Former Macon commissioner slams GA GOP on affordability, tax cuts amid Lt. Gov. run
Former Macon District 5 Commissioner and candidate for Georgia lieutenant governor, Seth Clark, criticized Republican state leadership Tuesday for pushing policies he said hurt working families in Georgia.
The comments — which Clark made during a press conference announcing community mental health advocate Andrea Cooke’s bid for his old seat on the county commission — come on the heels of Clark announcing his campaign for lieutenant governor. Clark is running as a Democrat, and the position is currently held by Republican Burt Jones.
Clark calls for more action to reduce Georgia’s cost of living
Clark accused current Republican state leadership of ignoring issues relating to affordability in favor of pushing national talking points and writing policy that doesn’t adequately address concerns around the cost of living in Georgia.
“If you just turn your body politic into a place where you churn out national talking points, you’re just letting this affordability crisis get more out of hand,” Clark said. “You’re not delivering for people.”
According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator, a household in Georgia with two working adults and two children would need to make $105,432 a year to live comfortably in Georgia.
Affordability has already shown to be a major issue in Georgia politics over the past year. November’s Public Service Commission races saw counties that went for Trump in the 2024 election flipping or having razor-thin margins over concerns regarding rising utility bills.
The state legislature — which began its new session Monday — is also already seeing proposals and debates aimed at addressing housing, health care and grocery costs.
“I think there’s a void in leadership for working families,” Clark said. “I think that void is as apparent as it can be in the fact that working families across Georgia have voted for Democrats statewide because they want a remedy for this affordability crisis.”
Clark criticizes cuts to income, business taxes
During Tuesday’s press conference, Clark also criticized current Jones’ proposal to eliminate state income tax.
Jones convened a committee of Republican state lawmakers in July to come up with a plan to completely eliminate income tax for about two-thirds of Georgians by 2032. The plan, which was released this month, does not outline a plan to make up the revenue beyond the first year, but does pledge to not raise the state’s sales tax rate, to not create a statewide property tax or to mandate major cuts to state services.
The committee is led by Georgia Sen. Blake Tillery, a Republican from Vidalia who is running for lieutenant governor.
Income tax revenues accounted for about 56% of Georgia’s $34.8 billion general fund, according to the fiscal year 2025 budget.
However, critics of the cuts say they disproportionately benefit wealthy people, while placing a greater burden on low income individuals to make up the lost revenue through sales tax.
The left-leaning Georgia Budget and Policy Institute released a statement decrying the proposal, and saying that the plan to eliminate income tax would disproportionately benefit wealthy households.
Clark agreed with those critics, and said prioritizing wealthy people shows corruption within the lieutenant governor’s office.
“You open a lane up for the corruption we see coming out of the lieutenant governor’s office, and when you open that lane up, what you end up doing is letting billionaires write tax codes … it’s wrong,” Clark said.