UPDATED

Part of 'GREAT' Plan Will Be Introduced First In Senate

(Update at 8:50 a.m. adds context. New material highlighted.)

By Dick Pettys
InsiderAdvantage Georgia

(12/4/07) Members of the Georgia Senate may be seeing elements of Speaker Glenn Richardson’s “GREAT” plan sooner than they expected as a result of the latest development in how the legislation will get to the legislative floor.

As you recall, the plan now includes these elements:

* It would eliminate the school property tax on homeowners, as well as the automobile tax on personal automobiles. The money to fund schools would come, instead, from an expanded sales tax on consumer services, a restoration of the sales tax on groceries and a sales tax on lottery tickets.

* At the same time, an assessment freeze would be imposed that would freeze homestead values at 2007 levels except that values could be increased by 1 percent per year. Values would be re-set to fair values if a property is sold or improved. Also, ad valorem revenues (from city and county property taxes) could increase no more than the state government inflation rate, except through a referendum.

The plan would require two separate constitutional amendments.

What’s new is that one of them - the homestead freeze and the limit on government spending - will be introduced first in the Senate. It will be carried by Sen. Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, who has been working with Richardson on the evolution of the plan and has championed a similar program before. (His TABOR plan - for Taxpayer Bill of Rights - would cap state government spending based on a formula. It passed the Senate last session and is in the House. It is SR 20.)

Meanwhile, Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson - who met with Richardson on Friday, sources said - is expected to outline plans in a speech today to also put his shoulder behind a residential tax freeze bill, although it isn't clear at this point if it is the same legislation Rogers plans to push or a separate measure.

The other constitutional amendment - the one eliminating the school and auto property taxes - will be introduced first in the House.

Sources told Insider this is not an either-or strategy. Both measures will work in tandem and both would need to pass, they told us.

The strategy was outlined Monday to two groups which stand to be heavily affected by the tax changes - the Association County Commissioners of Georgia and the Georgia Municipal Association.

A number of senators have said over the last few months they will wait to see the Speaker’s final plan pass the House and reach the Senate before staking out a position on the tax. (For some, that was another way of saying that if it didn't pass the House, they could safely ignore the whole thing.)

This new strategy changes that equation, and puts an influential senator behind it.

“It’s a credit to everyone involved that we now have a situation where the House and Senate are going to be working together toward one comprehensive answer,” Rogers told Insider. “I think any time you have a sense of ownership by the House and the Senate, it makes it easier. We knew we were going to be an equal partner ... (but) I think it helps in the long run.”

Rogers said he’s been pushing to limit government spending since he first ran for office. “Working on something this comprehensive - I’m glad to be a part of it.”

It is still an uphill battle, he said, but only “because what we are attempting to do is a significant change. And people tend to be opposed to change.”

But he said a number of senators had told him privately they were interested in getting involved.