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Sunday, April 15, 2007
Conservatives do right thing for taxpayers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
To this day, veteran legislators cringe that 11 years ago, in the midst of a heady debate about how best to reform the state tax system, Gov. Zell Miller succeeded in persuading fellow Democrats to eliminate the sales tax on food.
Their dismay is not particularly related to the fact that legislators allowed taxpayers to keep what was projected to be $166 per year for the average family when fully implemented in 2000, but to the fact that the legislators were giving up a sum that amounted to 5 percent of the $10.7 billion budget in a way that brought no glory except to Miller. Who notices?
While another political party awaits yet another stab at tax reform next year — the most difficult of all legislative feats — the General Assembly had a “holy cow!” moment last week, agreeing to return $142 million in excess collections as an additional property tax break for homeowners.
It started as a dare. Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Senate Republicans pulled what House leaders regarded as a budget stunt when they stripped House “pork” from the supplemental budget. They sent word privately that they’d be willing to add back 30 or more projects, including $15 million as the state’s share of the funds needed to acquire the 7,000 acre Paulding Forest Wildlife Management area in rapidly developing Paulding County, the home county of House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram).
Furious that the Senate had used the supplemental for what they regarded as political games, partly related to the next gubernatorial campaign, the House first balked — and then delivered the Bomb.
The Bomb was an offer to give the excess revenues back to taxpayers as a one-time property tax rebate, the only vehicle then available for returning the money. The Senate took the dare. Deal done. Nobody blinked.
For fiscal conservatives — and for Republicans who control both Houses — it was a superb outcome.
Congressional Republicans were bounced last year in large part because their inability to discipline themselves on spending alienated their base. Projects like the Alaska “bridge to nowhere” sent the message that, once in power, one political party is not much different from the other.
The bumper stickers on this legislative session, insofar as the budget is concerned, was “PeachCare Cut” and “House Loves Pork.” Like all bumper stickers, they’re simplistic and largely inaccurate. But there’s enough truth to damage Republicans, primarily because the GOP has failed during the three years it has fully controlled the Gold Dome to define a difference.
They say they stand for lower taxes and less government and other conservative principles. But on most days and on most matters up for debate, it’s not particularly noticeable.
This session could well be a rerun of 1996 when Democrats had full control. Taxes were cut. Legislators who had other agendas sulked. The grow-government pleaders who stalk the halls and committee rooms whined. And editorialists with “pay now or later” admonitions complained that bigger government was being starved.
And yet nothing bad happened. Groceries got a tad cheaper. Georgians kept a little more of their money. And government continued to grow. The budget for the 2008 fiscal year is $20.2 billion, double the size of government when Miller passed his grocery tax exemption 11 years ago.
Instead of sulking unhappily now that a game of brinksmanship has given homeowners a one-time break that will amount to about $100, a sum likely to be unnoticed in the yearly fluctuation of property taxes, leaders should have used it to declare the New Day in Georgia: “We’ll try not to overtax, but when we do, you can trust us to give it back.”
As an extension of that explanation to voters of the difference it makes to have conservatives running Georgia, House members should pass the constitutional amendment already approved by the Senate that would impose a measure of spending discipline. It will not pass this year. Too much other vital legislation pends. But it should be passed next year and put on the ballot in 2008.
On a dare, legislators defined themselves and the difference it makes that Georgians gave power to these Republicans. They had too much money. And, as good fiscal conservatives, they gave it back.
There’s no glory to individual politicians. The public may not notice and send thank-you notes. But they had the money in hand to give us more government, and they gave us less. That is a difference that matters.
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