Snowed Over

With everything else that has happened this weekend, it was easy to miss this late Friday docu drop of the much anticipated report from the 2010 Council for Tax Reform and Fairness for Georgians.
Via Political Insider:

If you have experience with the Georgia tax system, we need your help to put this document through some quick scrutiny. What would these changes mean? What are the unintended consequences?

Post your observations below – or mail them to cjoyner@ajc.com.

Many thanks. And stay warm this weekend.

Ox Refuses to Implement First Phase of Health Care Reform

From the desk of Insurance Commissioner (and Goobernatorial candidate) John Oxendine:

OXENDINE WILL NOT IMPLEMENT FIRST PHASE OF FEDERAL HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION

Atlanta – Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine announced today that he will not participate in the first phase of recently enacted federal health care legislation which calls for the implementation of a temporary high risk insurance pool in Georgia. In doing so, Oxendine cited that the program could potentially cause taxpayers severe financial hardship.

"I have no confidence in any federal assertion that this so-called temporary program will not burden the taxpayers of Georgia," Oxendine said. "I am concerned that the high risk insurance program will ultimately become the financial responsibility of Georgians at a time when our state is furloughing teachers, laying off employees, and cutting public safety and education funding."

On April 2, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sent a letter to Oxendine asking him to express his interest in participating in the temporary high risk insurance program established by the new health insurance reform law. Oxendine responded that he cannot commit the state to implement this program which is part of a bill he believes the Supreme Court will hold to be unconstitutional, lead to the further expansion of the federal government, and undermine the financial security of our nation.

Sebelius gave Oxendine an April 30 deadline to indicate his intent to participate.

Not to Harp on it, but a Pledge is a Promise

It seems that with his vote in favor of House Bill 307, state Senator Johnny Grant, R-Milledgeville, is shirking his pledge to "oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes."
Now, we can get into an argument over the semantics of what passed the state Senate yesterday--was it a tax increase, a fee, revenue enhancement or the state's match on federal funds--but I'd rather take the stance that it was probably a bad idea to lock one's self into any kind of 'just say no to new taxes' promise during a session (the two-year sense of the word) in which the legislature is tasked with getting the state out of this dire of a budget catastrophe.

Lucid Idiocy Exposes the Green Door Committee

And he has pictures too!

Some of y'all might remember state Rep. Rusty Kidd, I-Milledgeville, talking during the special election about some unknown committee that does all the real budget writing for the State of Georgia. It may have sounded like some kind of election year mumbo jumbo at the time, but the Telegraph's Travis Fain stumbled upon the end of the rainbow today and found the committee's secret meeting spot.
Read all about it here.

Buzz From the Capitol: Post Spring Break (pt.1) Edition

The following is a newsletter from state Senator Johnny Grant's office.

This week, the Senate returned from a two-week working recess. We took that valuable time to go over the FY 2011 budget line by line to find inefficeinces and waste in order to close the revenue gap. Unfortunately, we are at the point where no one will be spared cuts. Everyone must do their part and share the burden.

The last two weeks have seen a frenzy of talks about drastic cuts and massive layoffs within the University of Georgia. A large concern for rural areas is cuts to the 4-H and county extension programs. I strongly support these programs and will fight to see they are not completely cut from UGA’s community outreach program. 4-H touches the lives of more than 156,000 students and aides them in developing valuable life skills that prepares them for being leaders in their careers and community. Economic growth and success of Georgia agribusinesses greatly rely on the next generation of innovators. The Extension Service helps Georgians become healthier, more productive, financially independent and environmentally responsible. Most counties have a combination of agents who specialize in agriculture and natural resources, youth development and family and consumer sciences. These vital areas, run through the university system, will face some reductions, but they cannot shoulder the burden alone.

The Senate unanimously passed a significant bill targeted at protecting one of Georgia’s most vital natural resources: water. This conservation legislation will change the fundamental way water is conserved throughout the state. Local governments will now have the right to impose more stringent outdoor watering restrictions during non-drought periods whereas current law only allows them during drought periods. Many state agencies are reviewing practices, policies, programs, and rules/regulations to identify opportunities to provide programs and incentives for voluntary water conservation and enhancement of the state’s water supply.

The most sweeping overhaul of the Georgia property tax system in decades received unanimous consent in the Senate this week. This bill is the result of much testimony highlighting the inefficiencies and errors of the property tax system. One of the biggest issues is that the system is based on human assessment of value that is rampant with error, politics, and inaccuracies.

The two major concerns we heard from citizens was subjectivity of the process and lack of clarity in the appeal process. Many Georgians stated the inconsistencies of tax assessors who didn’t even enter their homes or take into account the actual market price of their homes. Many noted the lack of transparency and the convoluted nature of the process. Many of you in Middle Georgia have had your requests for appeal turned down simply because you missed a deadline you didn’t know existed.

Simply put, Georgians and Middle Georgians deserve better. I am proud of the work we accomplished this week in the Senate and I am ready for the work ahead. There is much work left to do with the FY 2010 and FY 2011 budgets but I am confident we will come together and face the uphill battle with a common understanding that Georgia will come out of this recession a stronger state.

As always, it continues to be an honor to serve in the General Assembly on the behalf of my constituents throughout the 25th district. I look forward to the remaining days in session and I vow to work tirelessly ensuring all legislation that comes across my desk works for you and all Georgians.

# # # #

The Plight of Local Governments

The AJC has a good, long sign-of-the-times piece about how Atlanta bedroom communities are handling the first major hiccup of their nascent existences.
Despite the apples-and-oranges ATL-centric focus of the story, it has some points that are just as applicable for Micropolitan Baldwin County:

‘Squeezing blood’
It’s a given that people who best weather rocky financial times are those who diversify their investments. A professor at Kennesaw State says public agencies are similar: Those with diverse revenue sources aren’t as hard-hit as single-industry towns.

And the article does good by highlighting some of the cost-cutting measures and progressive steps local governments are taking to weather the economic storm.

Out of My League

I think you'd be surprised to hear that I'm blaming my recent absence from the blogosphere on the fact that I was not One Capital Removed this week, but actually reporting for The Union-Recorder from under the Gold Dome. Well not so much Thursday, but definitely Wednesday for the Governor's final State of the State Address.
But maybe that's in keeping with the witty blog title.
Either way you look at it, I'm not sure if we're much more informed following the news items of the week.
Governor Perdue delivered his final session-opening speech Wednesday and the verdict from the peanut gallery was all about the same.
I think this sums up my take on the speech:

"In a 37-minute-long speech that was long on style—quoting at liberty from the works of great thinkers such as Thomas Paine and Alexis de Tocqueville—and short on substance about how he would like legislators to tackle the challenges facing Georgia in the here and now, Perdue gave the General Assembly a pep talk to send them into the session."

But the real meat of the thing won't come out for another hour, when Perdue drops his proposed budget.
I unfortunately missed Perdue's press conference about his proposal for transportation funding because I was in a Georgia Press Association conference across the street from the Capitol. But much like his proposal to tie teacher pay to student performance, most of the heavy lifting will be done by his successor.
As I said above, today is going to be the big news day, and it is already delivering, with Perdue's budget at 11:45 a.m. and, possibly, the announcement of House Speaker David Ralston's committee assignments. Not the committee's he'll be on, of which I think tradition holds that there will be none, but the committee assignments he'll be doling out because he's got that right.
We'll, of course, be interested in this because Rep. Rusty Kidd will be getting his first assignments today.
I'm hoping for Appropriations and Health and Human Services assignments, and maybe State Institutions and Property, but that may make him too much like state Sen. Johnny Grant.
In other news of the day, I'm glad to hear Speaker Ralston has kept his promise to do away with the hawks system. I know I was a doubting thomas on this, but being a contrarian is my job.
I'm off for the rest of the day, so check in with my One Capital Removed approved bloggers (scroll to the bottom) for up-to-the-minute updates on everything that's going on in Georgia Politics, and I'll tell you something you already know later (please keep reading).

Hit the Ground Rolling

I had two conversations with freshman legislator Rusty Kidd today.
Kidd called to say that he and state Senator Johnny Grant, R-Milledgeville, met again Tuesday with the Governor and the heads of several state agencies that have facilities in Milledgeville to discuss ways of coordinating budget cuts so as to not heap punishment on any one Georgia community, i.e. Milledgeville.
But we also talked about the legislation for which Kidd has wasted no time putting in the hopper.
I've got to hand it to him, he's addressing some serious issues in this first batch of proposed legislation.
Kidd tackles the en vogue issue of ethics reform in House Bill 919, which saddles legislators with the onus of reporting expenditures made on them by lobbyists and anyone else who is providing them with gifts, meals, rides, etc that total over $100.
Kidd also put forth two proposals for raising additional revenues to meet the challenge of Georgia's budget crunch. House Bill 915 would change the definition of taxable nonresident to include entertainers who make more than $5,000 during any given year in the Peach State, and H.B. 918 would add two cents to the state sales tax, and provide for an automatic repealer once state revenue collections are equal to or greater than state revenues for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006.
The grandest piece of legislation would constitutionally amend the way we elect our governor.
House Resolution 1090 would put forth a voter referendum to change the governor's term from a four- to a six-year term and cancel out a sitting governor's ability to succeed them-self.
Kidd said he got the idea to propose H.R. 1090 following a discussion with the late Tom Murphy, long-time Democratic Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives, who told him that the worst piece of legislation he saw pass through the House let a governor repeat himself.
Overall, Kidd said these were all things that he has thought about during his almost four decades-long involvement in Georgia politics. With initial proposals like these, especially, potentially unpopular ones like the proposal to raise taxes, I can't wait to see what he'll think of next.

The View From Here

Day one of the new legislative session is over and all of the things we’ve been presuming have come to pass—and a few other things.

“Personal integrity is the very touchstone of public responsibility.”

The Glenn Richardson era is over. Jim Galloway of AJC’s Political Insider told us that Speaker Temporary Mark Burkhalter brought in a Catholic archbishop in to lay the rules of engagement. You can see that rule quoted above.
Burkhalter also did other things. He welcomed all new members of the House, including 141st District Representative Rusty Kidd, and he, again, paid tribute to outgoing Speaker Glenn Richardson, who was not there to hand deliver his resignation letter to Gov. Sonny Perdue.
Again from Political Insider:
“He’s a great man, and he’s getting better,” Burkhalter said. “He wishes he could be here today, but doesn’t think that was the best thing to do.”

History in the Making

The House had two real—somewhat—leadership elections yesterday.
The House elected Jan Jones, R-Alpharetta, Speaker Pro Tem. The former House Majority Whip, Jones is the first woman to hold the Lower Chamber’s number two position.
And the history making didn’t stop till the top yesterday either.
House Republicans, and some Democrats, voted in David Ralston as the new Speaker.
House Democrats decided to resume their role of opposition party yesterday by putting forth the same opposition candidate for Speaker for the same reasons they should have run an opposition candidate last year.
House Minority Leader, and goobernatorial candidate, Dubose Porter, D-Dublin, nominated House Democratic Caucus Leader Calvin Smyre, D-Columbus, saying that Smyre has connections to the White House and will end the hawks system.
I noticed some backlash to Porter’s comments that Smyre would end the hawks system, which allows the Speaker to stack committee meetings with representatives that will ensure votes reflect the Speaker’s wishes on a bill.
Pundits reminded everyone that David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, ran for the Republican nomination for the Speaker’s gavel saying he would end the hawk system as well. But I didn’t see any reports indicating that Ralston reaffirmed those promises in his acceptance speech.
Although Ralston did adhere to Ronald Regan’s 11th Commandment, “Thou shall not speak ill of any fellow Republican,” he didn’t go farther, as Burkhalter is quoted as doing above.

One Last Ride?


AJC’s Political Insider, which I guess wins my award for most information on day one, also reported hearing murmurs that Gov. Sonny Perdue will once again try to use his powers to move the legislature forward on transportation funding.
Now I want to think I remember some pictures of Perdue, Lt. Governor Casey Cagle and now defunct House Speaker Glenn Richardson huddling up on some transportation plan last year. If that is true, I might also be able to trust my memory to think that Richardson was the one who broke rank late in the session, effectively scuttling any possibilities last year.

So there you have it. I culled this information from AJC's Political Insider, AJC's Gold Dome Live, Georgia Legislative Watch, Peach Pundit and Lucid Idiocy.
So now you know where I go.

December Revenues Figures Not So Bad

Yes, Georgia, there is a Santa Claus!
The Governor announced December revenue figures today and there was not the double digit damage we've become accustomed to in the last year.
The state pulled in $1,402,181,000, only $86,967,000 or 5.8 percent less than December 2008.
That brought the year-to-date totals up to negative 13.7 percent as compared to last year.
I would imagine that the presents we couldn't afford not to give had something to do with this, though sales tax revenues were down 10.6 percent from Christmas month last year.
Or maybe we're actually pulling out of this bad economy?
Yeah right.

Unemployment Crisis across the U.S.

Last week we reported in the print edition that Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond had requested interest-free advances from the federal government ( read the press release here, it's titled "Concerning Georgia's Unemployment Crisis.") to enable the state to continue making payment on the 268,995 valid unemployment claims in the state.
Today the Washington Post is reporting the Georgia is not alone.

"Currently, 25 states have run out of unemployment money and have borrowed $24 billion from the federal government to cover the gaps. By 2011, according to Department of Labor estimates, 40 state funds will have been emptied by the jobless tsunami.
"There's immense pressure, and it's got to be faced," said Indiana state Rep. David Niezgodski (D), a sponsor of a bill that addressed the gaps in Indiana's unemployment program. "Our system was absolutely broke."

In the short term, the only way to fix it will be to cut benefits or raise taxes. In this community, that would be one more shoot, with no conceivable ladder.

Ax the Inventory Tax?

The Savannah Morning News has this editorial about killing the tax on unsold items that remain on the showroom floor in Georgia retail businesses.
The brusquely-worded editorial makes me take pause in wondering how objective the writer is on the subject:

"Nearly all states have eliminated this obnoxious levy, which poisons business growth, destroys jobs and unfairly soaks the private sector. Georgia, unfortunately, has not.
Some Georgia lawmakers have tried to drive a stake through the tax's ugly heart, only to be beaten back by local governments and public school systems that, unfortunately, rely on this source of revenue to help pay the bills.""

But some Baldwin County Commission watchers may remember Commission Chair James "Bubba" Williams asking County Attorney David Waddell what can be done locally to banish this intrastate development deal breaker.
As the editorial says, local governments receive the majority of proceeds--voters will have an opportunity to ax the state's cut of the invo tax in 2010. But I don't know of any local governments who are either socking away reserve funds or signing tax rebate checks this year, so expect it to be a subject of hot debate during this session of the General Assembly.
Gold Dome Legislators will try to exploit any opportunity to leave the Capitol having cut taxes without disturbing state coffers.

FY2010 is just the beginning

Insider Advantage has a doosie of story out this morning culled from recent interviews with state economic thinkers.
Despite the national news that General Motors may be bundling up for that snowball in hell and returning to the land of profitability, state and local governments can keep their shorts on.
"If you think things are bad now for cash-strapped state and local governments, just hang on. It’s going to get worse."
But don't worry, there's something for everyone.
Communities already angered by the fact that their recent property tax revaluations weren't invalidated by '09 legislation to cap rising tax assessments will have more to protest about as it is predicted that the state's next sales ratio study, which determines whether counties are charging too much or too little in property taxes as determined by recent property sales figures, will finally reflect the reality homeowners--and more appropriately homes sellers--are seeing on the ground.

“As property sells (and a true, market-place value is determined) and the state auditor picks that up, we anticipate a rather significant drop in the digest, which means you either have to increase taxes or you have to cut additional programs,” said Jerry Griffin, veteran executive director of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia.

The story also mentions the growing movement to have sales tax revenues accounted for locally and not by the State Revenue Department.
Oh, and dig this mid-session missive:

But what about all of those tax exemptions the state has offered various entities over the years? Georgia State University once estimated that there are about $10 billion a year worth of exemptions on the books.
[Jerry] Keen,[R-St. Simons], the House Republican leader, said lawmakers have been looking at some of those over the past few years, particularly those with sunsets upon them. The problem is, he said, only a handful are due to expire in 2010 and, therefore, require legislative renewal, and they are worth only a few million dollars collectively.

With all this going on, why would anyone be vying for a seat under the Gold Dome this year--and next year for that matter.

Tonight to be a big one at City Hall

Those interested in recycling, taxes and who'll be holding the reins at City Hall should make it out to tonight's Milledgeville City Council meeting.
And don't think you can just watch this one from home.
In a 7 p.m. work session Debbie Harshbarger and representatives from Georgia College & State University's Environmental Science Club will address Council about the county's solid waste management woes. Safe bet is they'll be talking more about the new lack of efficient avenues for recycling than the $13.50 monthly charge currently being levied by the county.
Council will set the tax levy, which should remain at 9.12 mils as ordained in their September 23 meeting.
And Council will also try to come together to appoint an interim City Manager.
Disagreements over the last item have stretched over the last two or three council meetings. All evidence points to a divide on council over who should be interim chief admin.
As the U-R reported last week, there are three viable candidates in City Hall who could take the position: Water and Sewer Director Barry Jarrett, City Planner Russell Thompson and Finance Director Don Toms.
Barry Jarrett has been the go-to-guy before. But as evidenced by the delay in falling back into old habits, there is something fueling disagreement among Council members concerning that appointment.

Trash Talkin'*

This post harkens back to all the criticism the Union-Recorder received when Baldwin County sent out letters describing their devious plan to begin charging for solid waste management.
Thanks to a request from County Clerk Cindy Cunningham, I've spent the morning going back through all the stories I've written between February and now to help identify every time solid waste management was written about in the U-R.
I don't know why Cunningham wants that info, but I thought it a great way to back up the information I gave to the bevy of callers who accused our publication of not covering the county's attempts to raise their taxes.
The total number of times the county's solid waste proposal was mentioned in U-R articles is 14.
I was telling people between 10 and 12.
But that doesn't begin to include editorials, advertisements paid for by the County Commission and letters to the editor on behalf of and speaking out against the County Commission.

* Note: This is a totally griping, first-day-back-from-vacation post.

Call 'em as they see 'em

Macon uberPolitician Erick Erickson has a good common sense post at Peach Pundit that I feel is pertinent to the ongoing discussion about Baldwin County solid waste collection and disposal.
Let us move beyond the semantics and just call it what it is:

"Any monetary charge imposed by the state, county, or municipal governments or entities whose existence are derived therefrom that a citizen is unable to alter through his own actions except by adding value to or subtracting value from the citizen’s real or personal property must be called a tax."

I guess in this case 'adding value to or subtracting value from' would mean deciding to move out of the unincorporated part of the county. But lets compare that with a guest editorial authored by the Baldwin County Commission about the new $13.50 solid waste fee recently imposed by said commission:

"The county has received proposals to address both of those issues by contracting its sanitation services for door to door pickup, which will
provide an upgrade in service and be paid for by each individual user rather than through the property tax...
"However, this will force the county to operate more centers than originally proposed with door to door pickup, and the fees from those who opt out will be used to operate these additional centers.This will allow the current sanitation expense to be removed from the property tax budget and to avoid a millage rate increase by the board of
commissioners.
"Some will say that this is a tax; it is a user fee. Whether you call it a user fee or a tax, it will be paid by everyone who uses the service and not just property owners."

I guess in the end it doesn't really matter what you call...perhaps just a bill. But who amongst us is going to get that water bill in August and say 'I'll pay your $13.50 as long as it's not an additional tax.'
If that's you, please write in to let me know how you see it.