On July 28, 2010, a panel of academic economists and business leaders launched five months of work that could lead to an overhaul of Georgia’s tax laws.

The 11-member Special Council on Tax Reform and Fairness for Georgians, created by the General Assembly this year, will consider how state and local income, property and sales taxes are affecting government revenues and taxpayers’ wallets.

The group must develop recommendations by the opening of the 2011 legislative session in January.

The panel’s work will take place with a deep recession as a backdrop, a downturn that has produced a steady decline in state tax revenues and forced Gov. Sonny Perdue and Georgia lawmakers to cut several billion dollars from state agency budgets.