Tax break for vets makes good sense on several levels
As often happens in politics, unlikely allies have agreed on a proposal that would benefit not just Georgia's military veterans, but probably the whole state.
Freshman state Rep. Jesse Petrea, R-Savannah, has proposed a plan that would exempt military pensions from the state income tax. The same idea came up in the last session of the General Assembly, but was scuttled because the cost was thought to be prohibitive.
Petrea's formula would pay for vets' tax break by raising the state cigarette tax 28 cents a pack, to a total of 65 cents. That, he noted, is still below the national average, meaning tobacco retailers in Georgia would not be put at a competitive disadvantage; but it's still enough of a boost to both offset the tax cut and serve as a deterrent, especially for young people.
According to Walter C. Jones of Morris News, the liberal-leaning nonprofit Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, which generally opposes tax exemptions that don't benefit lower-income Georgians, is on board with this one: "I don't think there's anything wrong with that idea on the merits," GBPI tax policy analyst Wesley Tharpe told Jones. Petrea said polls show that a substantial majority of Georgians, including about half of smokers themselves, favor higher tobacco taxes.
A payoff for the rest of us would be the incentive for more relatively young military retirees, with their work ethic, discipline and skill sets, to start new careers in Georgia.
Petrea's idea makes sense for lots of reasons. It deserves serious legislative attention.
It has to do for now
On the west side of the Chattahoochee, legislative news was bittersweet at best -- but also, probably, at worst. And a cigarette tax was at the center of that, too.
Gov. Robert Bentley, after a months-long standoff with the Alabama Legislature over a $200 million shortfall, has signed a budget that comes far short of what the he wanted, but preserves funding for services he was determined to protect.
The showdown pitted Republican lawmakers who refused to budge on tax increases against the Republican governor, other Republican legislators and most Democrats, who insisted that the state needed more revenue, and for things far more important than anti-tax ideological purity.
With the cigarette tax and the shifting around of other revenues, level funding has been preserved for things like child health services, mental health, prisons, Medicaid, corrections, courts and the state Department of Human Resources.
Few are, and none should be, completely satisfied with this outcome, which usually defines compromise. At least for another year, the state's most vulnerable citizens haven't been sacrificed on the altar of politics.
This story was originally published September 23, 2015 at 5:44 PM with the headline "Tax break for vets makes good sense on several levels."