The New Tax Plan for Georgia: What a Crock Of Democrat-Socialist Bullsh*t
by Bill Simon
The special council on studying Georgia’s state tax revenue system issued its final report today. You can view it here:
2010 Special Council on Tax Reform and Fairness for Georgians
When I read of Rep Larry O’ Neal’s involvement in the creation of this council, and the fact that Governor Sonny Perdue made darned sure he parked his rear-end somewhere on the Council, I KNEW we were being set-up for the continuation of the same type of Democrat-Socialist-led government that Sonny Perdue (RINO-Georgia) has governed for the past 8 years.
Larry O’Neal is famous for orchestrating a special $100,000 tax exemption solely for the benefit of Sonny Perdue. After all, what else should ex-Democrats/RINOs do for their fellow ex-Democrats/RINOs? Give them all the tax breaks they can find and engineer as best you can. So, it’s fitting that these two (O’Neal and Perdue) played key roles in the council’s make-up and the direction of just what “fairness for Georgians” really means for Georgians.
It means things like the following: New sales taxes on a slew of services for you and I AND special exemptions for agricultural industries (like ALL of Sonny’s business interests).
The report will make most people’s eyes glaze-over…but, if you’re like me, you know how to scan and get to the real stuff: On Page 96, you will see the beginning of the list of proposed services that they propose should start being assessed sales taxes. That is, the stuff that will directly affect 99.999% of Georgians.
What about the 00.001% of Georgians like Sonny Perdue’s Ag-businesses? Turn to Page 88 where you see a new category for someone paying license fees if they are a “Qualified Agriculture Producer” (a new term described in the proposed new law shown on Page 86).
If you are a Qualified Agriculture Producer, you are someone who produces over $2,500 in agriculture products. And, what do you get to pay for your license fee that will add so much in “fairness” (cough!-cough!) to the Georgia Tax Digest?
Between $5.00 and “no more than” $20.00. No kidding. Wow! Thank goodness Sonny Perdue won’t have to dip too deep into his millionaire pockets to pay licensing fees as a “Qualified Agriculture Producer”, eh?
The rest of the small, medium, and large businesses pay upwards of $50,000+ in licensing fees, but not good ‘ole Bubba-Perdue. Nope! Special people like Sonny Perdue need special, fellow-crooked minded people like Larry O’Neal to always look to give special tax breaks to him.
I got news for you folks in the House and Senate: If you are DUMB enough to vote for this claptrap of unfair-to-the-majority-of-Georgians proposals, every single one of you deserve to have your butts beaten when you run for reelection. Every….single…one of you.
Here’s my advice: Let Sonny Perdue go quietly into his Oaky Woods/corruption-infested goodnight and start from scratch. Let Governor Deal start with a TOTALLY clean slate of policies and maybe we’ll have a better chance of seeing “good government” in action in our future.
January 13th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
The tax reform report stinks, but it ain’t Democratic-Socialist.
Speaking as a Democrat myself, I think it’s safe to say that we’d like to lower taxes on the poor and middle class and make up the difference by raising taxes on the rich, and probably on use of fossil fuels. This proposal does the opposite. It lowers income tax rates; does away with the sales tax exemption on food for home consumption; and creates new exemptions on energy used in various industrial processes. Its guiding principle (page 13) is to shift the tax burden away from income tax and toward sales-use-consumption taxes. In other words, if you have little or no disposable income, this tax reform proposal intends to screw you. And if you have significant disposable income, this proposal intends to leave you with even more.
Call it corrupt, call it stupid, but don’t call it Democratic-Socialist.
January 21st, 2011 at 9:55 am
Tax reform in Georgia should be that everybody gets the same breaks in terms of dollars as Gomer Perdue and should not have someone like Larry O’Neal rewriting, twisting, and hiding the benefits to be given.
My question is this: When all the changes are made, will all income brackets pay othe same percentage of tax increase? The committee seems to have cleverly reduced tax on businesses and increased tax on the lowest paid, average people. Lay it all out there to see who pays what and let us decide how fair it is.
January 21st, 2011 at 10:15 am
I agree with Don. And don’t confuse % of tax increase with % of INCOME tax increase. Sales taxes are a much higher % of income for the poor than for the rich.
January 30th, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Hard for folks to find a job, economy is down and likely to stay thee for some time to come, gas is increasing by the day, and so it seems a wonderful time to tax food according to Mr. Larry Oneal.
I wish Mr. Oneal would find us a $100,000 personal tax savings sometime during the session as he did for Governor Perdue.
January 31st, 2011 at 12:16 pm
@Don–“economy is down.” Well, it depends on whose economy you’re talking about. Corporate profits are at an all-time record high. GDP growth is good. But unemployment remains stubbornly high. In other words, the gap between the haves and the have-nots is rapidly getting bigger.
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/01/19/business/19leohnardt.html?ref=economy