ATLANTA - Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle told reporters Tuesday he worries that businesses could be harmed by a plan to replace property taxes with a sales tax on services and the closing of most sales-tax exemptions.

Mr. Cagle said executives he's talked with estimate their company taxes could increase 25 to 62 percent. That's because most firms outsource at least some operations, from accounting to office cleaning.

"It will put Georgia in a competitive disadvantage versus other states for business," he said. "And that would give me great heartburn."

But Mr. Cagle also speculated that transactions between businesses would have to be taxed in order to collect enough revenue for the state and local governments to meet their existing costs, approximately $10 billion that's coming from property taxes now. Companies would have to pass the taxes they pay to their own customers, he said, noting that the accumulated taxes would grow at each stage of the process as an item was sold by a supplier to a manufacturer and then to a wholesaler, etc.

"You can't fill the $10 billion hole without some measure of business-to-business taxation," he said.

Not so, says Sen. Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, a proponent of eliminating property taxes. Mr. Rogers, who has spoken to many civic groups about the tax-shifting concept, argues that switching to a tax on consumption rather than savings held in property will stimulate the economy by encouraging investment.

He said he intends to poll Republican senators when they meet this week so he can gauge how much support there is for the shift. The measure will come up first in the House in a bill sponsored by Speaker Glenn Richardson, but at least one Senate leader, President Pro Tem Eric Johnson of Savannah, has said the Senate wouldn't stop it if the House passes it.