Senate Majority Leader Chip Roger’s property tax reform bill looks sure to pass the Senate with Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle’s support.

“We must bring fairness and equality to an antiquated and subjective system,” Cagle said in a statement today. “Simply put, many citizens are taxed far more than the value of their home and the appeals process is often daunting and confusing. Georgians do not pay higher taxes when the value of their cars decrease and property taxes should be no different. Today we are taking the first step to bring real changes and our goal is simple: increased transparency and fairness to a system that is broken.

Just like no statewide politician ever lost an election by attacking Atlanta, so the voters in Barrow, Jackson and Madison county are never going to turn someone out of office for slamming Athens.

State Senate candidate Kelley Gary did just that on Wednesday, taking a shot at the Athens-Clarke government for raising tax values on about 3,000 parcels.

Gary makes a couple of mistakes. He refers to a lawsuit filed against Athens-Clarke County. Actually, there have been two of them so far, and they’re tax appeals, not lawsuits. Details aside, here’s the gist:

As the world continues to go to hell in a handbasket, Gov. Sonny Perdue released the state's January revenue figures this afternoon. Tax collections are down 14.3 percent from January 2008 and 4.8 percent for the fiscal year to date.

The depressing news is a good reason to have a stiff drink and a cigarette - and a lot of people are. Taxes on alcoholic beverages are up 10.1 percent. Taxes on tobacco are up 15.7 percent.

Those are about the only two bright spots in this economy.

Blake.aued@onlineathens.com

Stop me if you think that you’ve heard this one before.

Everyone – well, almost everyone … I’m talking to you, libertarians! – knows we need to do something about transportation in this state. But just like last year, when a deal between the House and the Senate to let voters decide on a 1 percent sales tax for transportation died at the stroke of midnight on the last day of the session, the two chambers disagree again on a funding mechanism.

Rumors of a raid on state Rep. Jeanette Jamieson’s Toccoa office turned out to be a bit overblown.

A statement from Jamieson never made it to my in-box, but the Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail has the story:

“'Our office was not raided, no equipment such as computers was taken, no client files were seen or examined and we were never closed,’ Jamieson’s statement said.

“The search warrant, provided by Jamieson, lists bank records, business records, bills and statements as well as mortgage statements ‘for the period of 1998 to the present.’

“Jamieson said only documents pertaining to her personal tax records from 2006 and 2007 were taken.

“She emphasized that she and her staff fully cooperated with agents during the execution of the search warrant.

If you think this year’s Athens-Clarke budget battle was bruising, just wait ‘til next year.

Commissioners couldn’t quite bring themselves to cut the $1.75 million necessary to avoid a tax increase, settling at about $1.2 million after Manager Alan Reddish told them gas prices and other expenses are rising even more quickly then anticipated. I just finished writing a story about it, and if you’re reading this on Thursday, it’s in the paper (that’s why no link).

I made a bit of a mess with my story Wednesday on Athens-Clarke commissioners’ property taxes.

The statistics accompanying the story included only what they owed the county in taxes, not state taxes, school taxes or the refund from the state. Unfortunately, the “county taxes” label for some reason didn’t make it into the paper. So suspicious taxpayers pulled out their own bills for comparison, then called me, the tax assessor’s office and the tax commissioner’s office wanting to know why commissioners are getting such a great deal.

They’re not.

We ran a clarification today, but for anyone who’s interested, here’s exactly how Mayor Heidi Davison and commissioners’ 2007 taxes broke down. The 2008 bills won’t be sent out for a few months.

In case anyone was wondering, here’s how the local delegation voted on S.R. 796, the remnants of the artist formerly known as the Glenn Tax.

Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens: yes.
Sen. Ralph Hudgens, R-Comer/Hull/Athens: yes.
Rep. Tommy Benton, R-Jefferson: yes.
Rep. Terry England, R-Winder: yes.
Rep. Keith Heard, D-Athens/Atlanta/Fayetteville: no.
Rep. Tom McCall, R-Elberton: yes.
Rep. Doug McKillip, D-Athens: no.
Rep. Bob Smith, R-Watkinsville: yes.

It passed 48-7 in the Senate, but failed 110-62 in the House (it needed 120 votes because it’s a constitutional amendment). Seven Democrats voted in favor and only one Republican voted against it. I’m a little surprised at that. Tommy Benton, for example, didn’t like the plan at all, but I guess he figured why tick off the speaker if it’s not going to pass anyway?

For once, a Democrat has something nice to say about President Bush.

Congressional candidate Bobby Saxon came out today in favor of Bush’s plan to head off a recession by giving low- and middle-income taxpayers a $300 to $600 rebate, up to $1,200 for couples, and $300 for each child. It recently passed the Democrat-controlled Congress, so expect the checks to hit mailboxes late this spring.

I’m officially firing the starting gun on the 10th District election.

A rather unremarkable story last week about Paul Broun visiting a Spanish class at a Columbia County

Broun is quoted making some noncommittal remarks about how great the program is (I’m a little shocked he didn’t try to find out how many of the children are illegal) and took a swipe at No Child Left Behind.

Democrat opponent Bobby Saxon pounced, shooting out a press release taking Broun to task for voting against the S-CHIP (PeachCare) expansion and not providing “an effective alternative” to NCLB.