The state’s financial woes warrant calling a special session of the General Assembly to address the specifics of the problem, state Sen. Preston Smith, R-Rome, said Friday.
“We’re making a mistake not to go into special session,” Smith said. Decisions are being made by the executive branch without including input from state legislators, he said. But he also said “calling a session to cut the budget in an election year would not be popular.”
Click here to read another article about a homestead grant included on property tax bills.
State Rep. Barbara Massey Reece, D-Menlo, later agreed with Smith. The two were providing a review of the past session of the General Assembly to the Governmental Affairs Committee of the Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce and other leaders, but the state’s projected $1.6 billion budget shortfall and spending cuts announced last week by Gov. Sonny Perdue dominated the hour-and-a-half session.
Reece and Smith said the leadership of both the House and Senate want to restore the state’s reimbursement to counties for homestead exemptions on property tax bills, which comes to about $4.6 million for
Rome and Floyd County governments and schools.
Floyd County has decided to include the homeowner credit in its 2008 bills, which will go out in about two weeks, in hopes the General Assembly will restore the reimbursement when it reconvenes in January. Homeowners in Rome with a homestead exemption get a $220 credit; those in Floyd get $240.
Asked by Rome City Commissioner Buzz Wachsteter if the legislature would consider eliminating tax exemptions and sales tax holidays to recoup that revenue, Reece said she wished Perdue would appoint a task force to look at tax exemptions. Smith said they help businesses, job growth and job creation. “It’s a balance,” he said.
Smith also had gloomy predictions for next year’s session of the state legislature.
“The Georgia General Assembly is growing more and more dysfunctional,” Smith said. He said a number of bills were stalled between the Senate and the House, between political parties, and between the executive branch and the legislature.
“I’ve really seen a breakdown in civility. I suspect, given the track we’re on, it won’t improve.”
Reece said that during her House tenure bills have always been “held hostage. But I’ve not seen it to the extent of last session.”
