Education was pushed to the forefront when Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal appointed an Education Reform Commission in January 2015. After months of meetings, the Commission released an 86-page final report replete with good ideas in December. With influential lawmakers on the Commission, pundits predicted smooth sailing. For unknown reasons, between December and January the Governor pulled all 44 recommendations from the agenda.
During the bruising debate over transportation funding last year, tax reform was promised to garner needed votes. The result this year was a six-page bill simplifying the tax code: Reducing six tax brackets down to one and lowering the tax rate to 5.4 percent – 10 percent lower than the current top rate and just below North Carolina’s recently lowered rate.
A study by Georgia State University projected lower taxes or no change for the median and average taxpayer in every income group. The cost of the lower income tax would have been less than the annual cost of Georgia’s film tax credits. The proposal also would have helped small businesses, improving Georgia’s ranking on the Tax Foundation’s State Business Tax Index from 39th to 18th. Despite multiple hearings, the bill died without a vote in the House.
Proposed welfare reforms included enhanced work requirements, a cash diversion program and commonsense fraud prevention practices. The reforms, which could have moved Georgia from 44th to ninth on the Heartland Institute’s national Welfare Reform Report Card, died with the bill.
On a positive note, Georgia remains in the national spotlight after legislators passed this year’s recommendations from the Georgia Council on Criminal Justice Reform; joined 21 states in allowing terminally ill patients the “right to try” experimental drugs in the last stages of federal trials; and took a practical step toward authorizing transit funding for the City of Atlanta and parts of Fulton County.
In the final two days of the session, legislators made progress in health care, approving funding to expand charity clinics serving the indigent and uninsured, a tax credit for individuals donating to rural hospitals and a Senate study committee to examine an insurance premium assistance program for low-income Georgians ineligible for Medicaid.
Unfortunately, a troubling trend continues: well-connected special interests using state government to thwart competition.
Examples abound. Beer distributors blocked small craft breweries from direct sales, which wineries have been allowed to do for years. Hospitals blocked reform of certificate of need laws that limit competition. Trial lawyers blocked medical malpractice reform. Dentists blocked dental hygienists from expanding their scope of practice. Public education lobbyists blocked school choice for working-class and active-duty military families. Insurance companies blocked low-cost direct primary care agreements between patients and doctors.
The Obama Administration and free-market groups around the nation have highlighted the negative consequences of occupational licensing. Even so, legislators regulated interior decorators and music therapists in recent years and added lactation consultants this year.
In the most egregious example of protectionism, optometrists successfully outlawed a low-cost competitor already operating successfully in 44 states. The firm provides affordable online refraction exams so individuals ages 18-40 with no other health issues can easily update their prescriptions.
The biggest losers in this trend toward protection of the status quo are the poor and middle class, who face higher prices for services, lack of access to health care and education options, and fewer job opportunities.
Next year, perhaps Georgia’s leaders will focus on empowering individuals, reducing barriers and supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses. In other words, economic opportunity for all, not special treatment for some.
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