GA Tax Windfall Ahead

AJC 2/3/18 Page 1 reports Tax windfall spurs call for state reform.  Now federal code likely means some will pay higher Georgia taxes. The claim is that Georgia will collect an extra $3.6 billion over the next 5 years if no changes are made to the Georgia tax code. The other issue mentioned was whether or not to give Delta a fuel tax holiday from Georgia taxation. If the surrounding states charge Delta a fuel tax, so should Georgia. Special deals should not be available.

 

The article also states that current Lt. Governor Casey Cagle, who is running for Governor in November 2018 pledges to return the windfall to the Georgia taxpayers.

 

Georgia government debt to GDP was reported at 43.9% in 2016

https://tradingeconomics.com/georgia/government-debt-to-gdp

 

I doubt that the GA Debt to GDP is much lower now in 2018. I would think that if Georgia had a windfall it would add it to the revenue and straighten out another gridlocked highway. If we are going to down-size the federal government, I’m sure that State governments would need to absorb new costs and would need to adjust state taxes accordingly. They should also be willing to send some questionable functions back to the private sector and to individuals.

 

I would like to see a lot of narrow-interest items removed from the unintelligible, out of order 14 page Ga Tax Form.  I am not surprised that no Georgia elected officials have endorsed that idea.  I would think Georgia government officials would model a new state tax policies after the federal policies and simplify the GA tax form, but the “establishment” is resistant to change.

 

I know Georgia has a huge payout account for debt service and I would like to see this decline to zero. I know the Bond Sales guys would hate this, but taxpayers would be spared the interest charges incurred due to government overspending and lack of fiscal restraint.  I would rather see all wasteful government entities stop selling Bonds and instead set up “accrual accounts” to pay for expensive infrastructure expansion and maintenance.

 

I am not voting for “establishment” candidates like Cagle in the GOP Primary.  I prefer “business-guy” candidates like David Purdue. I really liked David Pennington, former mayor of Dalton GA who ran against Deal in 2014.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader