What's Going On At The Capitol?

In April, Gov. Sonny Perdue vetoed a bill that would give Georgia taxpayers a collective $142 million property tax rebate. His reasoning focused on the Georgia Department of Revenue's personal income tax collections down 24% in April.

If you filed your personal income taxes by the April 17th deadline, but paid by check, you may have noticed that your check did not clear for over a month. Recently, information has been released that collections for May were up 45.4% ($453 million) over last year.

Legislators are now asking if Gov. Perdue and the Department of Revenue were delaying the deposit of checks to support his veto of the property tax rebate. See story from "local newspaper."

In practice, clients have been hit with other policies initiated by Gov. Perdue "fiddling" with the numbers. Before the Department of Revenue may issue a refund for a corporate taxpayer that has overpaid a specific tax (say state withholding), the company must undergo an audit. After the field auditor says that the Department owes the taxpayer a refund, it may take weeks or months before the Department releases a check to the taxpayed. I also understand the new guidelines for the HOPE Scholarship have left the State with a large surplus for the next academic year.