Tea party group slams tax council plan

ajc ^ | 2-10-11 | Chris Joyner

[Brookhaven]

The Georgia Tea Party on Wednesday became the latest conservative voice to come out against a plan to overhaul Georgia’s tax structure.

In a statement, the organization -- one of several tea party groups operating in the state -- said the proposal by the Special Council on Tax Reform and Fairness was neither real reform nor fair.

“The [Georgia Tea Party] supports tax simplification,” the statement reads. “However, the council’s recommendations do not simplify taxes but merely shuffle tax revenue buckets through a series of complex and sometimes arbitrary additions and subtractions of exemptions.”

The organization echoed a familiar complaint that the proposal rolls out increase to sales taxes, including sales taxes on groceries, years before rolling back income tax rates.

Last month, the anti-tax group Americans for Tax Reform labeled the tax council’s plan a tax hike. Following a meeting with members of the council several weeks later, Grover Norquist, founder of the group, said he was convinced the tax council intended the plan to be “revenue neutral.”

After the meeting with Norquist, the tax council's chairman, A.D. Frazier, convened the council to adopt a formal statement that the intent of the plan was not to raise additional money for the state. Frazier did not return a call for comment Wednesday following the release of the Georgia Tea Party statement.

Generally, the tax council's plan recommends cutting personal and business income taxes and raising sales and use taxes, but specific recommendations in the plan have drawn fire from across the political spectrum.

The plan now is in the hands of a joint legislative committee that is charged with bringing it before the General Assembly for a vote without substantial changes. It is unclear whether that would happen this year.

[Brookhaven]

For once, I have to disagree with the tea party movement.

The proposal on the table is essentialy to lower the income tax from 6% to 4%, and to extend the sales tax to also apply to food purchases (groceries). There are some other tweaks here and there, but that is the heart of the proposal.

The only reason they are talking about making this change is to spur economic growth in the state. The idea being that if you lower income taxes (on both businesses and individuals) you'll get more business creation and investment. The same idea Reagan & Kennedy used to spur economic growth.

The Governor is focused in rolling back the income tax immediatly to spur growth. So, despite what some report recommends, I think we'll see an immediate lowering of the income tax.

I know the state is looking at raising taxes in other areas besides the sales tax to make up for the projected loss from the income tax, but if they are going to cut the income tax by one third, they are going to have to find that revenue from somewhere.

I favor totally eliminating the income tax (at every level--state and federal), so I favor this step. It may not be a perfect step, but it's a step in the right direction.

BTW, anyone that favors the Fair Tax should look at the situation in GA. There are a lot of strange bedfellows trying to keep the income tax where it is.

[Ron H.]

Where are the reductions in spending? No tax increase should be considered unless there is a direct proportional reduction in entitlement spending across the board.

[Mr. K]

Only absolutel freakin’ idiot moron stupidasses believe in the “Fair Tax”

Try talking to one of them.

See if you can get him to switch from talking about “Tax-incluve” rates -vs- the rates we usually see when we go to the store- which is cost + tax.

they will argue for hours and hours over why the ‘tak-inclusive’ method is better.

they are as bad as liberals in their zeal- in fact i think they all ARE liberals.

[Brookhaven]

Where are the reductions in spending? No tax increase should be considered unless there is a direct proportional reduction in entitlement spending across the board.

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It’s a tax shuffling, not a tax increase.

It is a reduction in the income tax and an increase in the sales tax. It is supposed to be tax neutral.

[RitaOK]

to cut taxes by one third, they are going to have to find that revenue somewhere..”
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“Somewhere” is in their spending. Piggy banks are just so simple.

[Ron H.]

I would not agree with your comment. Wherever food was started being taxed the overall taxes one pays goes up. Why else would the crats want to swap it out with some other tax? Du’h?!

[Vigilantcitizen]

The organization echoed a familiar complaint that the proposal rolls out increase to sales taxes, including sales taxes on groceries, years before rolling back income tax rates.

And there you go.