“I’m running as a conservative reformer,” said state Sen. David Shafer, now in the late stages of a Republican primary campaign for lieutenant governor.
Interviewed Wednesday in Statesboro, he cited accomplishments during his more than 16 years in the Georgia Senate, which included five years in the leadership as Senate president pro tem.
“You know, I authored the constitutional amendment that the voters approved in 2014 that put a cap on the state income tax,” Shafer said when asked about taxation. “We’re the only state in the union that constitutionally guarantees that the income tax will not be increased above the 2014 level.”
The 2014 amendment capped the state’s tax on the top bracket of income at 6 percent.
During the 2018 session, the General Assembly passed legislation that lowers the top income tax rate to 5.75 percent this year and after that to 5.5 percent if certain revenue targets are met, Shafer noted.
“And I would like to see us consider additional cuts,” he said.
With its existing tax system and spending cuts, Georgia’s state finances fared better through the recession and slow recovery than many states.
“I think that we make better decisions when we have limited revenue,” Shafer said when asked if the tax-cutting trend state could go too far now that the economy has improved.
“The reality is we will spend every dollar that comes in, and limiting the revenue forces us to make decisions about the proper role of government and the most efficient way to fulfill that role,” he said.
Fair Tax here?
His campaign website states that “as a matter of principle,” Shafer believes taxes on “consumption, not productivity,” should be government’s source of revenue and that he supports the “Fair Tax” proposed by now-retired U.S. Rep. John Linder. Beginning in 1999 Linder, a Republican from Georgia, introduced legislation in Congress to replace all federal income taxes with a national sales tax.
But the Fair Tax was a federal proposal that hasn’t been adopted, and Shafer isn’t proposing that Georgia immediately replace its state income tax with a higher sales tax.
“But if it were to be adopted on the federal level, I think we ought to mirror that on the state level,” he said. “In fact we’d have to, because if the Fair Tax was adopted on the federal level it would do away with the IRS and the federal internal revenue code, and our entire income tax structure (in Georgia) is based on the federal structure.”
In the meantime, he said, Georgia lawmakers should continue to look at the state income tax rate “and cut it when and where we can.”
Health Care
For rural Georgia, Shafer supports certain legislative efforts to bolster the health care system. Many rural hospitals are struggling, and some areas have a shortage of health care professionals.
“Businesses will not come to or expand in an area that doesn’t have ready access to both routine and emergency medical care,” he said. “That’s a challenge for some parts of rural Georgia, and we’re trying to rethink how we deliver health care.”
This year, he noted, the House and Senate passed legislation “promoting the micro-hospital model.” Under House Bill 769, which if signed by governor will implement House Rural Development Council recommendations, a micro-hospital is defined as a hospital with two to seven beds that provides around-the-clock emergency services.
“Telemedicine can play a larger role, but telemedicine doesn’t work without a broadband connection to the internet, and you know, there are many areas of rural Georgia that don’t have reliable internet service,” Shafer said. “That’s another area we’ve got to address. Young people are not going to remain in an area that’s not connected to the rest of the world through the internet.”
School safety
For kindergarten through high school education, the fiscal year 2019 budget just signed by Gov. Nathan Deal is the first to restore full per-student funding to school districts since the 2008 recession. This is also the first time since the Quality Basic Education funding formula was established in the 1980s that the state has fully funded it, Shafer said.
Despite his tax-cutting preference, the schools, and particularly school safety, are one area where Shafer advocates state investment. He sponsored legislation during the 2018 session “that would have provided some state support for sheriffs’ deputies being assigned to protect schools,” he noted. Introduced late in the session, it did not move forward and would have to be reintroduced.
“You know the average bank robbery yields $6,000, yet banks will hire guards to protect their branches,” Shafer said. “There’s nothing more precious that our children, and whatever it costs to make those schools safe, the place that we spend most of their young lives, we need to bear that cost.”
But the National Rifle Association recently endorsed him in his bid for lieutenant governor. So it is not surprising that increased gun regulation would not be part of his plan.
“If you look at the most recent tragedy in Florida, it was not a failure of a gun law, it as a failure to secure the school,” he said.
A majority of Florida’s state lawmakers arrived at a different conclusion and approved some gun control measures, which are being challenged by the NRA.
Shafer has represented District 48, in the suburbs north of Atlanta, as its senator since early 2002. He was president pro tempore, chosen originally by a unanimous vote of fellow senators in early 2013 and re-elected twice, until January, when he stepped down to campaign for the statewide office.
He has a degree in government from the University of Georgia. Before running for the legislative seat, Shafer served as executive director of the Georgia Republican Party. He owns a warehousing business. He lives in Duluth with his wife Lee and daughter Ellie and also has a stepson, J.W.
In the race for lieutenant governor Shafer is one of three Republicans on their party’s primary ballot, while two Democrats are running in their party’s primary. Early voting opened Monday in the May 22 primaries.
Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.