After having watched Governor Kemp’s final State of the State address, I am again struck by how he simply does not go far enough in areas where we seem to be in agreement even though there are better solutions that have already been investigated and recommended, even in the General Assembly. Despite his small government rhetoric, he also misses the solutions to real problems of affordability caused by the government while at the same time completely ignoring very serious issues facing Georgians. It is for these reasons that I have written this response on behalf of the Libertarian Party of Georgia.
The governor is once more proposing a one-time tax refund along with another 0.2% reduction in the state income tax. Are these measures better than nothing? Of course. Are these measures better than the property tax increases than many Georgians across the state are facing? Certainly. Are they enough though? Absolutely not. It is past time that Georgia eliminated the state income tax altogether. Georgian’s paychecks belong to them, not the government. This can be done, and it can be done without increasing any other taxes. In fact, it can be done even while reducing property taxes at the same time. All it takes is truly accepting that the people of Georgia know how to spend their own money better than the government does.
Speaking of money, while the governor recognizes the dangers of inflation coming from the federal government causing rising costs of living, he failed to offer a real solution. As long as Georgians are completely dependent on the United States dollar, they will continue to be at the mercy of reckless federal monetary policies enabled by the fact that dollars can be created out of thin air at the push of a button. Georgia should work to help insulate citizens by bringing back sound money as an alternative. Eliminating capital gains taxes on alternative monies like precious metals and allowing them to be used to pay public debts would go a long way towards protecting Georgians from the ever-inflating dollar.
Governor Kemp’s championing of funding the public schools in Georgia completely misses the serious problems that government control of education causes, resulting in higher costs and lower quality. Rather than pumping more tax dollars into the government system and vainly hoping that solves the issues, Georgia parents should be empowered to utilize alternatives like private schools and homeschooling without being forced to pay for government schools that they are not using and do not want to use. Parents are in the best position to know what the best learning environment is for their own children, not the state.
On the subject of children, it is of course a very worthwhile goal to protect them from criminal predators, but that isn’t enough. Children must also be protected from government abuse from a system that creates perverse incentives to separate children from their parents and keep them separated, even after it is proven that the reasons for separation were baseless. Even in the cases where families are eventually reunited, years of separation during a child’s formative years can cause lifelong harm. Georgia must do more to prevent tragedies like this from happening.
It isn’t just children who are victims of government abuse, adults in Georgia are being victimized as well in the name of public safety. Public surveillance without so much as a warrant continues to increase in Georgia. Combined with the rapid advances in artificial intelligence being made, the possibilities for violations of Georgian’s rights are truly dystopian. Once lost, liberties are very difficult to regain. Georgia should act now to reverse current trends before we truly live in a surveillance state where every move a citizen makes is monitored and processed by predictive algorithms and the right to privacy a thing of the past. Simply having laws on the books saying that information gathered can only be used in certain ways is not nearly good enough, not least of all because the laws can simply be changed with a few strokes on the pen while the surveillance infrastructure remains in place.
It also isn’t just civilians who need to be defended, it’s the men and women of the Georgia National Guard. The National Guard has long been abused, with people signing up to help their communities in times of emergency only to find themselves shipped off overseas to fight in undeclared wars, but lately this abuse has expanded to within the United States itself as well. National Guard units are being federalized over the objections of state governors without any congressional authorization, not to respond to an invasion by a foreign nation or a rebellion against the United States, but merely to support immigration enforcement. The National Guard is a state militia, not a federal police force and Georgia must make sure to defend the guard against such unconstitutional abuse.
I encourage Governor Kemp along with the members of the General Assembly, Republicans and Democrats alike, to work with me and the rest of the Libertarian Party of Georgia to truly improve affordability for the people of Georgia, protect and empower families, protect Georgian’s right to privacy, and protect the brave men and women of the National Guard.
