The political star of Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens seems to be getting brighter every day.

Olens was elected attorney general in 2010 in his first statewide race. He had been a popular chairman of the Cobb County Commission and was the appointed chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission for years.

His leadership abilities became clear in those metro Atlanta positions where he was especially skilled at building consensus among metro leaders. He was one of the strongest proponents of promoting Metro Atlanta regionalism we have seen in a decade.

His election as attorney general was not surprising, and he has generally gotten high marks for his work in the AG office. He’s also getting attention on the national level — he will be a speaker at the Republican National Convention, scheduled Aug. 27-30 in Tampa, Fla.

This is a payback for Olens, who was among the few high-profile Georgia Republican politicians to endorse Mitt Romney in the presidential primary. Most other top Georgia Republicans backed Newt Gingrich.

Olens has been an adviser to Romney on the 2010 health care law, which Olens is fighting with a lawsuit against the federal government.

Getting to speak at the GOP convention is a big deal for Olens. As one Kennesaw State University professor said: “Olens has turned some heads in the Republican Party … He can be relied upon for ideas, for strategy, and it helps the Georgia GOP get in the limelight. It’s great for him personally and for the state party.”

We agree.

As Olens’ star gets brighter, what’s his future? If Romney wins the presidency, Olens could get a lofty position in the Romney Administration. Otherwise, we suspect Olens will be around Georgia politics for some time in higher positions. Maybe even governor or U.S. senator.

He’s one of the GOP’s brightest stars in our state.

Online:

http://www.times-herald.com

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Aug. 12

Marietta (Ga.) Daily Journal on the sale tax holiday:

Georgia’s “Back-to-School” sales-tax holiday, its first in three years, is now history. …

Like its predecessors, it was unquestionably popular with shoppers, as stores were thronged. And why not? … The Georgia Retail Association predicted earlier this year that the holiday would generate an additional $476 million in economic activity. The sales had been suspended for several years as the state dug its way out of a budget hole.

But at the risk of looking a gift horse in the mouth, serious questions remain as to whether such holidays help or hurt. And that’s on top of the complaints about the timing of this year’s holiday, which was scheduled after many school systems (including Marietta’s) had already resumed classes.

A new national study by the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation (www.taxfoundation.org) shows that most consumers time their purchases for the sales-tax holidays. In other words, the holidays aren’t really doing much to stimulate sales in the 17 states (including Georgia) that hold them.

Also to be considered are the costs for businesses, which must reconfigure software and add manpower for the sales. Many observers have wondered whether the sales tax revenues lost by the states via such holidays are recouped via impulse buys by shoppers on those weekends for items that are not tax-exempt, such as that new purse or watch or the meal you and your kids grabbed at the mall’s food court. The Tax Foundation study states they are not.

And Georgia is no longer even getting the benefit of non-exempt impulse purchases by shoppers from neighboring states because Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee all now have such sales tax holidays. In fact, one of the best arguments that can be made at this point for keeping the Georgia sales-tax holiday is that it keeps such spending in-state, rather than encouraging Georgians who live near our borders to drive across state lines to do their Back-to-School shopping.

There’s also a subtle message in the popularity of such tax holidays that we hope our elected officials will pick up on: That is, people don’t like taxes, and they especially don’t like paying sales taxes. Those officials got a sharp reminder of that in the crushing rejection of the July 31 TSPLOST referendum. …

Online:

http://www.mdjonline.com

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Aug. 10

The Telegraph, Macon, Ga., on Congress:

It is rather amazing. Senators and representatives flocking out of Washington, D.C., during their long holiday, to sound the warning bell over the term “sequestration.” While the word has many meanings, to Congress it means that if the appropriations exceed the budget resolution, both passed by Congress, then the amount over budget is held back. But it gets more complicated. Rep. Austin Scott described the upcoming implementation of sequestration as a “train wreck.” It is a train wreck of their own design.

Unable to reach a compromise on $1.2 trillion in cuts or a combination of cuts and tax increases, Congress put a gun to its head last August with the trigger set to go off Jan. 1, 2013. If a deal is not reached, the gun goes off and Congress will have shot itself and the American public in the head. More than $500 billion is set to come out of the defense budget over 10 years and an equal amount from other government programs.

Unfortunately, there is ideology at work on both sides. The left is pushing a combination of tax increases on the wealthy and program cuts. The right is dead set against any tax increases. The various “super committees” have not been able to jump over that hurdle although there seems to be agreement by economists and others that some combination of tax increases, tax reform and spending cuts are the right way to go.

The entire sequestration process was described by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., in a Twitter feed, published by The Hill, “Sequestration in Latin means ‘dumb politicians destroying defense.’ ”

Defense department officials describe the looming cuts as “devastating.” Defense contractors are up in arms, holding back hiring because of the uncertainty. Let’s face it. Congress is in recess, and nothing will happen before they tally up their forces in the House and Senate and know who will be sitting in the White House come January. That is unfortunate. Congress will have kicked the can down the road only to kick it against a wall it cannot surmount. While they can vote to give the process an extension, that will only expose the deadly game they have been playing with the American public for their own electoral designs.

Online:

http://www.macon.com