Cagle budget claim gets scrutiny

There are some things you just don't do if you want to be considered a conservative politician. Raising taxes is at the top of the list.

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle has proudly told audiences that Georgia leaders, amid one of the worst economic periods in American history, passed a budget this spring without raising taxes. Cagle, a Republican running for re-election, bragged about this at a Sept. 4 GOP rally in Carroll County, giving some of the credit to Gov. Sonny Perdue.

"[Perdue] was able to help us balance the budget without raising taxes on the residents of Georgia," Cagle said, according to the Times-Georgian newspaper in Carrollton.

Some AJC PolitiFact Georgia readers have questioned the claim in recent weeks and asked us to check it out. Carol Porter, Cagle's Democratic opponent in the Nov. 2 election, cut a television commercial this week calling out her opponent.

"Casey Cagle raised our taxes during a recession," a voice says over ominous music.

There are three main points of debate about Cagle's statement.

The first is centered on House Bill 1055. It is 84 pages of legalese that raises fees on many items. Most are for services not used by the average Georgian, such as the licensing fee for a fertilizer distributor. Some, however, included the annual fee to register a business in Georgia, the cost for a personalized license plate and fees to run a child care business. Combined, the fee increases are estimated to collect an additional $90 million over a year.

Some say a fee increase is simply a politician using a different word for a tax increase. Others disagree. It's a longtime argument. Webster's defines a tax as "a charge, usually of money, imposed by an authority on persons or property for public purposes." Webster's says a fee is "a sum paid or charged for a service." University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock considers a fee as the cost for a service people can choose to use or not. He contends a tax is for a service that serves a general purpose, such as public schools or roads.

Kelly McCutchen, president of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank, defines a fee as a charge that covers the cost of providing a service. He says a tax is when the government collects revenue that is greater than the cost of providing the service.

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Alan Essig, executive director of the liberal-leaning Georgia Budget & Policy Institute, also believes it is not accurate to say not providing the credit is a tax increase.

"What was taken out of the [state] budget was an appropriation," said Essig, a former state budget analyst. "It was a local tax that you give a credit to."

Clint Mueller, the legislative director for the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, agreed.

"They didn't force the [property tax] rate to go up," he said of the Legislature. "It was the elimination of the credit. ... Technically, it's not a tax increase."

Still, the bottom line is that many Georgia homeowners will pay more for their property taxes. We found this the most persuasive argument.

So where does that leave us? It's clear that there was no direct, across-the-board tax increase on Georgians. Some of the discussion turns into a semantic debate concerning what's a fee and what's a tax -- and whether there's truly a difference. We won't be able to settle that here. On the tax relief grant, while its demise wasn't technically a tax increase, the effect is that Georgia property owners are paying more. In all, we found Cagle's statement accurate but needs clarification on the tax relief grant. By the definition of our Truth-o-Meter, that rates as Mostly True.