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Jerry Keen: "People are sick and tired of being taxed to death through local property taxes..." |
House Majority Leader Jerry Keen talks with Georgia Daily Digest about House Resolution 58, the School Property Tax Cut of 2006. (Editor's Note: This interview may be reproduced for distribution with credit given to GeorgiaDailyDigest.com.) GDD: You are proposing a constitutional amendment that would abolish the school portion of property taxes and replace it with a statewide sales tax. Why do you think this is a good idea? Keen: Look, if you read the newspapers throughout this state, there is growing unrest with property tax bills in virtually every city and county. People are sick and tired of being taxed to death through local property taxes which they have little control over. Year after year, their property gets reassessed; and they wind up with higher tax bills. In some neighborhoods, there is evidence homeowners continue to get reappraised annually while others are ignored for years. The taxpayers are catching on that the property tax is the most regressive tax around. Public opinion polls in Georgia and nationwide show it is the most loathed tax. No other tax even comes close. I believe consumers would rather pay a few extra pennies on purchases than have to set aside several hundred dollars a month to pay for property taxes. It’s just easier for them to swallow. In addition, we believe this move to finance schools with a statewide sales tax will help Georgia bring more equity to the financing of education. GDD: Even if it addresses issues of equity, would it make it easier for advocates to make a case for additional revenue to address education-funding adequacy? Keen: No. We’re trying to beat that at the pass. We have seen lawsuits filed in dozens of states throughout the country by well-funded liberal outfits who believe that more money translates into better education. There is one here in Georgia by a consortium of school systems seeking a major tax hike. We know better. From 1996 to 2004, property tax revenues for education climbed 85 percent while enrollment statewide jumped only 16 percent. And we are still in the basement on SAT scores. You can’t tell me more money makes a difference. If it did, then during these past eight years, we would have seen significant gains in test scores across all school districts and all grades. We hope this effort will deter any court from imposing a multi-billion dollar tax increase on Georgia residents to help fund poor public schools. This is our effort to avoid that court-ordered tax increase. We’ll get them the extra funding they need in a more palatable way. GDD: How would the Legislature make a determination to raise or lower the tax? Keen: House Resolution 58 or the School Property Tax Cut of 2006 is a proposed constitutional amendment. It would require 120 votes in the House and 2/3 vote of the Senate to be placed on the November 2006 ballot. Then Georgia voters would get a say on whether they want to change this highly regressive form of taxation – from one based on holdings to one based on consumption. If the Legislature gives the green light, it then is in the hands of the voters. I predict voters will leap at the chance to lower their tax bills – particularly by such an enormous amount. Remember, in some counties, permanently removing school property taxes will result in as much as a 70 percent decrease in annual tax bills. GDD: Why would a parent in either a poorer or wealthier county support this proposal? Keen: In a wealthy district, land values are high; and homeowners pay dearly to fund their public schools. This way their schools would be funded with a sales tax of no more than 3 cents. It might even be 2 cents before the General Assembly is done debating this. In rural counties, we will use any extra sales tax revenue generated statewide to help increase the per-pupil funding. GDD: This would appear to significantly transfer some of the control of schools from Georgia communities to the state Capitol. Is this one of the objectives? Keen: You know, you hear school boards rallying against this idea because they claim it takes away their control. It does strip them of the power to ever levy taxes again. But that’s a good thing. They still will have complete local control of how they spend their money. Instead of their revenue checks coming from the local tax commissioner, they will come from the Georgia Revenue Commissioner. That doesn’t sound like much of a loss of control to me. The school boards never collected their own tax revenue anyway. I prefer to look at it this way, with no need for a staff to worry about finance, the school systems can instead focus on academics. That’s what their primary focus should always be. GDD: This would raise the sales tax to 10 or 11 percent in some counties if the proposal should reach it maximum 3-cent cap. Won’t this just compound the regressive nature of sales taxes on Georgia’s citizens? Keen: Absolutely not. That’s where the big misconception comes into play. Property taxes are more regressive. In so many places, the poor are in danger of losing their homes because of rising tax bills. So are the middle class and new homeowners. We can control our spending habits, and a couple of extra pennies here and there are easier to swallow than property tax bills that amount to thousands of dollars. We have heard stories of citizens banding together in places like Oakhurst in DeKalb County to have garage sales to help pay property taxes for the disabled and elderly. No one wants to lose their home, and I bet you any of these poor folks would tell you they’d prefer a few pennies at the grocery store to a whopper of a tax bill every year. GDD: With the exception of Atlanta, nearly every other Georgia population center is near the border of another state. Why wouldn’t most Georgians take the property tax break and then drive across the border or use the Internet to make large purchases for sales tax savings? Keen: My instincts tell me something different. I imagine if a young couple is looking for a new home, and they can purchase a house that is 25 percent larger in Augusta, for example, because of such a huge reduction in property taxes, they’ll move to Georgia. That’s good for Georgia’s economy. They may drive across the state line to shop for big-ticket items. But when you are pressed for time, making the weekly grocery store run for example, I doubt you are going to drive far to save a few pennies. I’d certainly bet on that with the price of gas these days.
GDD: Property taxes are thought to be relatively stable during volatile economic times while sale tax collections can be a roller coaster. How would this proposal address the volatility of sales taxes? Keen: I’d say that’s another misconception. A recent study by a professor at Georgia State University shows that during the past 30 years, sales tax collections statewide have averaged 9 percent annually. I can’t imagine any school district legitimately needing more than a 9 percent annual increase in their budget. Besides, we will have a provision in the legislation to require a state education reserve just in case of a catastrophic economic downturn. GDD: Tell us about an initiative you have planned for the 2006 Legislative session that would crack down on sex offenders. Keen: As long as I’m Majority Leader, I never want to see Georgia have the problems we’ve seen in places like Florida where sex offenders slip through the cracks and continue to molest children. We are drafting legislation that will be a zero tolerance policy for sex offenders. You may know that these are some of our most hardened criminals. They are sick and have a lifetime problem that usually is incurable. For that reason, we will require lifetime monitoring with ankle bracelets, strengthen sentencing and increase the penalties so they cannot get near schools or other places where children congregate. This legislation will probably make Georgia one of the toughest in the nation on sex offenders. No sex offender is ever going to want to live here. I’d be mighty happy to see that happen. GDD: After 134 years in the wilderness, what’s it like now that the Republicans are in charge? Is it all you thought it would be? Keen: These are exciting and hectic days down at the state Capitol. Governing is very, very different than being in the Minority. During our first legislative session, we accomplished much more than critics ever dreamed from civil justice reform, to corporate tax cuts, redistricting congressional maps, improvements to education, to changes in insurance regulations and a 24-hour waiting period to get an abortion. We have much more to do in the coming years especially in the areas of health care and illegal immigration. Remember, Republicans and conservatives have been out of power for a very long time. We couldn’t even get a hearing on our legislation. We are governing much differently. We are trying to be fair to the minority party and treat them with respect. But we intend to carry out an agenda that makes the state safer for Georgians, cuts taxes, improves education and brings a more business-like approach to governing. Each day is a new challenge, and we’re all still running on adrenaline.