The Grassroots Corner January 31, 2022

Georgia has a candidate for Lieutenant Governor, Jeanne Seaver, who favors abolishing the state’s income tax and replacing it with a state-level FAIRtax called the Georgia Fair Tax Act.  This isn’t just a talking point, either.  She’s serious about actually making that happen.

Seaver entered the campaign in February of 2021 because she wanted to eliminate both the state income tax and the current sales tax, both of which are laden with exceptions and exemptions that benefit special interests.  She notes that all of these exceptions and exemptions shift the tax burden from these well-connected special interests onto middle-class working families. Seaver wants to put Georgia’s middle-class working families back on an equal footing with the special interests.

As former Congressman Jack Kingston (GA-1, now represented by FAIRtax sponsor Buddy Carter) and former Georgia U.S. Senator David Perdue will attest, Seaver has advocated for the FAIRtax on the national level for over fifteen years.  However, the political environment on the federal level has been unfavorable for meaningful tax reform.  Consequently, Seaver now calls for trying the FAIRtax at the state level. That strategy is consistent with ours, where we have specific initiatives underway in Georgia, Alabama, and Nebraska.  Several other states have also expressed an interest in eliminating their state income tax.

The Georgia Fair Tax was proposed six years ago by State Rep. Emory Dunahoo. The measure found favor with the legislative rank and file, but leadership held it up in committee. The current measure proposes a 6.7% consumption tax on retail goods and services only. The measure includes a prebate so that no one pays tax on spending for basic necessities up to the poverty level. (Does that sound familiar?)

Seaver notes that most of the top-performing state economies are in states that have no state income tax. Two of them are neighboring Tennessee and Florida. Seaver exhorts Georgians to TAKE BACK CONTROL (Where have we seen that message before?) and insists on passing the Georgia Fair Tax Act. 

She also notes that states that have no income tax cover their budgets just as well, and in some cases better, than states that rely on an income tax. Seaver believes that, contrary to arguments from other sources, Georgia gained a budget surplus by taxing internet sales, proving that the FAIRtax can work. You can read about these points and others in Seaver’s op-ed at https://seaverforltgov.com/news-1. Go to the left column.

Jeanne Seaver was born in Asheville, North Carolina, and grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. She has lived in Georgia for twenty-two years and burnishes an impressive resume. She has been working that long for a private equity company that buys and sells businesses in the aviation industry. She worked in the legal field for the previous twenty-five years, counting criminal defense attorney F. Lee Bailey as one of her employers. She has her own consulting company and started “Politics Out Loud” to improve conservative messaging. 

While acknowledging that she will be working during her campaign, Seaver underscores that work will not keep her from running a vigorous campaign for Lieutenant Governor. And she has the experience to prove that point. Seaver ran for Congress in 2010 in Georgia’s Twelfth Congressional District. Since then, she has worked to elect others, always looking for the right conservative for the job.

Seaver was part of the Trump movement in 2015 before working for Trump became fashionable to many. In that role, Seaver started Trump’s grassroots organization in Georgia, including Women for Trump. 

When David Perdue first ran for the U.S. Senate from Georgia, Seaver found his credentials as an outsider and a businessman attractive.  With her help, Perdue won the election to the US Senate where he became a FAIRtax co-sponsor.  Seaver is largely credited with bringing Perdue on board with the FAIRtax.

Seaver has been advocating for the FAIRtax for fifteen years. She first heard of the FAIRtax at a luncheon where Herman Cain spoke. After hearing Cain, she got Boortz and Linder’s Fair Tax Book and learned all about it.  Today, she is in regular touch with our Georgia State FAIRtax Director, Jim Duffie, who gives her technical assistance.

Jeanne Seaver is running for Lieutenant Governor as a Republican with three other active Republican candidates and five active Democrat candidates. Seaver notes that two of the Republican candidates, who are members of the Georgia state Senate, have not been actively engaged in supporting the Georgia Fair Tax Act. Georgia FAIRtax State Director Jim Duffie tells us that all three Republicans want to abolish the state income tax, and two of the Republicans, including Seaver, want to replace the state income tax with a state-level FAIRtax. We do not know where the Democrat candidates stand on a state-level FAIRtax.

The Georgia primary election will take place on May 24, 2022.  If no candidate wins a majority, there will be a primary runoff on June 21, 2022. The general election will take place concurrently with the federal general election on November 8, 2022.  If no one wins a majority in the general election, there will be a runoff on December 6, 2022.
There are some quirks in Georgia’s election laws.  Voters do not have to declare a party affiliation to vote in a party primary election.  Also, candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor do not run together as a single ticket.  Each is its own separate race.  

Once elected, the Lieutenant Governor presides over the state Senate, making the Lieutenant Governor the only elected official who is part of both the legislative and executive branches of state government. Notably, as head of the state Senate, the Lieutenant Governor is elected by the people, while the Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives is elected by the House members.

Jeanne Seaver is a mother of three and grandmother of two. 
 
If you know someone like Jeanne Seaver, I would love to hear from you.


Take Back Control!

Jim Bennett

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