Richardson against tax hike

ATLANTA --- The budget crisis facing the state might be huge, but House Speaker Glenn Richardson remains opposed to raising taxes to lessen the need for deep spending cuts.

The Hiram Republican declared his stance to a luncheon audience sponsored by the market-oriented think tank Georgia Public Policy Foundation when he estimated the deficit in the current budget year could reach $1.6 billion.

"When the economy goes down, state revenue goes down, and the state is forced to make decisions. Those decisions really come down to two: either raise more revenue by raising taxes or you tighten your belt and cut services," he said. "Make no mistake about it, as long as I'm speaker and the Georgia House of Representatives under the constitution of this state has the authority to originate all bills involving revenue, I do not intend to raise the taxes on the people of the state of Georgia."

He acknowledged that the cuts would affect individual Georgians and go beyond removing waste from government spending.

"It will be painful. It will hurt," he said. "There will be criticisms. But when people are having down economic times, the state has to do what we have to do."

Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ranger, was in the audience and said Mr. Richardson is reading the political mood correctly.

"Not only now when we're in difficult economic times, but also in previous times, there is not a tremendous appetite for raising taxes," Mr. Graves said.

House Republicans also intend to push through legislation that would limit local governments' ability to raise their own revenue by capping property-tax assessments at 3 percent. They won't stop spending on a $428 million grant to local governments to provide relief to homeowners, but they will end it for future years, the speaker said, a step some conservatives have said would force a local tax increase.

At the same time, Mr. Richardson renewed his support for a measure that failed last year to give voters a choice about raising the sales tax in their region for transportation.

"Most people I talk to are willing to talk about increasing the sales tax if they can see some benefit in transportation," he said. "I firmly believe that if we put an option out there and ask people, 'do you want to tax yourself?' that is not us raising taxes."

Winning approval for a new tax or fee to cover creation of a statewide trauma-care network will be more difficult to work around the no-tax-increase pledge, he said.