Bill sets stage for revenue overhaul
State Sen. Chuck Hufstetler submitted legislation Wednesday to launch a comprehensive review of the state’s revenue structure, with an eye to modernizing it in 2022.
The measure builds on the work of a 2010 committee that resulted in changes such as the elimination of the “birthday tax” on vehicles and a shift in the state gas tax that has provided steady funding for transportation projects even as federal money slowed.
“A lot of people would say that’s the biggest driver of Georgia being the No. 1 state to do business. The question now is, what do we do for the next decade,” Hufstetler said.
The Rome Republican, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, has about twothirds of the Senate signed on as cosponsors. Its president pro tem, minority leader and majority leader are the next three signatories. The bill is expected to get a first reading Thursday and be assigned to a committee, likely the Finance Committee.
The five-page bill would create two entities: the 2021 Special Council on Tax Reform and Fairness for Georgians and the Special Joint Committee on Georgia Revenue Structure.
The Council would spend this year on the study and submit a report with recommended legislative action by Jan. 10, 2022.
Any proposed legislation would be assigned to the special committee, with the idea that whatever it sent for a floor vote could not be amended.
“An up or down vote,” Hufstetler said. “The intent is, before special interests nibble away at it, to say this is the preference.”
The makeup of both the council and the special committee is designed to generate a wide-reaching buyin, if they can come to an agreement.
The 11 member council would have a seat for Gov. Brian Kemp as well as three economists appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and Speaker of the House.
It would also include a nonpartisan fiscal expert agreed to by the minority leaders of the House and Senate; the 2021 leaders of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and National Federation of Independent Business; two House representatives; and two state senators.
Hufstetler said the diversity puts everything on the table, so he wouldn’t try at this point to predict the outcome.
“That’s what we want to hear from these economics professors, what it takes for Georgia to be competitive for the next decade,” he said.
The special committee would have 12 members, all lawmakers — from both the House and the Senate.
In addition to a Republican and a Democrat appointed from each chamber, members would be the President Pro Tem of the Senate; Speaker Pro Tem of the House; the majority and minority leaders of each chamber; and the chairs of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees, who would cochair the joint special committee.
Attempts by the 2010 Special Council on Tax Fairness to pass a comprehensive overhaul got bogged down by various factions objecting to different pieces. Only a few of its recommendations were enacted over the years.
Hufstetler said he’s hoping this time will be different.
“We want to have a diverse tax structure in case something happens to one sector ... At the same time, we’re too dependent on income tax. We need to broaden that out,” he said.
In her room at a Georgia nursing home, Bessie Burden was so concerned about the coronavirus that she wore a mask — sometimes two — even when she slept.
With the home closed to visitors because of the pandemic, Burden’s daughters worried about their spunky 77-yearold mother, who decades earlier had survived a stroke and had persevered despite heart disease, diabetes and a leg amputation. When Burden told them by phone that she felt ill and was being treated with supplemental oxygen — and her roommate had been taken away by ambulance days earlier — they became alarmed. A call with a nurse who sounded confused about Burden’s care increased their sense of urgency.
The daughters called an ambulance to take their mother to a hospital. Once admitted, Burden tested positive for COVID-19. She died 10 days later, one of at least two residents of the Westbury Conyers nursing home to perish in an outbreak.
Burden’s daughters blame the Conyers, Georgia, nursing home for their mother’s death, saying administrators kept the family in the dark about Burden’s being exposed to the virus and quarantined as a presumptive case. But the state has essentially blocked them from going to court.
Georgia is one of at least 34 states that have shielded nursing homes — along with other health providers and private businesses — from lawsuits over coronavirus deaths and infections during the pandemic, citing unforeseen challenges and economic hardships.
Many laws say providers can be sued only for COVID-19 deaths resulting from “gross negligence” — a legal standard that’s greater than ordinary negligence, which can include carelessness, but falls short of causing intentional harm.
“They’re saying negligent care is OK,” said Sam Brooks of the National Consumer Voice for Quality LongTerm Care, which advocates for nursing home residents. “This creates a standard that every nursing home resident could be subjected to harmful care without repercussions.”
The day that Burden died, Oct. 22, government inspectors reported her nursing home had done such a poor job controlling infections that residents were in “immediate jeopardy” of injury or death. Inspectors found the home had failed to report an outbreak that sickened at least 23 residents, placed infected residents in rooms close to uninfected ones and botched coronavirus test processing.
Ron Westbury, one of the nursing home’s owners who assumed administrator duties after the outbreak, said by email that Westbury Conyers has taken corrective actions since then and shared a letter from state regulators saying a visit Jan. 21 found the home in “substantial compliance.”
Burden’s family called multiple law firms, hoping one would help them file suit. But each time they heard the same response: Attorneys weren’t taking cases involving the coronavirus in nursing homes because Georgia’s governor had granted them immunity from most lawsuits by executive order in April. Legislators later wrote that protection into state law.
“My aunt, she was so heartbroken, and she kept asking, ‘Is there anybody who will help us? They need to be held accountable,’” said Theresa Burrough, one of Burden’s daughters.
Atlanta attorney Jeff Harris said his firm gets about 10 calls a day related to coronavirus deaths and injuries but Georgia’s law makes such cases nearly impossible to win.
“The worst thing you can do for somebody is give them false hope,” Harris said. “But it’s hard to tell them you’ve got no case.”