This past session the Georgia General Assembly identified permanent job creation and small business support as the keys for a successful and long-term economic recovery. We set out in January to improve the resources businesses across this state have to invest in new jobs and grow their companies. By the end of April, after a long, grueling session during the worst financial crisis in decades, your conservative leaders passed landmark measures aimed at providing hard-working Georgians new opportunities and for the state to prosper and grow as a whole:

• Job creation starts at small businesses, and we provided tax incentives to hire new employees, cuts to capital gains taxes and corporate net worth taxes, and incentivized small business investment through up to a $10 million “Angel Investor” tax credit

• The overall tax burden was lowered through a sweeping property tax overhaul and phase-out elimination of the state property tax and retirement income tax

The state legislature stepped up to the plate this year to shield hard-working Georgians from increased government interference and kept your money where it belongs – with you.

Now it is time for our elected officials in Washington D.C. to do the same thing and protect its citizens from greater tax burdens by extending the Bush tax cuts for families and small businesses.

Unemployment remains extremely high and families across the nation are struggling to make ends meet, maintain their current employment or find a job at all. The last thing Americans need is a tax

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201 Paul D. Coverdell Legislative Office Building, 18 Capitol Square, Atlanta, Georgia 30334

404.656.0028 or outside the Atlanta area 800.282.5803

increase and have more of their precious dollars taken away to help foot the bill for Washington’s current out-of-control spending practices.

Small businesses will be severely impacted if these tax cuts are allowed to expire. These companies which employ the majority of the American workforce have already felt the negative impact of this recession and forced into reducing employee hours, instituting layoffs, filing for bankruptcy, or ceasing operations altogether. These companies are in desperate need of relief, not higher taxes, during this critical time in our nations’ economic history.

If these tax cuts expire, it could cripple any recovery and expansion our nation has seen so far. It is vital that the government support the economy through favorable taxing mechanisms and by simply getting out of the way of the free market.

Congress cannot undermine the work Georgia and other states have done to boost up small businesses and help families during this difficult time. Small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy and an extension of the Bush tax cuts is necessary and vital to their growth and ability to create jobs. Economic stability will only come if the American workforce, not the government, is empowered to manage their own money and be the ones who lead the nation into better days.

Please call or write your elected officials in Washington and urge them to extend the Bush tax cuts so small businesses can grow, expand, and provide the jobs our state and our country desperately need.

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Sen. Cecil Staton serves as Chairman of the Science and Technology Committee. He represents the 18th Senate District which includes portions of Bibb, Crawford, Houston, Jones and Monroe counties. He may be reached by phone at 404.656.5039 or via e-mail at cecil.staton@senate.state.gov.