PLUS: Georgia (nearly) stand alone in its embrace of touchscreen voting technology that runs afoul of its own law

Georgia Republicans are racing toward a Florida- and Tennessee-style dream: wiping out the state income tax and pitching it as an overnight “5% raise” for struggling families.

Ron digs into what the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute says really happens if lawmakers eliminate the 5.19% personal income tax that currently brings in nearly half of Georgia’s revenue. Their analysis shows the state would likely need something like a 12% state sales tax, pushing the average household’s tax bill up about $1,000 a year and shifting the burden onto low- and middle-income Georgians while the top 5% reap nearly half the savings.

Ron walks through how tourism-dependent states like Florida and Tennessee balance their books, and why Georgia’s very different economy makes copying them a recipe for a regressive tax hike dressed up as relief.

From there, the conversation widens to the “K-shaped economy.” Drawing on reporting from Sasha Rogelberg and economist Peter Atwater, Ron connects the dots between flat or falling wage growth for the bottom 90%, rising subprime debt, and booming stock gains for the wealthiest households. It’s not just about the numbers, he argues, but about feelings: a sea of despair at the bottom versus overconfident invulnerability at the top. That emotional gap is reshaping politics, fueling resentment, and creating a messaging test Democrats failed at in 2024 - and Trump continues to - when they insist the economy is “great” while groceries, utilities, and rent keep climbing.

Then Marilyn Marks of the Coalition for Good Governance joins Ron to sound the alarm on Georgia’s voting system. She explains how Dominion ballot-marking devices, giant touchscreen displays, and QR-code ballots violate both the spirit and letter of Georgia’s secret-ballot laws, enable subtle hacks that leave no audit trail, and create real intimidation risks in small communities and church precincts.

Marks walks through the Coffee County breach, the Curling lawsuit, and why federal experts have warned Georgia for years to fix obvious vulnerabilities. Her solution is surprisingly simple—and cheaper: warehouse most of the touchscreens, keep a few for accessibility, and join the 70% of America already using hand-marked paper ballots fed into the same scanners Georgia uses now.

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