Macon Telegraph Logo

Uninspiring session ends with a thud | Macon Telegraph

×
  • E-edition
  • Home
    • Customer Service
    • Mobile & Apps
    • Newsletters
    • Buy Photos and Pages
    • Contact Us
    • Newsletters
    • Subscribe
    • Archive Search

    • All News
    • Local
    • Houston & Peach
    • The Sun News
    • Crime
    • Food Story
    • Education
    • Databases
    • Business
    • Nation/World
    • Opinion
    • Weird News
    • All Sports
    • High Schools
    • University of Georgia
    • Bulldogs Beat
    • Georgia Tech
    • Mercer
    • Columns & Blogs
    • MLB & Braves
    • NFL & Falcons
    • NBA & Hawks
    • Auto Racing
    • Golf
    • NHL/Macon Mayhem
    • Politics
    • Elections
    • All Living
    • Family
    • Food
    • Home & Garden
    • Religion
    • Celebrations
    • Mark Ballard
    • Dear Abby
    • Entertainment
    • Out & About
    • Celebrities
    • Music
    • Restaurants
    • Comics
    • Puzzles & Games
    • Horoscopes
    • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Submit a Letter
    • Blogs & Columns
    • Opinion Columns & Blogs
    • Your Say
  • Obituaries
  • Education Together
  • Best of the Best

  • Classifieds
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Cars
  • Homes
  • Place An Ad
  • Contests

  • About Us
  • Mobile & Apps

Opinion Columns & Blogs

Uninspiring session ends with a thud

By Kyle Wingfield

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

    ORDER REPRINT →

April 04, 2017 09:00 PM

An uninspiring legislative session ended in dispiriting fashion early Friday, with the failure of a few solidly conservative bills. It’s worth getting to the bottom of what went wrong.

There was the usual procedural mess. Legislators crammed the work left from days spent more leisurely into a final scramble that went a full hour past midnight, a “deadline” that keeps losing its deadliness. The procrastination is intentional, designed to help leadership ram through the bills it wants and kill the clock on the ones it doesn’t.

And oh, the ones that came up short this year.

A decade and a half of frustration among Republicans at being unable to lower the state’s income-tax rate appeared on the verge of small relief. The House had passed a modest but important structural reform that flattened and simplified the personal income tax. The Senate ordered up a much larger tax cut — which sounds nice, until you know that Gov. Nathan Deal would veto it.

SIGN UP

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to The Telegraph

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

House members tweaked their plan. An economic analysis provided to me showed the plan could lower the top rate to 5.55 percent, eliminate all brackets below that, increase the personal exemption, introduce a “work tax credit,” and still keep low- and middle-income Georgians whole. It was forecast to cut income-tax revenues by less than $180 million a year (about 1.3 percent) which meant there was a chance Deal would sign it. It was the kind of reform that would make it easier for a future governor to gradually lower rates even further.

Yet, the Senate wouldn’t agree to anything less than the larger, but obviously doomed, cut.

It was a stance similar to the poison pill senators placed in a House bill for the state’s tax-credit scholarship. They slashed the money student scholarship organizations could spend on expenses to a mere 3 percent of the donations they collect — low enough to put many of them out of business and deny hundreds of kids financial aid. Or, perhaps, low enough just to kill the bill.

The House changed the bill, but only 12 Senate Republicans voted for the educational freedom they claim to support for Georgia’s students, and which rates as highly popular with Republican voters.

Why?

I spoke with multiple people who worked on each of these solidly conservative bills, in each chamber and on the outside. Those people almost uniformly pointed the finger at Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle.

I’m told it was Cagle who insisted on the tax bill Deal would certainly veto, and who told GOP senators to oppose the education bill.

Here, let’s acknowledge two things. First, Cagle is all but certain to announce his candidacy for governor within weeks. Second, the people who worked opposite him on these issues are not his biggest fans (though, I’ll add, they don’t currently support anyone else planning to run).

If that were all there was to it, I’d have left it alone. But their complaints echo those that grew louder and louder since this session began in January, and even dating back to 2016. I’ve been here for eight of the 11 sessions Cagle has been lieutenant governor. People haven’t always talked about him as negatively as they do now.

There is a well-cultivated air of inevitability around Cagle as next in line for West Paces Ferry. As a three-time statewide winner, there’s merit to that. But maybe not enough when this rising dissatisfaction with him inside the Capitol spreads beyond it.

Kyle Wingfield writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Reach him and read more at www.bit.ly/KyleWingfield.

  Comments  

Videos

Video: Local poet James Brown reads poem about non-violence

Macon-Bibb coroner shares thoughts on why homicide rate high in 2018

View More Video

Trending Stories

Friends helping stranded ambulance driver are killed as truck runs over Prius on I-16

February 20, 2019 10:33 AM

Houston County says no — for now — to insurance covering gender reassignment surgery

February 20, 2019 01:32 PM

‘Superwoman’: Joni Taylor’s display of strength in hours leading up to birth of daughter

February 20, 2019 08:15 PM

‘It’s not about the food,’ says Macon pastor. Church meals bring bring people together

February 20, 2019 12:00 AM

This Middle Georgia hospital is donating used pacemakers to dogs in need: ‘This means everything’

February 20, 2019 09:28 AM

Read Next

Why is Ga. GOP acting like babies? Because they’re afraid of new success by Democrats

Opinion Columns & Blogs

Why is Ga. GOP acting like babies? Because they’re afraid of new success by Democrats

By Erick Erickson

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 13, 2019 04:30 PM

Georgia Republican lawmakers in General Assembly need to do a better job of operating on offense instead of defense on tax and ERA issues, and not hide in the shadow and let Democrats run circles around them.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to The Telegraph

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE OPINION COLUMNS & BLOGS

Success for minority businesses is vital, and there’s a group out there that can help

Opinion Columns & Blogs

Success for minority businesses is vital, and there’s a group out there that can help

February 03, 2019 11:43 AM
A society was built on sacrifice of children. They have been forgotten. How about us?

Opinion Columns & Blogs

A society was built on sacrifice of children. They have been forgotten. How about us?

January 30, 2019 07:33 PM
Well, why not? Local columnist considers run for president in crowded Democrat field

Opinion Columns & Blogs

Well, why not? Local columnist considers run for president in crowded Democrat field

January 24, 2019 03:04 PM
Parking meter profits, joining Macon airport with Atlanta’s are thoughts on his mind

Opinion Columns & Blogs

Parking meter profits, joining Macon airport with Atlanta’s are thoughts on his mind

January 23, 2019 05:20 PM
Georgia has officially been put in hands of a man who means to help and represent all

Opinion Columns & Blogs

Georgia has officially been put in hands of a man who means to help and represent all

January 16, 2019 04:16 PM
There’s a group in Perry who are putting others above themselves and helping all

Opinion Columns & Blogs

There’s a group in Perry who are putting others above themselves and helping all

January 10, 2019 08:39 PM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

Macon Telegraph App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Archives
Advertising
  • Place a Classified Ad
  • Advertise with Us
  • Local Deals
Copyright
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story