With an unemployment rate of 10.5 percent Georgia needs real solutions to stimulate the economy. Today Americans for Tax Reform sent a letter to Georgia leadership urging legislators to support House Bill 1023, the Jobs, Opportunity and Business Success Act of 2010. The bill would cut taxes, create jobs, and spur economic growth in the Georgia.
“It is important not to let politics get in the way of sound policy,” said Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform. “HB 1023 should be put up for a vote on the House floor immediately for the sake of Georgia taxpayers.”
HB 1023 would halve the state’s capital gains tax — the highest in the Southeast — and it would eliminate an unnecessary and duplicative net worth tax on business. It would eliminate onerous barriers to job creation by exempting new businesses from state start-up fees. Economic growth comes exclusively from the private sector; cutting business taxes is the best way to get Georgia’s economy back on track. Also, capital gains tax cuts historically have a positive effect on government revenue, as proven by the federal capital gains tax cuts of 1978, 1981, 1997, and 2003.
“I urge the House leadership to act. That means bringing HB 1023 to the floor, voting it through, and urging Gov. Perdue to sign on the dotted line,” Norquist added. “This package of tax cuts will serve as an example to other states of how to pull an economy out of recession. But more importantly to your constituents, it will get Georgia working again.”
For a PDF of this press release click here.