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THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2007 -- PAGE 11A
— Richardson Pitches Sales-Tax-For-Property-Tax Swap To Kiwanis Club
Cont. from Page 1A
“The theory of regressivity says
if you happen to have not worked
hard or not made the right deci
sions in life, you shouldn’t have
to pay taxes,” he complained.
“(That) the only people who
should pay taxes are the people
who made good business deci
sions so they make more than the
poverty level.”
While he said his ultimate goal
is to replace all property taxes
with a 6.5 percent sales tax cov
ering all goods and services, the
large negative reaction to the plan
has led Richardson to propose a
multi-year phase-in.
That, he said, would start by
removing the exemptions on sales
taxes for groceries, services and
lottery tickets.
“If we tax groceries at the four
percent rate, lottery tickets at four
percent and services at four per
cent, those three things alone —
the very first year we can
end all school taxes on
homesteaded properties
in the state of Georgia.
One point nine million
homeowners can see
their tax bills reduced.”
Ultimately he said, the
process would eliminate
all property taxes, replac
ing them with a sales tax.
What he did not mention
at his Kiwanis presenta
tion is that somewhere in
the process the four-percent state
wide sales tax would be upped
to 6.5 percent — and local sales
taxes, which are three percent in
most areas, would still be levied.
Richardson was short to the
point of rude to those who ques
tioned his proposition. When
Dr. Clark Hill, a local physician,
pointed out the complexities of
charging a sales tax for an office
business when he has no way of
knowing for weeks what
the charge would be,
Richardson’s response
was that “just like every
other person, you adapt
to the tax laws.”
Scott Martin asked
Richardson to state
whether he would penal
ize those representatives
who oppose the bill.
“Absolutely,” he said.
“If you don’t support me,
I’m not going to elect
you to office.”
Then he asked Martin “What
do you do for a living?” saying he
wanted to “know the pretext for
the question you ask. If you’re get
ting a check from a governmen
tal entity, you’re going to resist
change.”
Martin, an employee of Jackson
EMC and chairman of the Jackson
County Industrial Development
Authority, told Richardson that
his slide presentation and com
ments had not provided a lot of
information as to how the change
would affect residents.
“I want to know what it’s going
to cost me ... I want to know how
much I’m going to be paying in
sales tax,” he said.
“Then you can vote against it,”
Richardson snapped.
“That’s exactly right,” Martin
countered.
“If you want to give a speech,
sir, I’ll be glad to give you this
podium,” Richardson groused. “I
can spend 14 hours going over all
these numbers ... I’ve got reams of
paper on this subject; I will never
be able to tell it in a presentation.
It’s about a concept. Do you want
to go through a system that pays
on land or pays on consumption?
If you want change, vote ‘yes,’ if
you want to keep it the same, vote
‘no.’”
While phasing in the transition
to a sales tax, Richardson also
proposes freezing the assess
ments on every homesteaded
property in Georgia and allow
ing assessments to increase a
maximum of one percent a year.
He would cap the “growth of
local government” to the rate
of the governmental consumer
price index “plus population
increase,” unless voters approve
increases by referendum, and
allow taxpayers to appeal their
tax bills (the only appeals now
are at the time of assessment
notices).
“It is a litmus test for whether
you want change in Georgia,”
Richardson declared.
As for concerns that schools
would have insufficient revenue
during economic hard times,
Richardson brushed it off.
“Bad times for people, bad times
for government,” he explained.
“Good times for people, good
times for government — that’s
when you do things.”
He blew off complaints from
school superintendents about
housing kids in trailers.
“I went to a school that didn’t
have air conditioning,” he said.
“You don’t live beyond your
means.”
Richardson termed predictions
of revenue shortfalls and eco
nomic difficulties from his “The
GREAT Plan” as “hocus-pocus-the-
sky-is-falling.”
“If people don’t spend money,
this country is going to fail any
way,” Richardson said. “This is not
rocket science. The world looks at
us and says ‘how does this econ
omy work?’ We’re the envy of the
world because we buy and spend
like there’s no tomorrow.”
Details of the plan — including
all the charts he showed to the
Kiwanis Club—canbe found online
at TheGREATplanforgeorgia.com.
Rep. Glenn
Richardson
HR 900 Dominates Chamber's 'Eggs And Issues' Breakfast
It was billed as the annual “eggs
and issues” breakfast meeting of
the Jackson County Area Cham
ber of Commerce, a time at which
local politicians would discuss the
expected issues of the 2008 ses
sion of the General Assembly.
For all practical purposes, there
was but one issue — Rep. Glenn
Richardson’s House Resolution
900 — an attempt to eliminate
property taxes in Georgia in ex
change for a greatly expanded
sales tax.
It fell largely to Sen. Ralph Hud
gens to explain the bill. Hudgens,
Reps. Tommy Benton and Tom
McCall, and Hunter Bicknell,
chairman of the county water and
sewerage authority, shared time at
the podium.
Hudgens declared that there will
Sen. Ralph Hudgens
be two major issues: “taxes and wa
ter.” As for HR 900, he said, “If you
Rep. Tommy Benton
heard about it two or three days
ago, it’s changed,” a reference to
Rep. Tom McCall
the constantly-evolving proposal
by Richardson.
Hunter Bicknell
Benton indicated to the group
that he has yet to decide whether
to support the bill, saying “I will
wait for the final version.” But Ben
ton told the chamber members it
was the duty of the General As
sembly to “talk about new ideas.”
“We don’t need to keep doing
business the same way. We need
to try new ideas” to “finance the
things we want,” he said, “adding
that “there’s never going to be
enough money” to cover all of the
issues before the General Assem
bly.
The most recent version of HR
900 would remove local property
taxes as a means of financing
Georgia schools. Currently, the
General Assembly funds about
half of the cost of educating chil
dren, and local property taxes pro-
Please Turn to Page 12A
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