Organize the South

This is from the Athens Banner-Herald on Glenn Richardson's stupid idea to raise taxes in Georgia. They make a great point. The idea's premise is stupid, but it's just plain dangerous to let the legislature figure out the details.

Editorial: Lack of detail in 'Glenn Tax' should trouble all
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/092807/opinion_20070928044.shtml

What could possibly be worse than Georgia House Speaker Glenn Richardson's not-so-great plan to eliminate property taxes in favor of an expanded state-administered sales tax?

Letting the entire Georgia General Assembly get its hands on the proposal, that's what.

Yet that's exactly what state Rep. Jerry Keen, R-St. Simons, the House majority leader, is proposing that the people of this state allow to happen. Speaking to Kiwanis and Rotary club members Wednesday in the south Georgia city of Cairo, Keen "said that lawmakers should be allowed to finish the plan during next year's legislative session before there is a rush to criticize it," according to a report in the Thomasville Times-Enterprise.

Also according to the Thomasville newspaper, Keen went on to say that a critical feature of the proposal - the formula by which the state would determine how much sales tax revenue would go to the various municipal and county governments and school boards across the state - remains undefined. Keen told the south Georgia Rotarians and Kiwanians that the formula - again, a critical component of the speaker's tax proposal - is "the last piece of the puzzle we're working on."

So, with a little more than three months remaining before the 2008 session of the Georgia General Assembly is gaveled into session - months that will, of course, be interrupted by major holidays - here's where we are with Richardson's tax proposal: No one can say how its proceeds will be distributed, and the people of Georgia are being asked to entrust that issue, and no telling how many other critical components of a massive overhaul of the state's tax system, to a group of people whose leadership includes the man who came up with the dubious scheme in the first place.

What all that means is that the speaker's tax proposal, which is not yet close to having even a minimum degree of clarity - as Keen admitted Wednesday in south Georgia - could morph into complete gibberish as it makes its way through the requisite committee hearings and other legislative horse-trading during the General Assembly session.

In other words, whatever Georgians might think the proposal is, and what it means for them, in advance of the legislative session, it's entirely possible - indeed, it's probable - that any final version approved by lawmakers will be something vastly different.

Consider, for instance, the fact that even Richardson himself has already proposed at least one modification to his sales tax proposal, telling an audience in LaGrange last month that he's considering exempting treatment for catastrophic medical conditions from the levy.

Clearly, Richardson's proposed exemption won't be the only one sought for the tax. There are likely any number of special-interest groups that write checks to legislator's campaigns, and any number of lobbyists who wine and dine the lawmakers, who'll be pushing for their own exemptions. Write enough exemptions into the proposal, and soon enough, any announced funding formula for local governments - if such a formula is, indeed, ever made public in any meaningful way - has to be changed, with little or no notice to the affected governments. And maybe that new formula means that no new teachers can be hired for the local high school, or that a needed fire engine can't be purchased, or that other urgent needs go unmet.

Of course, even if Richardson's proposal makes it through the legislature - as a proposed constitutional amendment, it would need an OK from two-thirds of the House and Senate - it would have to be approved by a majority of Georgia voters in a statewide referendum.

Yet, here again, just as in the run-up to the January start of the legislative session, a lack of detail could carry serious consequences. That's because ballots would have only the barest details regarding the proposal, likely asking voters to cast ballots on the overly broad question of whether the constitution should be amended to replace property taxes with a sales tax.

On its face, that's an appealing proposition. But, as with so much in life, the devil is in the details. Which should prompt Georgians to ask what the devil Richardson and other supporters of the tax proposal might be trying to hide as they move their admittedly unformed proposal through the legislative process.