I have been campaigning around Georgia promoting my common sense approach to government. For the first time, you, the people this government is set up to represent, are actually getting to hear about many of the detrimental decisions being made regarding policy in Georgia. Through my campaign for governor, Georgians are learning about HB356, the "point of sale bill", and they like it. The key Republican leadership can no longer continue to hold it down and have started to try and make it their own. Welcome aboard.
Read the excerpt from the article below, and see if it leads you to believe they just discovered this great idea- an idea they let die in committee last year.
From 11-17-09, Macon Telegraph, by Travis Fain
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‘State Rep. Larry O’Neal, a Warner Robins Republican who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he sees more cuts and “a far more aggressive tax collection methodology.” O’Neal said he wants the Georgia Department of Revenue to hire more auditors. He also said the department is implementing new technology to better zero in on tax scofflaws.
That includes a pilot system implemented in Hall, Chatham, Lowndes and Cherokee counties to compare local business license records with state sales tax records. Already a lot of inconsistencies — businesses that pay taxes but don’t have a license or vice versa — have been found, O’Neal said.
He said he’s looking for the Department of Revenue to make some high-profile busts of retail owners who don’t turn over all the sales taxes they collect to “change the subculture” of fraud and abuse. O’Neal said he thinks there are “hundreds of millions” going uncollected either because of fraud or accidental underpayment.
The biggest change may have to do with sales tax collection methods. The Department of Revenue collects those now, then sends local governments their share a couple of months later. There’s a push to let local governments hire private companies to handle those collections or at least to routinely audit collections.
Alabama moved to such a system and drastically increased its collections, supporters of the system in Georgia have said.
That includes state Rep. DuBose Porter, D-Dublin, who is the minority leader in the House of Representatives and a candidate for governor.
Porter has been pushing this change hard, and there appears to be bipartisan support for it, though the measure stalled during the last legislative session.’
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Thank you Travis for adding the last two sentences.The sections in bold have been in my speeches since last session. The Elected Republican leadership has realized that they can no longer refuse to allow Georgia this added revenue. As a candidate for governor, my common sense approach to government is catching on, and they are having to jump on board and I say come on. It will be good for Georgia if they do.
Would you like to see good government happen, not because it is forced by a candidate running for governor, but because that candidate is governor and has the chance to put the needs of Georgia before the wants of special interest groups? Then join us and help me bring common sense government to Georgia. Sign up for updates, get involved and donate. Government should work for you, not against you. - DuBose Porter
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