Republican leaders in the Georgia House have offered a plan to replace the local real estate taxes that fund schools in the state with as much as a three percent statewide sales tax.

House GOP lawmakers originally offered their plan to shift the collection of nearly $5.5 billion in tax revenue in January 2004, MSNBC reported. At the time, Republicans were still the minority party in that chamber.

After the November elections a year ago, Democrats relinquished their control of the House, and new Majority Leader Jerry Keen, R-St. Simons Island, brought the idea up again.

Keen is in the process of recruiting the 120 votes needed in the House to get a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot in November 2006. Two-thirds of the state’s senators also would have to back the proposal.

The amendment would trade as much as a 70 percent reduction in annual taxes for a sales tax as high as 11 percent in some areas, Keen told the Georgia Daily Digest.

Addressing concerns that schools would be harmed by his plan, Keen said schools would actually benefit through the creation of the new sales tax collected above the 2.2 percent needed to continue funding schools at current levels.

The proposal – House Resolution 58 – is in the House Ways and Means Committee.