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1 Jonathan Williams, Georgia's Tax System: A Factual Foundation for Fundamental Tax Reform 1 (2007)

handle is hein.taxfoundation/ffhhxz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: ATION January 30, 2007 Georgia's Tax System: A Factual Foundation for Fundamental Tax Reform by Jonathan Williams Fiscal Fact No. 77 As policymakers begin the 2007 legislative season, it is evident that tax policy will be one of the major policy items on the agenda. Several leading elected officials have recently offered their own tax reform plans, and these will be among the options considered by the legislature during this year's session. One tax reform plan would eliminate the statewide income tax; another would eliminate the state property tax; and others would make smaller changes, such as reducing taxes for seniors and cutting the car tag tax. However, before lawmakers proceed to consider possible changes to the tax structure, it is important to examine how Georgia's tax system ranks when compared to other states - especially contiguous states that compete with Georgia in today's competitive economic environment. Georgia's Tax Burden In both real and comparative terms, Georgia's state and local tax burden has increased substantially since 1970. By burden we mean the fraction of state income taken by taxes of any kind. Georgia's 2006 tax burden of 10.4 percent of income is average and ranks 25th nationally. However, when compared regionally, taxpayers pay the second highest tax burden among bordering states - only residents of North Carolina pay more at 10.5 percent (see Table 1). Table 1. Georgia's State-Local Tax Burden Has Increased Since 1970 State ............................ ...... . North Carolina :Georgia :South Carolina Florida Alabama 2006 Rank 1970 Rank 2006 Burden (1 is highest) 1970 Burden (1 is highest) 10.5% 23 8.7%z 37 10.4% 25i 8.7%z 41 10.2% 30i 8.5%z 43 9.7%o 3 9:: 8.8%o 36U z z 8.8% 46,i 8.2% i 46i Tennessee 8.6Oo 47 8.7%o 40zz Source: Tax Foundation, based on data from Bureau of Economic Analysis, Dept. of Commerce. See ,http ://wx .t ax foundation, or~/taxdatashow/ 6. html FOL

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