Paul_Yates's Blog

Tax relief was the talk of the 2008 General Assembly session. Republican leaders at the Capitol talked and cajoled and threatened over the issue. The speaker had a "GREAT Plan" to eliminate property taxes. In the end, nothing came of it. The ill will that marked the conclusion of the 2007 legislative session was repeated. If anything, the words were hotter. Last year, Speaker Glenn Richardson said Gov. Perdue had displayed his "backside." This year, Richardson said, "... we're sick of Casey Cagle. It's time to get a new lieutenant governor."

Gov. Perdue went to China for a trade mission during the session's final week. Rumors were flying that he would return earlier than planned for the session's conclusion. He did not. Why hurry back to appear at a train wreck? The governor weighed in with a statement, praising the fiscal responsibility of the lieutenant governor and state senators. In his own statement, Lt. Gov. Cagle lamented that tax relief had been stymied by those who "were blinded by ego."

 Left by the wayside were measures to allow local option sales taxes for transportation improvements and create a permanent funding source for the state's trauma care network. Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson neatly summed things up: "We could have done better."