Paul_Yates's Blog

The Georgia General Assembly enters the final days of this year's session with outcomes still to be decided on the key issues of tax cuts and trauma care and transportation improvements. This legislative deadline-crashing now occurs under Republican leaders who watched decades of Democratic feuding. Georgia GOP leaders have shown they know how to fight pitched battles against each other as well.

After a heated conclusion to last year's gathering, legislators face the election-year challenge of reconciling competing tax cuts. Will the car tag tax be eliminated as the House wants? Will the state's income tax be reduced as the Senate has proposed? What will be the impact of Gov. Perdue opposition to both tax cut proposals during the economic downturn?

The governor also has clearly demonstrated his opposition to Sunday package sales of alcoholic beverages. Sunday sales advocates must decide whether to make a last-ditch attempt to win approval for the measure anyway.

As for the governor, he will spend the scheduled final week of this year's legislative session in China. Delta took him there for a trade mission on the airline's inaugural direct flight to Shanghai. It may or may not have been a good time to get out of town.