The 2014 legislative session is barely over and the election cycle is in full swing. You would think this would be a time for legislators to rest, and for a few it is. For some, though, next year’s session is already on the front burner!
Senator Judson Hill, Chairman of the Senate Fair Tax Study Committee, is hard at work with the information gathered from three separate committee meetings held in 2013. The FT Study Committee was charged with determining whether the Fair Tax or a similar policy would benefit the taxpayers of Georgia.
Along the way the committee came to some conclusions that remind us that the tax system of Georgia is antiquated and that we are one of forty-one states that still have an income tax. Our reliance on the income tax has us at a disadvantage to all of our neighboring border states.
Governor Deal and the legislature are moving us in the right direction, but it’s time that the voters understand and expect a simpler and fairer tax system, one with a broader tax base and that’s more inclusive of the entire population. The current system relies too heavily on taxes derived from those working hard every day with the unhappy realization of watching their taxes go up as their earnings rise. It’s a question of fairness.
Senator Hill has his work cut out for him! The everyday citizen will not have the time or the inclination to sit and try to understand the complexity of our current tax system. And the left marches in lock-step to shut down any and all simplification, with tired and factually incorrect headlines of “Tax Breaks for the Rich.” The message of simplifying the tax code will have to be clear, and free of special interest group interference, as this will dilute the conservative message of fairness.
Tax simplification is a matter of communicating the facts to those who will have to adjust their business models; of showing them that a simpler tax code is the “rising tide” that will lift the state as a whole faster and on more solid footing than any other proposed method of spurring growth.
Lower taxes mean more take-home pay, more jobs and a higher standard of living for all Georgians. As conservatives, we should be ready to argue privately amongst ourselves, but fight together as one to get this done for the long term good of all Georgians!
Louie Hunter is the Chairman of the Georgia Center Right Coalition and COO of InsiderAdvantage.
