GBPI: Tax Cuts Mean Service Cuts

A new report released Monday shows proposed tax cuts would cost Georgia some 1.5 billion dollars over the next five years.

The report comes from the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, an organization that looks at how state spending impacts government services. The group is concerned
about a pair of legislative bills that would give companies that hire out of work employees a 2400 dollar tax credit and cut the capital gains tax in half.

Conservative lawmakers who designed this plan say it would create at least two thousand jobs in the state. It's now on the Governor's desk waiting for his approval. GBPI's Allen Essig says the Governor needs to continue "being a responsible budget Governor. If he signs these bills, it will guarantee the state will have untennable deficits in the future."

Essig says that would mean a reduction in education, road and health care funding. Governor Sonny Perdue has not indicated what action he will take. The Governor's press office did not return calls for comment.

Report: Prison costs unsustainable

A new study says Georgia’s prison system is heading toward financial disaster. The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute says the cost of housing inmates in Georgia will continue on an "unsustainable path" unless lawmakers intervene. The GBPI says lawmakers should focus on better differentiating between violent and non-violent offenders, because the rate of non-violent offenders living in the prison system is rising rapidly. The study finds that the number if inmates in jail or prison more than doubled from 1991 to 2007 to 52,000 people … at a cost of more than half a billion dollars. The researchers predict the number of inmates to rise by another 15,000 by the year 2015.

Opposing a taxing proposal

Opposing a taxing proposal from Dave Bender and Vimeo.

A statewide fiscal watchdog group is taking issue with a far-reaching tax-reform plan to impose a state sales tax instead of property taxes.

The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute (GBPI) is fronting a coalition of groups opposed to a plan by House Speaker Glenn Richardson to abolish property taxes. Instead, Richardson's proposal would tax all goods and services sold in Georgia.

Alan Essig, who heads the Atlanta-based think tank spoke at Columbus State University Tuesday. He says Richardson's plan is ill-advised:

“Right now it's all guesswork, and are we going to blow up the tax system based on guesswork? Again, it's something we really need to think about before we do it.”

Along with Essig, a panel of city, school and local hospital officials discussed the plan's pros and cons with close to 100 Columbus residents.


Essig addressing the audience at
Cunningham Center at CSU.
(Dave Bender)