Georgia Senate Study Committee Discusses TABOR

From the Gwinnett Daily Post:

A House study committee headed by Rep. Donna Sheldon, R-Dacula, met several times last year to consider whether Georgia should adopt a Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights modeled after a law in Colorado. Under TABOR, tax increases are limited to the rate of inflation plus population growth.

However, the momentum driving the issue in Georgia was blunted last fall when Colorado voters narrowly approved a referendum temporarily suspending the TABOR law because of its effects on the state’s ability to deliver services.

On Thursday, Kevin Fillion, director of the Senate’s Budget and Evaluation Office, presented statistics showing that Georgia budgets during the past 20 years have outstripped both inflation and the state’s rapid population growth.

Even adjusting for inflation, the average tax burden on Georgians has increased in the last 20 years from $1,200 per person to $1,700 per person, Fillion said. “That, to me, is the key figure, “said Sen. Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, another member of the study committee.