Once again Georgia is shown to be a low tax state. The Tax Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington D.C., released a national study that compares how much different companies pay in taxes. The study reveals that Georgia has the 3rd lowest business tax costs for mature operations and the 6th lowest for newly-established operations.
Based on the anti-tax rhetoric of recent years, you’d think low business taxes would make Georgia a great place for economic growth and jobs. The lower the state taxes go, the better the economy does—right?
Wrong. Since the Great Recession started four years ago, Georgia ranks 47th in job growth, which is considerably worse than states with the highest taxes, including Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York. In fact, all 10 states with the highest business tax costs have much better job growth than Georgia .
We can improve our ability to compete by refocusing our efforts away from additional tax cuts and towards increased investments in education, transportation, healthcare, and other quality of life factors.
