Georgia has been one of the fastest-growing southern states, perhaps due in part to one of the best regulatory environments in the region. Lately, its fiscal situation has been improving as well.
At 4.5 percent of personal income, state tax collections are significantly below the national average, while local taxes—4.3 percent of income—are slightly above. Like most southern states, Georgia has less than one effective competing local government per 100 square miles, which reduces the benefit from its fiscal decentralization. Georgia also keeps subsidies to business a bit lower than the national average and debt substantially lower. Government employment used to be about the national average, but Georgia has brought it down from 13.2 percent of private employment in 2010 to 12.0 percent in 2014.
Like other conservative southern states, Georgia does well on labor and land-use policy. It has a right-to-work law, no minimum wage, relaxed workers’ comp regulations, and moderate zoning. It has partially deregulated telecommunications and enacted statewide video franchising. Unlike some other states in its neighborhood, however, Georgia also enjoys a relatively good civil liability system, which has also shown some improvement between 2008 and 2014. In 2007–8, the state relaxed the approval process for automobile insurance rates. The one regulatory policy area where Georgia does poorly is occupational freedom. The extent of licensing is a bit broader than the national average, and health care professions face generally tight scope–of-practice rules.
On personal freedom, Georgia is about what one would expect from a conservative southern state. Its incarceration rates are very high, even adjusted for crime rates, although victimless crime arrests have fallen. It has not reformed civil asset forfeiture sufficiently, and it also participates much more than average in federal equitable sharing. The burden of proof falls on innocent owners, all proceeds go to law enforcement, and some actions require only probable cause to show that the property is subject to forfeiture. It is one of the worst states for cannabis or gambling. On the other hand,
it is one of the best states for educational freedom, scores well on gun rights, and regulates tobacco use lightly compared with most other states. At the end of 2014, it was also one of the worst states for marriage freedom, which means it stands to rise significantly post-Obergefell.
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