Bill Shipp
WHY ARE THESE GUYS LAUGHING?

One has to wonder why our just re-elected governor and legislative leaders are in such a joyous mood. A tsunami of state spending is on the way, and they know it.

Georgia's relatively modest $18.6 billion annual state budget could double in less than a decade. Gov. Sonny Perdue spent much of the past two years bragging about the accumulation of a half-billiondollar budget surplus. He failed to mention that he was amassing the surplus partly by failing to meet the coming crunch. Programs involving health care, public retirement funding and transportation have been starved of resources to make re-election candidate Perdue look like a frugal uncle. The election is history, and the wolf at the door is about to claw its way in.

The Georgia Legislature has accomplished little in preparing the state infrastructure (transportation, education, health care and public safety) for the demands of an exploding population. Both House and Senate leaders have spent the last two years enacting the state Chamber of Commerce's agenda (oh, the persuasive powers of those talented lobbyists!) and creating an unmatched reputation for extracurricular hanky-panky that has become entangled with their legislative duties.

When Speaker Glenn Richardson's behavioral problems surfaced last week, several GOP leaders responded: "Democrats did much worse." Sorry, fellas, that won't wash. Democrats are not in charge; you are - and you haven't been minding the store. Here's a thumbnail glimpse of the coming crisis:

+ Georgia will need new millions to fund children's health benefits. Congress has failed to provide the state with enough federal dollars to finance PeachCare and similar child health programs. As a result, the Legislature and Perdue are racing toward a serious dilemma: find more money for PeachCare or start denying insurance for poor kids.

+ Georgia trauma care is well behind the national level. In parts of the state, it does not even match Third World standards. One group of health-care units in metro Atlanta is known among medical and legal professionals as the "hospitals from hell." Meanwhile, more Georgians continue to die daily as a result of inadequate trauma care. Lawmakers are considering an $85 million annual Band-Aid to be financed by increasing car-tag taxes or creating a new cell-phone tax.

+ More and more overwhelmed school districts are raising Cain about state funding inequities and inadequacies. A funding lawsuit filed by more than 40 school districts is still pending. The eye-popping price tag for a settlement is in the billions.

+ The monumental cost of state retiree benefits continues to spiral. Pensioners and soon-to-be pensioners are becoming restive at reports that the state is trying to welsh on its retirement promises.

+ And then there's the mind-boggling transportation mess. That multibillion-dollar ongoing catastrophe - along with Medicaid - continues to expand like some kind of extraterrestrial blob.

Any item on this emergency list will consume in a flash Perdue's much-vaunted budget surplus.

In his first legislative session, Perdue recognized the growing crises and proposed panoply of tax increases to fix them. The House leadership, still in the hands of Democrats, screamed in anguish at the governor's plans, and Perdue settled for a modest increase in tobacco taxes, which wasn't enough to make a dint in the problems. However, Democratic lawmakers who voted for the smaller Perdue increase were hammered by Republicans in the next election.

Four years later, Speaker Richardson has proposed a massive revision of the state tax code to find more revenue and, at the same time, reduce or eliminate certain levies. A key component would be increases in consumer taxes applied to groceries, medicines and services, which are not currently taxed. The burden for this regressive tax would be most painful to Georgia's expanding low-income population. The ideas come from Arthur Laffer, an economist who achieved fame during the 1980s for his trickle-down economic ideas - the ones that several experts believe are responsible for record-high deficits.

Considering the current atmosphere of controversy surrounding Richardson, the speaker may have difficulty gaining approval of any dramatic shifts in taxation.

Meanwhile, the Perdue administration and the Legislature have sent signals to special interests that they are ready to do business again in relaxing environmental requirements on the coast and creating a less regulated climate for developers across the state.

And who knows what new private legislative matters may be waiting in the wings as the 2007 session gets under way? Surely, we won't see renewed attempts to write customized tax laws to fit public officials' personal investment situations.

Georgia sits on the cusp of troubling times that require vision and intelligence for survival and continuing prosperity. Take one look at the current merry band running government, and you will see that those characteristics seem in extremely short supply.

You can reach Bill Shipp at P.O. Box 440755, Kennesaw, GA 30160.