For Immediate Release
March 6, 2007

Contact: Alan Essig, Exec. Director, (404) 420-1324 - (770) 402-4630 (cell)

GBPI Releases Report Calling for Greater Openness and Transparency in Regards to Tax Expenditures

Atlanta -- The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute (GBPI) has released Show Us the Money: Transparency Needed on Tax Breaks. This report is an update of a report released in 2004. This report discusses other states' experiences with tax expenditure reports and highlights what a tax expenditure report should contain.

Tax expenditures are tax law provisions that exempt certain individuals, income, goods, services or property from being taxed. Tax expenditures reduce Georgia's revenue collections and are therefore a form of government spending through the tax system. Every dollar "spent" through tax expenditures is a dollar not available for government services or for a lower tax rate. Unlike direct appropriations, tax expenditures enacted without sunset provisions are rarely reviewed by policymakers nor included in the public budget process. Today 39 states conduct some form of tax expenditure report, which provide data on all tax expenditures annually or biennially. The intention of these reports is to provide state legislators and the public with data required to make sound fiscal policy decisions. 

The Douglas County School Bond Referendum held on March 20, 2007 was approved by voters.

Election results were:

By David Brandt

MDJ Assistant News Editor

Douglas County Sentinel is reporting Douglas County plans to ask for $130 for a new jail only one year after voters rejected a $87 million jail.

www.losinggeorgia.com has more on this report.

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New jail will go near courthouse

http://www.douglascountysentinel.com/

by Winston Jones 03/20/07

Douglas County plans to build a new $130 million jail on a site near the courthouse, according to an annoucement made Monday by County Administrator Eric Linton.

`We’re currently negotiating with the landowner so we cannot reveal the exact location now,` Linton said.

He made his comments at a noon meeting of city and county representatives to discuss a planned Sept. 18 vote on a one-cent special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST).

The new facility will be a law enforcement complex and will include sheriff’s administrative offices and jail.

The cost would include $120 million for the building and $10 million for the land. The project would be paid for by a $130 million bond issue, backed by SPLOST revenue.

Douglas County voters last July soundly defeated a $145.4 million SPLOST referendum after county officials announced the new jail would be built at the current Church Street downtown jail site.

The jail will be the Tier 1 project listed on the 2007 SPLOST referendum, Linton said, with funds to be split 50-50 between the jail and the Tier 2 county and city projects.

`The jail will be a 1,400-bed facility, designed to accomodate growth and constructed on a site that has room to double or even triple the number of beds, if necessary,` Linton said.

Linton estimated the SPLOST would generate a minimum of $166 million over a six-year period.