Day 28 - March 5

The House debated the Speaker’s tax reform proposal, SR 796.  The Speaker’s plan has been extensively debated, discussed, and revised throughout the last few months.  The final version of the proposed constitutional amendment, which came to the floor today, would have eliminated property tax on personal motor vehicles and reimbursed local governments for lost revenue; frozen assessed property values and allowed assessed values to increase by 2% (residential) and 3% (non-residential) annually, and capped the annual increase in local property tax revenues at the rate of government inflation.
 
The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute states that adoption of the proposal would have had a devastating impact upon the state’s budget.  Citing the fiscal note which estimated a state revenue decline of $672 million in Fiscal Year 2011, GBPI states that the resulting gap is the equivalent of:
• 8% of K-12 education budget; or
• 29% of Board of Regents budget; or
• 100% of PeachCare budget plus 27% of Medicaid budget; or
• 56% of the Department of Corrections budget.
 
SR 796, was defeated on the floor of the Georgia House today by a vote of 110 to 62.  As a Constitutional Amendment, the measure needed 120 votes to pass.