District of Columbia in per capita revenue and 49th in spending per capita. That may be why there has been no real hue and cry from taxpayers in the state for tax cuts.

State legislative leaders offer no viable plan for spending cuts of their own to pay for the tax breaks they are suggesting. Instead they hint that they can tap the state's reserves to finance them —- funds that are supposed to be there in the event of an economic disaster. That's not fiscal leadership, that's the very definition of pandering.

Sex offenders

The state doesn't limit where murderers or arsonists live once they're released from jail, but it wants to severely curtail where someone who at age 17 engaged in sex with a willing 15-year-old can live. With no evidence that they work and plenty that they don't, the General Assembly is about to reinstate draconian restrictions on where sex offenders can live or work, barring them from areas where kids might congregate. Originally House Bill 908 and now Senate Bill 1, this overzealous legislation fails to distinguish between low-risk sex offenders and serious predators, forcing 82-year-old Alzheimer's patients from hospital beds and 18-year-olds from their family homes. It ought to be rejected.

Guns

And there is much more irresponsible decision-making in the waning hours of this legislative session. A prime example was the Senate's vote on Wednesday to allow Georgians with concealed weapons permits to carry guns onto MARTA and into restaurants as long as they don't drink alcohol.

This bill ought to die today before any innocent Georgians do. Police officers will confirm that their worst nightmare is a drunk with a gun. While House Bill 257 says gun owners can't order beers with their burgers, there's no real enforcement mechanism.

"If you set aside one hour in the evening so the shooting will be between 10 and 11, we might be all right," said state Sen. Steve Thompson (D-Marietta). "That way, the other people could have their dinner and go home before the shooting starts."

The proponents of guns on MARTA trains and in restaurants contend that more weapons equals greater safety. Yet not a single lawmaker can explain this disparity: The United States —- with one of the highest rates of personal gun ownership on the planet —- also has one of the highest rates of gun violence. Countries with far fewer guns in the hands of individuals have far fewer deaths.

Education and vouchers

If legislators were personally liable for the legal costs of defending half-baked laws, House Bill 881 would not exist. The bill creates an appointed state commission to overrule elected school boards and approve charter schools that then draw away local tax dollars. But the Georgia Constitution gives the power to spend education taxes in a local community to the local school board.

Supporters in the House argue that local dollars should follow the child because "it's the parent's money." No, it's not. It's the community's money.

On average, it takes about $8,000 a year to educate a child in Georgia. Some metro school districts spend as much as $12,000. That means households with two children would have to pay $24,000 in school property taxes to cover their children's education. Very few homeowners pay anywhere near that amount. The expense is borne by the community as a whole, and that community —- whether the Legislature likes it or not —- elects its own school board to determine whether to approve charter schools.

Along with HB 881, the General Assembly should shun Senate Bill 458, which awards vouchers to students in struggling school systems. Allegedly aimed at students in Clayton County, the bill envisions a $4,000 voucher for each student, an amount insufficient to pay for private school tuitions in metro Atlanta, which can run as high as $17,000 per year. Nor do neighboring schools want Clayton kids; they have all but put up "Keep out Clayton" signs. So it's hard to see what choices SB 458 offers Clayton families.

—- Maureen Downey and Mike King, for the editorial board (mdowney@ajc.com, mking@ajc.com)

CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle

(404) 656-5030

casey.cagle@ltgov.ga.gov

Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson

(404) 656-5109

eric.johnson@senate.ga.gov

Majority Leader Tommie Williams

(404) 656-0089

tommie@tommiewilliams.com

Minority Leader Robert Brown

(404) 656-5035

robert.brown@senate.ga.gov

House Speaker Glenn Richardson

404) 656-5020

glenn.richardson@house.ga.gov

House Speaker Pro Tem Mark Burkhalter

(404) 656-5072

mark.burkhalter@house.ga.gov

Majority Leader Jerry Keen

(404) 656-5052

jerry.keen@house.ga.gov

Minority Leader DuBose Porter

(404) 656-5058

dubose.porter@house.ga.gov