Tax Policy for the 21st Century

Since being elected as your State Senator, I have been laser-focused on jobs, jobs, jobs. This was the centerpiece of my campaign. I believe it is not the role of government to create jobs; it is the private sector that creates jobs.

What government can do is create an environment that is conducive to attracting new jobs. Government does this by getting out of the way of the private sector and getting back to basics. The basics are providing an adequate clean water supply, excellent education, a transportation system that reduces congestion and increases mobility, and a tax system that brings Georgia into the 21st century on corporate taxes and property taxes. In earlier columns I have written about water, education, and transportation; now I will focus on taxes.

A recent poll of Georgia citizens conducted by Survey USA stated their number one issue is jobs. We need to review our entire tax policy in the state. We need to make sure that all business tax credits and incentives are producing jobs. Below are some ideas on tax policy that would be beneficial to both business and the state:

• Review and eliminate tax credits and exemptions that are not producing economic benefit (jobs).
• Cut tax rates or add tax credits that provide incentives for starting, growing, and keeping companies in Georgia.
• Develop a tax policy to create jobs so that all the talented graduates from Georgia’s University System can find employment in the state. (It is folly to spend all the state tax dollars we do to subsidize our higher education system and then lose the best and brightest to out-of-state jobs.)
• Reduce or remove the local tax on inventory to increase investment in distribution center business in Georgia.

We also need to visit the property-tax policy. The property tax is the only tax on an unrealized capital gain, and the only entity deciding that gain is local county government, which has an interest in maximizing what it considers to be the gain — not the market. We need serious reform of Georgia’s property-tax system.

We need strong conservative leadership and the courage to make the tough decisions that would lead to economic prosperity and a better quality of life for all Cherokee County citizens.