This year, GBPI hosted a fall policy forum, Reimagining Revenue: Changing Georgia’s Tax Code Is Critical for Racial Equity. This free, virtual event made available to the public focused on the contents of GBPI’s newest report, Reimagining Revenue: How Georgia’s Tax Code Contributes to Racial and Economic Inequality.
This year’s fall policy forum highlighted how the structure of Georgia’s modern revenue system—which determines how much money the state can use to fund Georgia’s budget—has been shaped over decades by racism.
Historic injustices and harmful policy choices have resulted in vast disparities in income across race and ethnicity in Georgia. Regressive tax policies at the state and local level continue to worsen those disparities by asking those making the lowest incomes, including a disproportionate share of people of color, to pay the largest share in taxes. Among measures like requiring poll taxes, weaponizing property taxes against Black Georgians, favoring corporate and wealthy interests and myriad fines and fees, public policy has created and widened disparities across income and wealth between people of color and their white counterparts.
The forum featured a presentation by GBPI Senior Policy Analyst Danny Kanso on his report’s findings, as well as a panel moderated by GBPI Senior Policy Analyst Ife Finch Floyd featuring:
- Danny Kanso, GBPI Senior Tax and Budget Policy Analyst; Government Relations Coordinator. Danny’s work focuses on fiscal research and issues related to the state budget, investments and spending, taxes and more.
- Emanuel Nieves, Director of Policy at Liberation in a Generation. Emanuel leads the organization’s work to develop and advance policies that can create a Liberation Economy where all people of color have their basic needs met, are safe from harm, are valued and belong.
- Monica Prasad, Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University. Monica’s areas of interest are political sociology, economic sociology and comparative historical sociology.
- Cortney Sanders, Senior Policy Analyst with the State Fiscal Policy division at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Cortney’s work focuses on state fiscal policy through a racial equity lens.
A recording of the event is available here. The PowerPoint from Danny Kanso’s presentation is available here.
