PYE: Georgia Republicans no friend of the taxpayer

Most Republicans in the state didn’t like Perdue’s tax hikes, but were hesitant to criticize him because he had to work with a divided legislature. On the campaign trail, Republicans told Georgians that the only way to reduce the size and scope of state government was to give them control of the General Assembly. Voters did just that during the 2004 election.

But the promises of limited government have proven to be empty. Gov. Perdue and the Republican-controlled legislature declined to pursue serious budget and spending reforms as the smell of the marble at the state capitol coaxed them into embracing the status quo.

Republicans were finally forced to deal with the unsustainable growth in the state budget due to declining revenues, which were a result of the Great Recession, by making much needed spending cuts. But it wasn’t too long before they started looking for other ways to deal with budget shortfalls.

In 2009, several different Republicans introduced various tax hike bills at the height of the state’s budget crunch. Some of them were targeted at unpopular, unsympathetic groups; such as a $1 cigarette tax hike and a tax on patrons of strip clubs. Thankfully, those proposals failed; however, the Republican-led legislature did manage to muscle through a hospital bed tax at the urging of Gov. Perdue.

The latest betrayal of taxpayers by Republicans in the legislature is the push for the T-Splost — a 1-cent sales tax for the Metro Atlanta region dedicated for transit and road projects, estimated to bring nearly $1.5 billion over the next 10 years. PolitiFact Georgia, a project of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, recently confirmed that this would be the largest tax hike in state history.

Republicans in the legislature are afraid of the backlash they would receive from their base should they pass this tax hike outright. Instead, they passed a referendum that would allow Metro Atlanta voters to pass the tax hike. But they made an error that could cause the T-Splost to go down in flames by setting the date for the vote next year during the July 31 party primaries.

Fearing the influence of tea party groups on the vote, Gov. Nathan Deal and Republican leaders — at the urging of the state’s rent-seeking business community — tried to move the date of the referendum from July to the November general election, where it would be more likely to pass, during the special session.

Democrats in the legislature were in no mood to help as they pushed back against the move as a way to voice their displeasure in the recently passed legislative maps. On his AJC Political Insider blog, Jim Galloway noted a discussion with State Sen. Hardie Davis (D-Augusta) last week. Davis found it ironic that Republicans, as Galloway recounted the conversation, “want the transportation sales tax passed on the backs of Barack Obama supporters.”

Republicans in both chambers were unable to rally enough in their caucus — not out of principle, mind you, but because they feared the political ramifications — prompting Gov. Deal to admit defeat on the issue, at least for now.

This will no doubt come back up during the next regular session in January, until then tea party groups, fiscal conservatives and libertarians around the state must continue to push back against Republicans determined to hit taxpayers with the largest tax hike in Georgia history.

You can read more of Pye’s musings on politics, sports and music at his personal blog, JasonPye.com, or e-mail him at jason@jasonpye.com.