Nathan Deal recently spoke to the Savannah Morning News, and Jason put up a post about it on PeachPundit.
Nevermind that Florida has seen a drop in demand because of a $1 per pack tax increase (once again showing that sin taxes aren’t really going to help revenue problems) and nevermind that it’s bad public policy, I want to know why Republicans in this state have such an amazing obsession with government, so much that six tax increases were put on the table last year.
Yes, revenues are falling. However, Georgia’s problems are not from a lack of revenue. Our legislators have a spending problem. As the Georgia Public Policy Foundation has pointed out, the the budget has grown far beyond the population growth plus inflation benchmark, because Republicans choose to preserve the status-quo when they took control of both chambers of the General Assembly in January 2005.
If legislators and prospective candidates for Governor are so concerned about the budget, they need to get behind the zero-based budget proposal (the Senate and House each passed a version of this last year, but it has been bogged down in committee in the other chamber ever since). Let’s start justifying every dollar we spend. Let’s see how much waste is really in the budget and how many programs aren’t deserving of taxpayer funding.
Largely, I agree with Jason’s feelings on the matter – the tax increase is absolutely ludicrous, particularly in the current climate. I oppose ALL “sin taxes”, no matter the reason. I also call for the General Assembly to pass – and Governor Perdue to sign – either of the Zero Based Budgeting bills currently in the General Assembly. The Senate has already passed David Shafer’s SB 1, which I prefer, and the House has already passed Tom Graves’ HB 44, both of which largely do the same thing.
[Continue Reading]
