ATLANTA — Lawmakers might vote Wednesday or Thursday on House Speaker Glenn Richardson's tax-swap plan, meaning some serious deal-making will be seen over the next couple of days.
Mr. Richardson's plan would end residential property taxes that go for education and car taxes while expanding the state sales tax to include food, lottery tickets and services. It would also cap how fast local education spending could increase.
Only 75 of the 107 Republicans in the House are backing it, according to House Democratic caucus Chairman Calvin Smyre of Columbus.
For months, the plan has been attacked by school boards that don't want to give up any control on spending - and by city and county commissioners who figure Mr. Richardson will make good on his promise to restrict their spending next.
Democrats and the conservative Americans for Tax Reform chimed in with their opposition Thursday.
As a constitutional amendment, the plan can't succeed without bipartisan support to reach the required two-thirds majority. Republicans say they were told their leadership expects about 40 Democrats to vote for the plan - a contention Democrats' news conference Thursday was designed to demolish.
The Democrats distributed a list of 175 services that would be taxed under the proposal.
"The Republican tax plan puts 175 new taxes on Georgians, from grits to putting you in the grave," said House Democratic leader DuBose Porter, of Dublin.
Though the plan is designed to be revenue-neutral to the state, its impact on individual taxpayers won't be. Property owners are more likely to benefit, while renters could pay more.
Mr. Porter said revenue neutrality doesn't allow Republicans to escape the charge of new taxes - especially because the old taxes aren't being wiped off the books.
Democrats also hope to block taxing food, which they say will be a greater burden on lower-income Georgians, especially those who won't bother of applying for the rebate included in the plan as a way to mitigate that situation.
After the news conference, House GOP leaders issued their own statements.
House Republican leader Jerry Keen, of St. Simons Island, blasted Democrats for trying to prevent the amendment from being on the November ballot.
"Georgians deserve the chance to have their voice heard on the important issue of reforming our tax system," he said.
The bigger blow to the proposal originally dubbed the GREAT Plan might have come from Americans for Tax Reform, an advocacy group run by fiscal hawk Grover Norquist.
Mr. Norquist's opinion was delivered to every legislator, and it's likely to affect some who would ordinarily be counted as part of Mr. Richardson's base in the House.
"This plan, which has been modified numerous times, is now being fast-tracked with little room for legislators to analyze or fully digest the consequences to taxpayers," Mr. Norquist wrote.
"This is not the way to set tax policy. Barring any possibility for further review, which would help clarify certain issues and allow signers of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge to get certainty that this is in fact not a tax increase, (Americans for Tax Reform) urges you to vote no on the GREAT plan."
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