This week’s Courier Herald column: What are you going to believe? The facts, or what you know to be true? A bidding war seems to be breaking out among some of the Republican candidates for Governor with respect to who can cut state income taxes the most. Cutting taxes, is of course, a core mantra
This week’s Courier Herald column: Governor Nathan Deal didn’t spend his Fourth of July weekend on a closed public beach because he and the state legislature didn’t pass a budget. That was Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey. Both Georgia and New Jersey have fiscal years that begin on July 1st. As the new year
In case you were working on an end-of-semester project, sleeping off a hangover, or just disconnected from all things public college in this state, tuition is going to go up 2 percent for the 2017-2018 academic year. That should work out to between $27 and $98 per semester for full-time, in-state undergraduates, depending on the
Attention 3110 Maple Drive Northeast: Consider this remedial reading. The Pew Charitable Trust has released an analysis of states’ revenues since the trough of the great recession. They concluded what we already know, and have analyzed here, here, here, and here, among other places. Georgia’s revenues remain below where they were before we went into
This years bill to allow for “Destination Resort” casino gaming was introduced as a paired down, more focused alternative to last year’s proposal that would have allowed as many as seven licenses to be issued throughout the state. We covered the bill in detail here. At the bill’s first Senate hearing, sponsor Brandon Beach of
Whenever the idea of tax reform comes up in the state legislature, a common point of discussion is trading the state’s income tax for an increased sales tax. It’s a popular idea, given that neighboring states Florida and Tennessee appear to do well without an income tax. Many Georgians are fans of the FairTax, introduced
During the 2017 legislative session, the ability to request a fiscal note from the Department of Audits and Accounts or the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget will be limited to what the law prescribes. In practicality, what does that mean, and how will it affect legislation being written or voted on? Let me explain.
UPDATE: Archived video of the event is below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwMWk3W5ocM At 3:00 P.M. today, Rep. Tom Price will deliver a keynote address at the Brookings Institution on reforms of the budgetary process. Price is, of course, Chairman of the House Budget Committee and has been focusing his committee hearings on reforming that arcane process for some
This week’s Courier Herald column: When Georgia voters go to the polls between now and November 8th, they will be given a series of proposed constitutional amendments to consider. Four measures will be decided that could give the Governor more power to fix chronically failing schools, establish new taxes on strip clubs, provide political oversight
We’ve covered in some detail Senator David Perdue’s year-long effort to change the way Congress develops its annual budget, and appropriates funds for each fiscal year. One result of this effort was the introduction of the Accurate Accounting Act in the Senate earlier this year. On Thursday, 14th District Rep. Tom Graves introduced a matching
