Georgia House Speaker pushes to end property taxes
Drop it and they will come. Those six words could serve as the motto for Georgia House Speaker Glenn Richardson and his followers who are pushing to end property taxes in the Peach State. Their plan, known as GREAT—Georgia's Repeal of Every Ad Valorem Tax—is just one month away from igniting what some predict will be thunderous debate in the state General Assembly. Scrapping property taxes would make Georgia more attractive than it is to potential new residents and investors, proponents of the plan contend. But as a concession to opponents of removing the property tax as a primary revenue source—namely officials of cities and counties that rely on the tax—backers of the measure to send the issue to the electorate as a state constitutional amendment say they would limit it initially to school taxes. House Majority Leader Jerry Keen, a gung-ho sponsor of the measure, reiterated why he feels replacing ad valorem taxes with a state sales tax—minus many, most or all current exemptions and numerous additions—is the better way to go. "We are trying to take a property tax system that was created during a time when Georgia was an agrarian-based economy to fit today's Georgia that has a consumption based economy," Keen said. Local governments with taxing powers may not like it, but people do, Keen said. That's why he and other advocates predict it will pass if the issue makes it to the ballot.
Not everyone is buying into the argument brandished by Keen and others who favor a new income supply for local government. One ardent opponent is Dave Smith, chair of the Glynn County Board of Education. For starters, he said, sending sales tax dollars to Atlanta to be recirculated and reallocated to county- and city-operated public school systems around the state would chop away at local control. Smith said it boils down to seven members of the school board deciding what is needed in Glynn County versus 180 House members and 56 senators in the Georgia Legislature. Consider, too, he added, that only one senator and three House members speak for the interests of Brunswick and the Golden Isles in the Legislature. "That is a huge disadvantage for local education," Smith said. "The local voters have almost no control on the people in Atlanta who make those decisions." Smith said the Glynn County school board is aligning with the Georgia School Boards Association (GSBA) to oppose the proposal through a coalition that includes the Georgia Municipal Association, the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia and the state Parents Teachers Association. "We are certainly not for this tax plan," Smith said. "If they are going to do this, I think they should just pass a law and do away with local school boards. They seem hell-bent on doing that anyway."
Brunswick News By Hank Rowland
[Editor’s Note: The news reports below detail expressions of concern by other Georgia school board members, including uncertainty about the adequacy and relative instability of other funding sources and the proposal that “eventually the Speaker and the legislature would have the ability to redistribute school money at their discretion.” The first article quotes Franklin County school board chairman Greg Hearn as warning, “If you don’t like how we’re using our money, you can vote us out of office. If you don’t like how our representative is using our money, you can vote him out of office. But we can’t vote the Speaker of the House out of office—he’s only accountable to his small constituency in Paulding County.” The next link is to GSBA’s position statement on the proposal. In Oregon, by contrast, most school funding is provided by the state but the legislature last spring passed a new measure allowing school districts to impose a tax on residential, commercial and industrial development to help pay for school facilities. See the last link.]
Anderson (SC) Independent-Mail By Eddie Bevens
Walker County Messenger By Larry Brooks
GSBA statement on proposal
Eugene Register-Guard By Anne Williams