UPDATED

It's Not Over For Speaker's Tax Relief Plan; New Vote Set For Today

By Dick Pettys
InsiderAdvantage Georgia

3:27 p.m..: The debate is underway. The Legislature's top Democrat, Rep. DuBose Porter, has just endorsed the measure. A vote is expected shortly.

(3/11/08) Speaker Glenn Richardson’s tax reform plan is coming back to life on “crossover day” in the Legislature and it looks like this new version may pass. It eliminates the caps on local government spending that had earned it intense opposition from local officials and had been blamed by Democrats for costing it their support.

As was the case with the previous plan, the measure eliminates the car tag tax and imposes a freeze, except for inflationary increases, on property reassessments. That’s aimed at so-called “back-door” tax increases caused by assessment creep. Gone from the bill is the limit on government spending which Richardson had said was necessary to halt front-door tax hikes.

The changes were approved by the House Rules Committee to HR 1246 during a lunchtime recess, and placed on a supplemental calendar for today’s floor debate.

The committee placed a separate bill on the calendar - HB 1158 - that would fund a statewide trauma care network by placing a new $10 fee on car tags, but Rules Chairman Earl Ehrhart said that would only be called for debate if HR 1246 passed.

The Speaker’s previous effort was on SR 796, which was called for debate last week and fell 10 votes short of the 120-vote super majority it needed. The vote was 110-62 and was mostly along party lines, with Richardson’s Republicans backing it and opposition Democrats opposing it. Republicans hold 107 votes in the chamber and, thus, need help from Democrats to pass constitutional amendments.

Democrats said they supported eliminating the car tag tax but believed the limits on government spending would have disastrous effects on local governments.

Asked immediately after the Rules Committee vote if his caucus now would support the measure, Porter said: “If it’s just that - if it’s just what we talked about earlier ... certainly we’d be inclined to support that,” Porter said.

He said Democrats would be more comfortable eliminating the tag tax gradually over five years, rather than the two years which Richardson proposed. That could be particularly important given the state’s softening economy, he said.

In the hall, Jerry Griffin, executive director of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, said the new measure eliminates “a large part of our objection,” although he said he was not endorsing it.