The Georgia Statehouse is abuzz with legislators, constituents and special interest groups these days. It's bill writing season, and now is the time for big visions to hit the ground running.
Trouble is, there is no big vision here, only small men. Today's Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that state tax collections are off 14% for the year. That's a shortfall of $262 million compared to last January.
They're talking about shutting down rape crisis centers, ending a grant for students on full-ride state scholarships to buy their books, even a cut in public health programs that monitor and control infectious disease. Sounds to me like they're trying to recreate Bolivia right here in our backyard, but that's hardly the point.
The point is, they're also talking about doubling the homestead exemption from real estate taxes, a big general tax cut, even a provision for $7 million in tax breaks for people who get their Gulfstream jets serviced here in Georgia. According to local watchdogs (link above),
"The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, an Atlanta-based think thank, said special tax breaks given out in the past four years will save the beneficiaries, and cost the state, $250 million this year. Meanwhile, advocates say, the Department of Human Resources budget faces cuts of almost $150 million."
The Department of Human Resources doesn't run payroll and benefits here. It's the agency in charge of health and social welfare, and they're going broke.
But that's not why I'm mad. What gets me is the Georgia delegation to the US House of Representatives begging for a federal bailout while their counterparts at the state level slash away at their own tax base to grease the palms of their golf buddies over at Gulfstream. (attention: Rep. Ron Stephens [R-Savannah])
The portion of the federal bailout that's headed to Georgia is somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 billion. Of that, about $2 billion is slated to go directly into plugging the holes in the state budget.
...And these guys are talking state tax cuts?!
Their reasoning is simple. All else being the same, any state legislator would much rather lower his constituents' tax burden. Being so brazen as to raise that tax burden can be hazardous to their careers, especially in the conservative South.
But we're not talking fiscal responsibility here, or fiscal prudence, or even fiscal conservatism. This isn't about cutting frivolous programs. It's about making ends meet and doing the best with what we have. It's about a bunch of guys acting in their own naked self interest over that of the people they are elected to serve.
This isn't "starve the beast of government" conservatism, it's taking advantage of a federal windfall for one's own narrow political interests. No one's talking about transforming government into something smaller, leaner and meaner. This kind of conservatism is all fun and no pain. State budget shortfalls will be the fed's problem soon enough.
From where I sit, state tax cuts are worse than banks paying out bonuses, or sending their executives to Vegas, or buying $35,000 toilets while they're taking federal money. The representatives in the Georgia Statehouse aren't looking out for the best interest of a bunch of shareholders. They're supposed to be looking out for all of us, and it's us who pay their salaries and fund their pet projects.
If the federal government is placing layers of caveats and stipulations on executive pay, oversight and regulation for any company that takes their bailout, they should do the same for states. State governments are going to be the biggest beneficiaries of federal money. It should have its own set of preconditions.
State governments have no business passing massive tax cuts knowing full well that Uncle Sam will come save the day. They don't print money and don't get to run deficits.
If the State of Georgia wants to be irresponsible with its budgeting it should do it on its own dime. I for one would rather live somewhere that can handle its own business.
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