For Georgia to create jobs and compete in the global economy, we must take a balanced approach to our state budget that includes revenues rather than a cuts-only approach that threatens economic recovery.
Georgia must invest in the building blocks of a strong economy, including education, transportation, public safety, healthy families, a trained workforce, a clean environment, and our state’s natural and cultural resources. This will strengthen our foundation for future job creation and growth.
2020 Georgia supports broader tax reform that includes the following actions:
- Require, where feasible, a cost-benefit analysis of each tax break that Georgia gives out. This could be accomplished by amending code 45-12-75 in the legislature. Such analysis would help identify narrow and ineffective tax breaks for elimination, while keeping broad based exemptions such as the grocery exemption.
- Modernize the sales tax to reflect today’s purchasing patterns by covering more services.
- Increase the tobacco tax by at least one dollar per pack. This would generate $350 million in revenue to invest in Georgia’s future and reduce smoking among kids.
- Maintain diversified revenue sources for stability and to reflect today’s economy.
- Enact a state earned income tax credit to improve the fairness of the overall tax system and offset the burden of regressive sales taxes paid by working families.
These steps will provide the resources needed to strengthen our foundation for economic growth and keep Georgia a great place to live, work and do business.
Download a PDF version of our Economic Growth Policy Proposal for 2012 here.
