The Georgia General Assembly has the opportunity to strengthen our foundation for economic growth and implement efforts to reform Georgia’s outdated, inefficient and ineffective tax and criminal justice systems.
● Pass Tax Reform Legislation. Smart tax reform will modernize our more than 60-year-old state tax system and help lay the foundation for job creation and a strong economy.
Reducing or eliminating deductions and credits that overwhelmingly benefit special interests and the wealthiest would allow for tax relief to low- and middle-income Georgians, while also helping to stabilize the state budget. Additional revenues would allow for increased investment in education, infrastructure, public services and safety.
At a minimum, we must avoid tax reform that continues the failed job-creation strategies of blindly cutting taxes on corporate and special interests and paying for it with cuts to education, health care and other vital services.
● Amend tax expenditure report to include cost-benefit analysis. In 2010, the General Assembly passed legislation creating a tax expenditure report. Implemented in 2011, the report includes a cost estimate of every tax break in current law.
We need to go a step further. Are business tax breaks creating jobs? To judge the cost-effectiveness of tax breaks, the Legislature should amend the law and require a cost-benefit analysis with the report.
● Implement criminal justice reform recommendations. The Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform outlined policy options that would increase public safety while averting the projected growth in the prison population. By increasing investments in community services and reforming sentencing laws so that expensive prison beds are focused on serious offenders, the Legislature can improve our criminal justice system and deter escalating costs.
● Protect and ensure unemployment benefits. A decade of employer tax cuts along with the recession resulted in the Georgia Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund’s current $721 million debt to the federal government. Georgia should develop a fair and predictable tax structure with a reasonable tax for employers in order to repay the federal government and rebuild our reserves.
● Establish a need-based financial aid program. Georgia is one of the few Southern states that does not have a need-based college financial aid program. The increased financial burdens placed on college students through dramatic increases in tuition and the decreasing benefits of the HOPE scholarship program makes it difficult for many of those students to obtain an education. A need-based financial aid program will help ensure Georgia has a more-educated and well-trained work force necessary for future economic growth.
Alan Essig is executive director, Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.
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