Continuing right where we left off on the Issues page of KarenHandel.com from Part 3 of this series, we now find ourselves examining Ms. Handel’s views on Taxes.
‘Taxes’
Karen believes that we were taxed too much before the election of President Obama and that the current trend in Washington is going to make the situation even worse. High tax rates on families, small businesses and corporations INHIBIT job creation and stifle the entrepreneurial spirit that drives the American economy.
I completely concur with this assessment. Of course, the problem isn’t solely high taxes, but also astronomical spending. The two are directly related. Spend less, tax less. Taxing less without corresponding spending cuts is fiscally irresponsible.
One of Karen’s first priorities as Governor will be to conduct an audit of our entire tax code and develop a comprehensive plan for income, small business, property and corporation tax reform.
A wise move indeed, Ms. Handel, and a needed one. If you actually make it to the Governor’s Mansion, count on me to hold you to this. Does within the first six months seem like a reasonable amount of time to expect this to be started in?
Karen will also conduct a cost-benefit analysis on the legislation that would statutorily require tax and spending limitations on state government.
In other words, you plan to talk more about something we already know would be a very good thing. We need action on this, Ms. Handel, not words. We’ve had words for quite a while, and with no action we’ve seen State spending go ever upwards. Indeed, this year alone we were able to cut – due to the economic climate in the State and Nation demanding it – $2 Billion from the State budget WITHOUT reductions in services. Which leads me to question why that $2 Billion needed to be in the budget in the first place. Find a way to tie tax and spending limitations and have your potential floor leaders in the General Assembly put it before the people as a Constitutional Amendment, and let’s get this on the books.
Georgia needs a 21st Century tax code – one that is clear, understandable and fair. This tax code will not be created at the expense of our counties and cities but in harmony with them. Karen is not concerned with who gets credit for this accomplishment; if done right, our entire state will benefit from a tax structure that is fair to all.
Once again, I completely concur. You can begin with eliminating ALL exceptions. If it isn’t needed, cut it out – don’t just grant certain people ‘exceptions’ to it. If I can’t get a break on putting gas in my car, Delta shouldn’t get a break on putting gas in their airplanes.
‘Illegal Immigration’
Karen believes that the United States and Georgia should be welcoming and hospitable to those who seek to come to our shores legally.
I don’t know where you’re from, Ms. Handel, but I’m from Cartersville, up near Rome in the northwest corner of the State. Maybe we had different experiences growing up, but I was taught by my parents, family, and community that the Southern way was to be welcoming and hospitable to EVERYONE. It didn’t matter the color of their skin or the language they spoke or who they slept with, we were all human beings and deserved basic courtesy. To have a politician trying to say only certain people should get a warm and hospitable welcome, well, that aint the Georgia I grew up in and it aint the Georgia I want to raise my kids in, ma’am.
Those who come by other means are, by definition, beginning their lives in our country and state by breaking our laws. While she believes that primary responsibility for protecting our borders lies with the federal government, she is well aware that they are systematically failing to live up to that responsibility, and that states must step in to fill the void left by federal inaction and incompetence.
You are correct that illegal immigrants are beginning their lives in this great State and Nation by breaking our National laws. However, border protection lies solely, not primarily, with the Federal government. If a State perceives that the Federal government is not doing its job, there are several remedies, but doing that job in place of the Federal government is not among them.
As Secretary of State, Karen implemented the “SAVE” program to verify the work visa status of all new applicants for professional licenses who are not U.S. citizens. SAVE, which stands for Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlement Program is a federal database that helps us ensure that applicants who are not legally eligible to work in the United States will be denied licensure.
In other words, Ms. Handel, you assist the Federal government in telling a private business who they can and cannot hire. I’m glad to know you get along so well with the Feds, I really am, but this is one of those situations were you really need to stand up and tell them to quite interfering in the rights of free association of your fellow Georgia citizens.
‘Looking Out for Georgians’
In this section Ms. Handel gives anecdotal evidence of an instance where her office caught some businesses in fraudulent actions and made those businesses correct those actions. Hopefully this was done through the courts and due process was followed, but her narrative doesn’t note that either way. You can decide for yourself, here’s the text:
In March 2009, Secretary Handel announced the first in a series of multi-million dollar final settlements between her office and several prominent investment firms in cases involving sales of auction rate securities to individual, business and institutional investors. Under these agreements, the firms will repurchase billions of dollars of securities from customers. In addition, the firms will pay approximately $8,500,000 in fines to the Secretary of State’s Office, which the Office will remit to the state’s general fund.
In spring 2008, the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) formed a multi-state Task Force to investigate whether some of the nation’s prominent investment firms had misled thousands of investors when recommending that they purchase auction rate securities.
The Task Force is co-chaired by Bob Terry, Georgia Securities Division Director, and Matt Kitzi, Missouri Securities Commissioner, and is comprised of securities regulators in 12 states. As a result of the Task Force’s efforts, 11 firms have agreed to repurchase more than $50 billion of auction rate securities, and have likewise agreed to pay over $400,000,000 in fines. It is estimated that over $3.2 billion of auction rate securities were sold to Georgia investors by these firms, a substantial portion of which the firms have agreed to repurchase.
‘Transparency and Ethics’
Karen established a new ethics policy in 2007, which limits gifts to employees (including herself!), establishes a nepotism policy to address cronyism, and requires a one-year “cooling off” period before employees can take lobbying positions with companies seeking to do business with the agency.
The Ethics Policy is available at the TIG site below. I have personally read it and honestly it is decently impressive, at least as far as gifts in particular go. When Ms. Handel said ‘limits’, honestly I was thinking in the hundreds or even thousands of dollars range. The limit is actually $25. The cronyism section is less impressive and more typical, but it is in there and I assume it is followed, so I applaud Ms. Handel for addressing these issues.
On the one year cooling off period, I’m torn. I like it, because it avoids the appearance of impropriety. But I also despise it, because such policies are so easy to get around and don’t really do anything about the problem to begin with. This is because of the contacts made and information learned during the time of employment. A year later, not much will have changed either in personnel or business practices, barring some catastrophe, meaning that the employee that left a year ago can very easily use the knowledge and contacts he still possesses to lobby the agency more effectively than someone who wasn’t a former employee. I also object to these policies being introduced for current employees, as the current employee may have decided not to work for the agency had such a policy been in effect when they were first hired. I’ve got no problem with it being phased in with all new employees, I simply feel it is fraudulent business practice to spring something like this on current employees. Note here that the current policy went into effect February 1, 2007, shortly after Ms. Handel took office as Secretary of State. This means that by and large, any employee hired personally by her or while she was head of the agency has been under this policy from the very beginning. However, my objection still stands for any employees that were held over from the previous office holders.
It is also important to Karen for government to “let the light shine in.” Georgians turn to the Secretary of State’s Office for important consumer information regarding license holders and securities professionals. Unfortunately, a decades-old policy of allowing “secret orders” kept this information in the dark. The public now has access to the information on most of the Office’s actions and can find much of this information on the agency’s website.
Once again, thank you, Ms. Handel. Transparency truly is something that should be the norm in government, and we here at SWGAPolitics.com feel very strongly about that.
Open records requests are approached with the attitude of determining what can be provided instead of focusing on how not to provide information.
Maybe this is just the ‘cynic’ (‘realist’) coming out again, but there really isn’t any difference in these two. The attitude of what can be provided (that doesn’t hurt our agency) is no better than how can we not provide information (that hurts our agency). I’ve given my word that an example of this would not be mentioned in this series, as the issues this example pertains directly to are not on the Issues page of KarenHandel.com, and I intend to keep my word on that.
In 2008, Karen launched the Transparency in Government Initiative website (SOS.GEORGIA.GOV/TIG), which allows citizens to view the agency’s FY 2009 budget and monthly budget expenditures, her campaign and personal financial disclosures, and the agency’s Ethics Policy.
The site exists and has exactly what Ms. Handel says it has. I was actually able to read the Ethics Policy there, and I do appreciate Ms. Handel putting this site up. That said, the link to this particular site is nowhere to be found on the homepage of the Secretary of State’s Office, and a cursory examination of the pages that are linked to on the SoS homepage did not show this site linked on any of them either – meaning that while Ms. Handel says she supports transparency, she purposefully obfuscates her own ‘transparency’ site. (This is actually incorrect to a degree, and I do apologize. See correction below.)
[CORRECTION] I just got an email that points out that the TIG site is, indeed, linked on the Secretary of State’s homepage via a one of three rotating banners between the top navigation bar and the welcome message. I’m leaving my original text up since some people have clearly already read it, but it IS on the homepage. Just as a personal preference though, I still think it would be a good thing to put as a static link somewhere on the homepage though, even on the very bottom bar normally reserved for copyright, terms of service, etc.
[...] Many communities are claiming that they cut millions with no drop in services. In his post on Karen Handel, Jeff brings up a good point. If they can provide services without the money being spent, then why [...]