A local legislator said Gov. Sonny Perdue’s veto of one bill labeled as an economic bill showed leadership.

“I commend Gov. Perdue on his veto of HB 481,” said Dist. 16 Rep. Rick Crawford (D-Cedartown).

The governor’s veto on the JOBS Act, H.B. 481, came last week with many Republicans expressing dismay over Perdue’s opposition.

“While his veto was really based on the negative impact the bill would have had on the budget rather than any objection to the capital gains part, it was still the right thing to do,” Crawford said.

Crawford said the bill wasn’t a bad bill at its core. In fact, he voted for the original version. Crawford said the main point of the bill is to offer a tax credit for employers who hire unemployed people and keep them on the job for two years.

The state representative said the bill morphed into something he couldn’t believe in and he voted in opposition of the bill in the last days of the state legislature.

“A lot of funny business goes on during the mad rush at the end of a legislative session,” Crawford said, adding that the House and Senate had passed different versions of the bill.

“H.B. 481 came out of the conference committee on the last night of the session with a 50 percent cut in capital gains tax attached.

"That’s why I voted against the final version.”

Crawford said the legislators who negotiated H.B. 481 were the same one who killed the Homeowner Tax Relief Grant, which he whole-heartedly supports.

While the reason given by politicians for eliminating the grant was because the state couldn’t afford it, Crawford said the capital gains tax cut would have cost the same amount of money.

He said that the tax relief grants would have benefited every homeowner in Georgia while H.B. 481 shifts all benefits to only the top handful of income earners.

“In my view, priorities like that are completely backwards, and I applaud Gov. Perdue for showing the leadership to veto it,” Crawford said.