ATLANTA – Georgia
House Republicans will push for the second installment of a state income tax cut
during this year’s legislative session, despite sluggish tax collections that
have prompted Gov. Brian Kemp to order spending reductions.
Lawmakers
voted two years ago to reduce Georgia’s income tax rate for the first time
since the 1930s, from 6% to 5.75%. The 2018 legislation called for another vote
in 2020 on cutting the tax rate further to 5.5%
“The income
tax cut was a commitment we made to the people of Georgia,” House Speaker David
Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, said Thursday. “I hope we do that.”
Ralston’s
determination to follow through with the rest of the promised tax cut sets up a
likely debate among majority Republicans during the session that starts next
week.
Senate
Appropriations Committee Chairman Jack Hill warned this week that 2020 may not
be the right time to be making additional tax cuts. Hill, R-Reidsville, pointed
to state tax revenues that are running well below projections, a trend likely
to create a budget gap the legislature will have to fill.
With tax
collections running well below expectations last summer, Kemp ordered state
agencies to reduce their spending by 4% during the remainder of the current
fiscal year and by 6% during fiscal 2021, which begins July 1.
For their
part, minority Democrats have opposed additional tax cuts as irresponsible at a
time the state is being forced to cut vital programs and services.
While
Ralston supported cutting state income taxes again, he was less enthusiastic
over giving Georgia teachers the remaining $2,000 of a $5,000 pay raise the
governor promised on the campaign trail in 2018. Lawmakers approved the first
$3,000 of the raise last year.
“That was
not my campaign promise, even though it’s a laudable goal,” Ralston said.
Given the current
money crunch, the speaker said the remainder of the teacher pay raise and other
spending priorities lawmakers may want to push in 2020 may have to wait until
next year.
On other
issues, Ralston said Thursday he supports a constitutional amendment letting
Georgians vote on whether to legalize casino gambling, pari-mutuel betting on
horse racing and sports betting.
During his
annual pre-session news conference, the speaker also endorsed legislation aimed
at increasing the availability of public transit in rural communities and
opposed a bill the Senate passed last year calling for the state to take over
operations at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport from the city of
Atlanta.
Georgia Power’s Plant Bowen near Euharlee, Ga. 11 Alive
ATLANTA – Georgia Power Co. has
launched a plan to reuse coal ash from 29 ash ponds around the state it is in
the process of closing.
The Atlanta-based utility
announced Wednesday it has released a request for proposals on ways to reuse ash
stored at 11 active and retired coal-fired power plants across the state.
Georgia Power already recycles
more than 75% of the dry coal it produces as a byproduct of its current
operations but is looking to do more.
“The request for proposals will
allow Georgia Power the potential to expand our efforts in the recycling of
coal ash, while continuing to permanently and safely close all of our ash
ponds,” said Mark Berry, the utility’s vice president of environmental and
natural resources.
“Today, most of the coal ash
Georgia Power produces is recycled for various beneficial uses, such as
Portland cement, concrete and cinder blocks, and we are committed to seeking
new beneficial reuse opportunities for the coal ash stored at our active and
retired plants.”
Georgia Power unveiled a
plan in 2015 to spend $1.5 billion to $2 billion to close all of its coal ash
ponds to meet new federal regulations for handling coal ash. The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency got involved in the issue in response to a 2008
spill of 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash at a plant near Kingston, Tenn.,
that smothered about 300 acres of land.
Under the Georgia Power plan, which the company updated in
2018, 19 of the ash ponds are slated for excavation and closure, including all
ponds located adjacent to lakes or rivers. The remaining 10 ponds will be
closed in place using advanced engineering methods and closure technologies.
The RFP announced Wednesday contemplates reusing ash both
from excavated ponds and from ponds closed in place.
Environmental groups have called on Georgia Power to dig up
all of the ponds due to be closed and not leave any in place.
A report several groups released in December 2018 found coal
ash was leaking into groundwater supplies at 10 of Georgia Power’s coal plants.
The report warned contamination of the groundwater would only get worse unless
the coal ash is removed.
On Wednesday, Georgia Power defended its ash pond closure
plan as in full compliance both with federal rules and more stringent state
requirements.
Bidders interested in the RFP must get a pre-qualification
questionnaire from Georgia Power and submit their information by Jan. 24.
ATLANTA – The
University of Georgia’s new master’s program in film, television and digital
media soon will have its own digs.
The
University System of Georgia Board of Regents approved a plan Wednesday to
renovate more than 5,800 square feet of space at UGA’s Grady College of
Journalism and Mass Communications to house the two-year master of fine arts
program the school launched last year.
The $3.75
million project, to be funded through private donations, will provide studio
and support space for the master’s program. The renovation will be designed,
constructed and outfitted in collaboration with the Georgia Film Academy (GFA),
which the state created and financed to train Georgians in the skills needed to
work in the fast-growing film industry.
The
renovation project will house students during the first year of the master’s
program. During the second year, they will move to Pinewood Studios to work
with instructors from the GFA.
The primary
feature of the project will be an instructional film production stage, with
flexible seating to allow for various types of presentations, an overhead
retractable lighting system, a green screen and post-production suites.
In other
business Wednesday, Jim James, the university system’s vice chancellor for real estate and
facilities, informed board members of
system Chancellor Steve Wrigley’s decision last month to rank three Atlanta-based
architectural firms to design a new $49.9 million dormitory for first-year
students at UGA.
The
top-ranked firm is Beck Architecture Georgia LLC, followed by Thompson, Ventulett,
Stainback & Associates Inc. and Collins Cooper Carusi Architects Inc.
If the university
system’s real estate staff is unable to negotiate a contract with the
top-ranked firm, it would then move to the second-ranked architect.
The
120,500-square-foot building will house 525 students. The project will be
funded through a combination of public-private venture financing and UGA
housing funds.
As
chancellor, Wrigley has the authority to make such decisions during months when
the Board of Regents does not meet.
ATLANTA – Low-income
pregnant women in Georgia should receive Medicaid coverage for one year after
giving birth, a legislative study committee is recommending.
The proposal
to expand Medicaid coverage for eligible women from the current limit of two
months postpartum highlights a 14-page report issued by the state House of
Representatives Study Committee on Maternal Mortality.
The panel
was formed last year to look into why Georgia is consistently among the 10
states with the highest maternal death rate.
A review
committee the General Assembly created in 2014 that examined 101 cases of
pregnancy-related deaths in Georgia from 2012 through 2014 estimated that 60% were
preventable.
Besides
extending Medicaid coverage for pregnant women to one year, the study committee
recommended the General Assembly pass legislation requiring an autopsy
following any woman’s death during pregnancy or up to one year after giving
birth.
Several of
the panel’s recommendations were aimed at the particularly high rates of
maternal mortality among black women in Georgia, women living in rural
communities and among obese women suffering from conditions that affect
pregnancy outcomes, including hypertension and diabetes.
The review
committee found that pregnancy-related mortality among black, non-Hispanic
women in Georgia during the three years it researched was 47 deaths per 100,000
live births, three to four times higher than among white, non-Hispanic women.
The study
committee suggested the state encourage hospitals and medical societies to
provide training in racial sensitivity for physicians, nurses and other
health-care workers.
To address
geographic disparities in pregnancy outcomes, the panel suggested the state continue
to fund and support efforts to increase Georgia’s rural health-care workforce
and expand the availability of telemedicine services by providing incentives
that prevent telemedicine from being a money-loser for providers.
The
committee also recommended continuing efforts to combat the obesity epidemic in
Georgia.
ATLANTA – Poor
administration of Georgia’s film tax credit, the state’s largest and arguably
most generous, is wasting millions of tax dollars, a new state audit has found.
In a 75-page
report, the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts accused the state
departments of Revenue and Economic Development of lacking the controls
necessary to prevent improper granting of credits to film production companies.
“Due to
control weaknesses, companies have received credits for which they are not
eligible and credits that are higher than earned,” the report stated in its
opening paragraph. “The issues can be attributed to limited requirements and
clarity in state law, inadequately designed procedures, insufficient resources
and/or agency interpretations of law that differ from our own.”
The General
Assembly first approved the film tax credit in 2005, then increased it three
years later when lawmakers found it wasn’t attracting as much interest as they
had anticipated. The 2008 legislation raised the base credit rate to 20% for
film companies that spend at least $500,000 on qualified productions, with an
additional 10% for a qualified promotion of the state, typically featuring the
Georgia peach logo at the end of a film’s closing credits.
The film
industry skyrocketed in Georgia after the 2008 changes, soaring from $242
million during fiscal 2007 to $9.5 billion by the end of fiscal 2018. By early
2016 Georgia had vaulted to No. 3 in the nation in filming movies and TV shows,
behind only California and New York.
According to
the audit, the state delivered more than $3 billion in credits from 2013 through
2017. The numbers grew steadily during that period, from more than $667 million
in 2016 to more than $915 million in 2017.
Despite
granting more credits than any other state, the audit found that Georgia
requires film companies to provide less documentation than any of the 31 other
states offering film tax credits. Georgia is among only three state that do not
require an audit by the state or a third party.
While the
state Department of Revenue does require limited documentation to receive the credit,
the audit found many production companies failed to provide the documentation yet
still received the credit.
In its
defense, the revenue agency responded to the report by noting that 38% of its
tax credit processing work is devoted to the film tax credit, even as it administers
more than 50 tax credits on the books.
The
Department of Economic Development pointed to “limited resources and the
inability to access confidential taxpayer information” as obstacles to the
agency’s efforts to administer the credit.
Fiscal
conservatives in the General Assembly have complained about the cost of the film
tax credit from time to time. With state tax revenues running well below
projections through the first five months of the current fiscal year, the film
tax credit and other tax incentives could
face scrutiny during the 2020 legislative session that begins next week
from lawmakers looking for ways to reduce spending.
“Some were great policy when they took place,” said Georgia Rep. Brett Harrell, R-Snellville, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. “But times change and we need to reevaluate them.”
