Jim Wooten asks,

What better audience to test a revolutionary proposal on taxation than a gathering of the Georgia Chapter of the National Association of Tax Professionals?

Actually, it'd be difficult to find a worse audience--that'd be the case if the proposal under consideration were eliminating the income tax. Selling income tax preparers on fundamental income tax reform is like selling shares of Chick-Fil-A to chickens. Instead they were gathered to hear about a Georgia House Speaker Glenn Richardson's plan:

Richardson’s proposal, which he acknowledges is not yet perfected — it’s 85 to 90 percent there, he said — would eliminate all property taxes, including on homes, businesses and vehicles. Eliminating them would deprive local governments and school boards of between $8.2 billion and $8.5 billion per year, an offset that would come from the expanded sales tax. Existing “exemptions” amount to $10 billion per year, with groceries accounting for $1 billion, Richardson said.

All Georgians “ought to have some tax burden,” he said. “We’re rapidly becoming a nation that has more people who are not paying taxes than are paying taxes. That is a dangerous place for this nation to be. If we don’t stop it now we are soon going to kill the U.S. economy.”

The locals would not be deprived of revenues in the sums they’re now collecting. Richardson proposes a formula that would give each local government and school board the same share of the $8-plus billion they now collect. Another formula, now being drafted, would measure growth in the tax digest and give them the higher of inflation or actual property values. In addition, local governments could continue to seek voter approval for a 1 percent local sales tax, a portion of which could be spent on operations.