Be on the lookout for "the" post -- Corporate tax collections on the decline in Georgia

I have been wanting to do a post about the topic of taxes for a month or so, and plan on getting to it soon. So that we will be on the same page, when I note that this post has some relevance or significance to the upcoming "the" post, you will know about what I speak.

Today in the Atlanta Business Chronicle Jim Lerner informs us under his headline "Corporate taxes collected by Ga. plunge $300M" that:

In fiscal 2004, which ended June 30, the state collected an unaudited $495 million in corporate income taxes compared with an audited $800 million five years earlier in 1999.

Since 1999, collections have declined three out of five years.

The $300 million decline is a small portion of the state's overall, $16 billion-plus budget, and Cagle is quick to add the legislature has no intention of boosting corporate tax collections at the expense of the state's business climate.

But, he notes, "Three hundred million really makes a big difference when you're in tough fiscal times like we're in."