Georgia Special Council on Tax Reform and Fairness Begins Tax Code Review

/PRNewswire/ -- Ryan, the leading tax services firm in North America, with the largest transaction tax practice in the United States and Canada, today announced that the Special Council on Tax Reform and Fairness for Georgians ("Special Council") has begun its review of Georgia's tax code. Initiated by House Bill 1405 ("HB 1405"), which the Georgia Legislature passed earlier this year, the Special Council is tasked with studying Georgia's current revenue sources and base revenue structure. The panel, made up of business representatives, economists, and political leaders, will report findings and recommendations to the Speaker of the House and the Lieutenant Governor by January 10, 2011 when the Georgia Legislature convenes its next regular session.

"I applaud Georgia's legislative leaders for instituting the Special Council," said Georgia Representative Chuck Martin, R-Alpharetta and Ryan Director. "With the full support of the House, Senate, and the Governor's Office, I believe the Special Council's work will effectively generate ideas to positively re-engineer our current system to institute policies that are fair, effective, and geared to today's economy."

The Special Council is expected to look at sales tax, current sales tax exemptions, a possible reduction in income and corporate tax, and the capital gains tax. The review is not expected to consider local property system changes or seek to impact local taxes or tax collections. A special legislative committee called the Special Joint Committee on Georgia Revenue Structure ("Joint Committee") will consider the Special Council's recommendations and will be required to introduce one or more bills in 2011 that reflect those recommendations without significant changes. The Joint Committee would have continuing jurisdiction over those bills during the legislative process.

In reviewing Georgia's tax structure, members said that they intend to compare it to tax structures in other southeast states and states which, like Georgia, have an AAA bond rating. The Special Council does not want to recommend a change that could jeopardize Georgia's bond rating. Economists from the Fiscal Research Center at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University have presented the Special Council a summary of Georgia's major state and local government taxes, along with copies of 2009 policy briefs that address the buoyancy of the sales tax, the personal income tax, and the corporate tax.

The Special Council plans to hold a series of public hearings across the state to give the public the opportunity to testify about Georgia's tax system. The hearings are scheduled for August 26th, 30th, and 31st, and September 1st, 2nd, 7th, and 9th. The Special Council has also established a Website at http://fiscalresearch.gsu.edu/taxcouncil/index.htm where information will be posted and interested parties can follow updates and view meeting notes.

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Fewer Than 170 Offices Remain Candidates for Consolidation

Five post offices in Georgia remain on the list- three in Atlanta, one in Port Wentworth and one in Macon.

/PRNewswire/ -- Fewer than 170 offices remain under review for possible consolidation under the U.S. Postal Service station and branch consolidation initiative.

Today's announcement updates a review process begun earlier this summer that initially examined about 3,300 stations and branches in urban and suburban areas across the country, focusing on facilities in relatively close proximity to one another. The initiative looks to determine where consolidations might be feasible without compromising customer access to postal services.

The Postal Service receives no tax subsidy to operate the nation's mail service. Revenues from the sale of postage, products and services fund its operations. At the conclusion of its 2009 fiscal year in October, the Postal Service reported a loss of $3.8 billion.

"To shore up its finances, the Postal Service is looking at every aspect of its business to economize. Reducing over-capacity in retail and delivery operations is a smart business move. Every effort is being made to maintain and improve customer access to postal services," said Steven J. Forte, senior vice president, Operations.

With over 36,000 Post Offices, stations, branches, contract and community post offices, the Postal Service has the largest retail network in the United States. An additional 56,000 locations such as supermarkets, drug stores, and other retailers sell postage and selected postal services. Nearly 18,000 ATMs dispense sheets of stamps. In addition postage can be purchased online at usps.com and printed on personal computers.

As part of the consolidation process, the Postal Service has filed periodic updates with the Postal Regulatory Commission identifying the retail stations and branches that remain under consideration. The filing does not represent a final decision on consolidation. At this point no facility-specific final decisions have been made as a result of this initiative.

New initiatives also are being undertaken to build revenue, including Flat Rate Priority Mail pricing and the introduction of greeting cards to 500 select Post Offices.

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Postal Service Updates Station and Branch Consolidation Initiative

17 Georgia branches are still on the list including 1 in Athens, 13 in Atlanta, 2 in Macon and 1 in Port Wentworth.


PRNewswire -- The U.S. Postal Service today updated the list of retail stations and branches that remain under review for possible consolidation, with only 241 offices still under review.

Unlike most federal agencies, America's national mail system receives no tax subsidy for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. The Postal Service reported a loss of $3.8 billion at the end of its 2009 fiscal year in October.

"To shore up its finances, the Postal Service is looking at every aspect of its business to economize. Reducing over-capacity in retail and delivery operations is a smart business move. Every effort is being made to maintain and improve customer access to postal services," said Steven J. Forte, senior vice president, Operations.

Today's announcement updates a review process begun earlier this summer that initially examined about 3,300 stations and branches in urban and suburban areas across the country, focusing on facilities in relatively close proximity to one another. The process is to determine where consolidations might be feasible without compromising customer access to postal services.

With over 36,000 Post Offices, stations, branches, contract and community post offices, the Postal Service has the largest retail network in the United States. An additional 56,000 locations such as supermarkets, drug stores, and other retailers sell postage and selected postal services. Nearly 18,000 ATMs dispense sheets of stamps. But customers do not have to visit a physical building to purchase products and services; postage can be bought at usps.com and printed on personal computers.

As part of this process, the Postal Service has filed periodic updates with the Postal Regulatory Commission, identifying the retail stations and branches that remain under consideration. The filing does not represent a final decision on consolidation. To date, no facility-specific final decisions have been made as a result of this initiative.

New initiatives also are being undertaken to build revenue, including Flat Rate Priority Mail pricing. If it fits in the box, it ships for one low price regardless of U.S. destination or weight. Another recent revenue building initiative introduced greeting cards to 500 select Post Offices.

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GT Study: Behavior of Online Reviewers Affects Their Credibility

Consumers increasingly rely on recommendations in online forums, such as Amazon.com and Angieslist.com, when deciding which products and services to buy. But, in most cases, they've never met the posters of these reviews.

Without traditional cues to assess the credibility of reviewers, people evaluate not only the content of opinions, but also the online behavior of posters, according to a recent article in the Journal of Marketing Research titled “Listening to Strangers.”

Factors influencing the perceived value of reviews include posters’ speed of response to queries, the length of their opinions, back-and-forth dialogue, and a reputation for successfully answering others’ queries, found the researchers.

The study was conducted by Nicholas Lurie, assistant professor of marketing at Georgia Tech College of Management, and Allen Weiss and Deborah MacInnis, marketing professors at the University of Southern California.

"Imagine that you send an e-mail to members of your neighborhood association asking for recommendations for painters. How do you decide whose recommendation to trust?,” Lurie asks. “Our study suggests that you are likely to give greater weight to those who respond quickly, write a lengthy response, and engage you in a back-and-forth discussion.”

In addition to finding that reviewers’ current behavior affects value perceptions, the researchers found that previous reviews can help or hurt depending on whether information seekers want to make a decision about buying a particular product/service or just learn more about the options.

If information seekers want to learn more about a particular topic, such as important features to consider when buying a digital camera, they value recommendations from information providers who have made multiple contributions on the same subject. But they tend to discount advice from people whose posting history shows recommendations made across a wide variety of topics.

The reverse is true when information seekers have moved from the learning stage to the decision-making point. When people aim to make a decision, they value posters who've made recommendations across a wide variety of topics.

For example, in an online marketing forum, a CEO with a decision-making orientation who needs help choosing between different sales-force automation software packages might value information from an advisor with a wide range of interests more than the recommendations of someone with highly specialized expertise.

The researchers also found that receiving large amounts of information is more important for individuals with a learning goal than for decision-makers.

"Our results suggest that it is critical for marketers (as providers of information) to discern whether potential customers have a learning or a decision-making goal,” write the researchers. “Making strategic choices about how to respond to customer inquiries and from whom such responses should come is particularly relevant to current marketing environments in which communication is customer initiated.”

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Princeton Review Awards Georgia Tech Top Green Ranking

Georgia Tech is one of eleven universities to receive a top score of 99 for green efforts from Princeton Review. The “Green Honor Roll” included six public universities and five private schools.

The criteria for the rating cover three broad areas: 1) whether the school’s students have a campus quality of life that is healthy and sustainable, 2) how well the school is preparing students for employment and citizenship in a world defined by environmental challenges, and 3) the school’s overall commitment to environmental issues. The institutional survey included questions on everything from energy use, recycling, food, buildings and transportation to academic offerings (availability of environmental studies degrees and courses) and action plans and goals concerning greenhouse gas emission reductions.

More than 534 schools were given a green ranking; the other ten schools receiving the top ranking are Arizona State University (Temple campus), Bates College, Binghamton University, College of the Atlantic, Emory University, Harvard College, University of New Hampshire, University of Oregon, University of Washington and Yale University.

Georgia Tech emphasizes sustainability throughout its campus with 21 endowed chairs and 23 research centers that include significant sustainability components. The Institute has also set a goal that every student take at least one of more than the 100 courses with a sustainability emphasis. Georgia Tech has several institutional environmental sustainability programs that embrace green cleaning, solid waste recycling, drought-tolerant vegetation and storm water capture and reuse. (Georgia Tech received the 2008 American Forest & Paper Association College and University Recycling Award. AF&PA’s awards program recognizes outstanding school, business and community recycling efforts.) The Institute is also implementing a Sustainable Food Project encouraging environmentally responsible dining habits, like trayless dining to conserve.

The University of Georgia and The Georgia Review Announce a Landmark Cultural Event: The Pulitzer Legacy in Georgia

The Georgia Review, the award-winning literary quarterly published from the University of Georgia and distributed nationwide, announces “The Pulitzer Legacy in Georgia” program—a four-day celebration of fine writing and writers hosted by the Jekyll Island Club from October 27-30. The event features four recent Pulitzer Prize winners, all of whom have an association with the state of Georgia, the University of Georgia, and/or The Georgia Review: poets Stephen Dunn and Natasha Trethewey, journalist and historian Hank Klibanoff, and historian Edward Larson.

Stephen Dunn’s Different Hours took home a Pulitzer in 2001, and he has been a frequent contributor to The Georgia Review for more than twenty-five years. Hank Klibanoff, former managing editor for news at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, won the 2007 Pulitzer in history for The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation, coauthored with Gene Roberts.

Edward Larson, winner of the 1998 history prize for Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion, is University Professor of history at Pepperdine University and former Herman E. Talmadge Chair of Law and Richard B. Russell Professor of American History at the University of Georgia.

Natasha Trethewey, a University of Georgia alumna, is the Phillis Wheatley Distinguished Chair in Poetry at Emory University and won the 2007 Pulitzer for Native Guard.

Each of these distinguished guests will participate in a variety of activities over the course of the week, including readings, panel discussions, question-and-answer sessions, and informal gatherings with attendees. “The Pulitzer Legacy in Georgia” represents a one-of-a-kind opportunity for the public to mix and mingle with four of the finest talents in contemporary American arts and letters—and to do so in a beautiful oceanside setting. The schedule will leave participants free time in the afternoon for exploring the Jekyll Island area or just relaxing on the beach.

The world-famous Jekyll Island Club opened in 1888 as a private retreat for many of that era’s most prominent Americans, including Joseph Pulitzer and his family. The Jekyll Island Club—now a National Register of Historic Places site—was described in the February 1904 issue of Munsey’s Magazine as “the richest, the most exclusive, the most inaccessible club in the world.” No longer inaccessible, Jekyll Island is renowned for its beaches and pristine coastal ecosystem, and is a destination resort that offers fine modern amenities alongside a wealth of Georgia history.

Registration for the event is open now and continues through early October or until capacity is reached. For the best choice of discounted accommodations at the Jekyll Island Club, those interested should register early. A ticket for the entire week includes admission to all conference events, including author readings and book signings, question-and-answer sessions, most meals, Jekyll Island History tours, and tours of the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. Individual day tickets also are available.

“The Pulitzer Legacy in Georgia” is a production of The Georgia Review and the University of Georgia. The presenting sponsor is the Jekyll Island Club, with additional support generously provided by the Jekyll Island Authority, the Jekyll Island Foundation, the Jekyll Island Museum, the University of Georgia Alumni Association, Rich Products Corporation, the UGA Odum School of Ecology, Ameris Bank, the Brunswick-Glynn County Public Library, the Brunswick-Golden Isles Chamber of Commerce, The Brunswick News, John Vance Hughes,and others to be announced.

For more information and to register for the program, contact the offices of The Georgia Review at 1-800-542-3481 or garev@uga.edu. Lodging reservations should be made through the Jekyll Island Club at 1-800- 535-9547. For more information, see www.thegeorgiareview.com and www.jekyllclub.com.