Robin Hood in Reverse, in the Georgia State Legislature!

It seems that, with unemployment well above the national average, with a crumbling infrastructure, with one of the worst educational systems in the nation, and with a likely major budget deficit, the State of Georgia stands poised to reduce corporate and personal income taxes to benefit primarily the wealthiest Georgians. In place of those reduced income taxes, the Georgia Legislature plans to impose new sales-type taxes which are well known to be regressive, falling much more heavily upon the poor and middle class than on the wealthy, who spend a considerably smaller proportion of their higher incomes.  This is surely Robin Hood in Reverse: the rich get richer, the rest of us get shafted.

The analysis being provided to justify this particular piece of bad legislation is that it mirrors Ronald Reagan's approach to the economy in the early 1980s; supposedly, entrepreneurship will be stimulated and more jobs will be created by moving from income taxes to more sales taxes.  As noted economist John Kenneth Galbraith said then, "when you feed enough oats to a horse, eventually there will be something left over in the road for the sparrow."  We all know just what that something will be, too. 

The Georgia State Legislature needs to come to its senses, and needs to start representing all Georgians, not just the richest among us.  The best way to create jobs and a sound economy is to have fair and sensible tax policies.  One would think that being last in the nation in so many categories, from education to infrastructure, would bring the Legislature to its senses.  Judging from recent history, though, the prospect for tax fairness in Georgia is not at all encouraging.