Late last year Republican leaders in the Georgia Senate had proposed reinstating the grocery tax in Georgia along with several other taxes as a way to balance the states budget and increase state revenue.The Republican leadership had proposed increasing the state sales tax from 4 to 5 percent, putting sales tax back on food and raising tax on cigarettes by $1 a pack.  The Republican leadership stated that doing any of the three would allow them to cut energy taxes to benefit manufacturers.  That would put the sales tax in Chattooga County at 8% and would put Georgia among only a handful of states charging full tax on groceries. Lt. Governor Casey Cagle said yesterday, that the idea was a "non-starter" and said that the legislature should be focused on making Georgia a more business-friendly state.  Cagle’s power in the State Senate has been challenged by the Republican leadership in the senate.  According to the Associated Press that he’s still the leader of the Senate, and calls last year’s changes to the power structure in the chamber "a failed experiment" that has hurt the Senate’s reputation as the more sober, deliberative body in the Legislature.