Cagle: Broad Consensus For Funding Trauma System, But Maybe Not The Way Speaker Proposes

By Dick Pettys
InsiderAdvantage Georgia

(12/18/07) Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle said Tuesday he thinks there is broad consensus for funding a statewide trauma care network but maybe not the way the Speaker envisions it.

He also said that it is futile to pump more money into transportation while the agency is in disarray but said that doesn’t necessarily rule out taking some steps in the 2008 session toward future enhancements.

Ten days ago, Speaker Glenn Richardson said is considering a plan to fund the trauma system that would include a new $10 add-on fee for automobile tag renewals, along with the extra fine for excessive speeders that Gov. Sonny Perdue proposed last year. He said that could raise close to $100 million.

Cagle said during a news conference with Capitol reporters, “I think there is beginning to be a broad consensus for trauma funding. Now whether or not that trauma funding occurs in a direct appropriation out of the budget or it derives from an additional revenue source is still unclear.”

Asked about the Speaker’s plan, he said:

“I’ve not articulated a formal position on the Speaker’s plan. I’ve not seen it yet. I understand in generality where he wants to go. Traditionally, I have been opposed to tax increases and, on the surface, this appears to be a tax increase.”

The House leadership wasn’t particularly happy with the remark.

“This is the same lieutenant governor who eight months ago was against a $142 million tax cut and wanted to expand PeachCare entitlement by millions of dollars,” retorted House Rules Chairman Earl Ehrhart.

On transportation funding, Cagle made it clear the first focus of the state must be to straighten out problems uncovered by new DOT Commissioner Gena Abraham at the agency.

“We’ve got some structural problems within the Department of Transportation to where right-of-way doesn’t know what land acquisition is doing, what design is doing, what construction is doing. There’s really no interface there. There’s really no ‘plan’ we’re operating under. It’s very much a system that is predicated on whatever project is available to be funded, gets funded ... That’s a huge flaw.”

But he said he believes the new leadership will force changes there and then projects can be prioritized.

Cagle has said previously that given the choice between a statewide sales tax hike for transportation improvements or an optional regional one for willing counties to utilize, he would choose the local option proposal.

Should the General Assembly choose that option during the 2008 session, he said, it still would require a minimum two years before any such tax could be utilized (counting the time it would take to get a constitutional amendment adopted and then for counties to submit taxing proposals to their own voters). “Do I believe the department will be prepared and ready by that time frame? Yes, I do.”

While the regional approach has its boosters, others support a statewide sales tax increase. Cagle said he awaits the recommendations of a joint legislative study committee which has been studying those and other possible solutions.

But he added, “It is my view we can do 30 percent more projects with the revenue dollars that we’re spending right now within the department through efficiencies. That’s my estimation.”

On another subject, he offered no prediction on the outcome of the Speaker’s plan to wipe out school property taxes by expanding the consumer sales tax and then freezing residential homestead assessments and limiting the increase in local government spending.

But he said this: “I do anticipate that the Senate will be very active in trying to create a unified, uniform system relative to assessing property. The biggest problem that most property owners feel is the unpredictability that exists with their assessments ... There needs to be some limitations relative to the grow of - not just the tax digest itself - but also the assessment to individual property owners.”

With various other tax plans floating around, is it possible they all will cancel each other out?

“This is the General Assembly,” he laughed. “The reality is, this is a huge issue and there are a lot of competing interests ... I have been on record in favoring doing something for the senior citizens of our state. We lose a lot of them because we are not competitive on the income tax side of the equation ... Whatever occurs, the Legislature has got to assess do they want a tax shift or do they want a tax cut? I personally am in favor of a tax cut, and if there is a shift in taxation we have to ensure that we do our due diligence to where we don’t have big losers in that equation.”