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Saturday, April 28, 2007
Perdue still can clear GOP of political shame
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Reflecting on the General Assembly just past and the special session promised, the temptation is strong to quote the famous question posed by Casey Stengel in managing the ‘62 Mets to a 40-120 record: “Can’t anybody here play this game?”
Of those Mets he said, too, “We’ve got to learn to stay out of triple plays.”
Inordinate attention to the strikes and errors, to the triple plays and serial miscalculations, overshadow more important questions. Those include whether Gov. Sonny Perdue has vetoed himself into lame-duck status, whether House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) has the temperament to lead the House and whether Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle can govern through his gubernatorial ambitions.
The veto was a miscalculation. Republicans, three years into full control, have failed to define themselves. Regardless of the convoluted route the House, and then the Senate, took to get to a $142 million tax cut — a pittance compared to the $1.6 billion in increased spending — it is important in symbol and in fact.
It gave form to the promises spoken by Richardson and Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) when Republicans took control. Those promises, while vague, conveyed specific course directions, especially to conservatives. People who aren’t conservative tend to dismiss as sloganeering the rhetoric about government and taxes, families and personal responsibility. People who are take it as a contract. It’s not a Ronald Reagan Library cafe or pub pick-up line.
If the show stopped with Cagle and the Senate acting principally, according to their implied contract, to strip pork from the supplemental budget, Cagle would have had a leg-up in the gubernatorial sweepstakes. Had the two chambers stopped the show after agreeing to cut taxes, both Richardson and Cagle would have gone home winners.
But it didn’t stop there. The pork removal was show. Added borrowings dwarfed the rebate and, furthermore, meant that it was simply added to the taxpayers’ tab.
And then Perdue vetoed. That prompted the speaker to remind voters belligerently that Perdue had started off his first term by proposing a tax increase, and resurrected grumbling among rank-and-file legislators — not heard since he first took office — that he’s still a Democrat at heart. Perdue is, of course, a mainstream Georgia Republican, but the quick revival of negative characterizations reveals a serious breach that could make Perdue an early lame duck.
Actions that followed — with much-to-do made over technicalities about whether the veto message had been “transmitted” — had all the earmarks of a Cobb or Fulton County GOP party catfight. Bad scene.
Perdue holds the cards. There is a way to recover, to embrace principle and to affirm the fiscal conservative credentials of all. It is to call the special session to address two matters: the vetoed supplemental budget and Senate Resolution 20, the proposed constitutional amendment by state Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) to put a flexible cap on the growth of government spending. That legislation passed the Senate with bipartisan support and is now in the House. It would require excess tax collections beyond the rate of government inflation and population growth to be used for one of four purposes: debt, reserves, education or tax rebates.
Taking back the $142 million property tax rebate without committing to future spending discipline seriously erodes the credibility of a majority that promised to be guided by conservative principles.
Despite the session’s misplays, there were make-a-difference successes, some of major importance that would never have come had conservatives not been in charge. Education reform initiated by Cagle (charter schools) and Johnson (special needs vouchers) are major achievements, the latter made possible only because Richardson cast the deciding vote in the House. Further reform is likely next year, with the tax initiatives coming from the House.
The effort to deal responsibly with entitlement-like programs, PeachCare and indigent defense, that have an uncapped appetite for new spending, is another area where fiscal conservatives make a difference.
The way out of this debacle is to return to principle with a commitment that future legislators will have a responsible plan, fixed in the constitution if voters agree, that will conserve — or return — excess collections.
• Jim Wooten is associate editorial page editor. His column runs Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays.
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