By now most likely you have seen the Sonny Perdue ads in which the Governor advertises his initiative to exempt retired people from paying state income taxes.

The argument is a powerful one: Retired people have paid taxes for 40 years or more and deserve a break after so many years of loyal service in the “voluntary” tax system.

Retirees are naturally for it and the rest of us smile in agreement to the justification and look forward to the day that we can enjoy this same benefit when we retire. I say, why stop there?

I believe that we should give a five-year tax exemption for students graduating from a college or university. The reasons are simple. A large percentage of college students graduate from their educational institution financially strapped with heavy student loan debt. Many have to invest in business attire for the first time and sometimes work more than one job.

Offering this exemption to young adults just starting their career will allow them to pay off their educational debt more quickly and allow them to focus more clearly on establishing their new careers.

The real benefit will be for the state of Georgia, however. This type of program would undoubtedly attract college graduates from across the country to flock to Georgia. As a result, Georgia could have one of the most highly educated and skilled work forces in the country, attracting business and capitol on a global scale.

This would ensure Georgia’s economic viability and strength well into the next 20 years. It would most certainly provide us even greater tax revenues in the long run as Georgia would have such a large representation of upper middle class residents.

Secondly, I feel that families that voluntarily resort to one income earner be exempt as well. We often pine for the days when a family could get by on a single full-time income earner, allowing one of the parents to focus on spending as much time as possible raising the children.

We have seen too well the social costs of children being raised in single-family households or children who go unsupervised for a great part of the day. This tax policy would help encourage traditional family values that many feel are fading away in our new progressive secular culture.

What’s more, the tax revenue would most likely be made up by the cost savings down the road as children are raised in a secure and dependable environment as juvenile crime, drug use and other youth-based afflictions would decline.

Am I convincing you yet? What about exempting small business owners? This will encourage more people to start businesses, thus providing more jobs for tax paying citizens.

I could go on and on. It’s really pretty easy to come up with tax exemption plans and support them with sound reasoning. The problem is that those left holding the bag have to support a heavier one as more of the tax burden is shifted to them.

Yes, retirees have paid into our system for a long time, but a large chunk of government spending goes to programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and prescription drug plans that only benefit retired citizens.

It’s easy to exempt a sliver of people here and there from the tax rolls to gain some votes at election time, but that pits people against each other.

The fact is that the real way to reduce the tax burden is to cut government spending, which reduces the tax burden for everyone, not just a select few.

Brad Rudisail
Peachtree City, Ga.