ATLANTA – The state probably has received its last positive revenue report for awhile.
The Georgia Department of Revenue reported Tuesday that tax collections increased by 9.8% last month compared to March of last year. The state brought in $1.83 billion in revenue last month, an increase of $163.5 million over March 2019.
While the coronavirus pandemic was starting to put a serious dent in Georgia’s economy last month, the rosy revenue report for March reflects a lag time between when businesses collect taxes and when they submit them to the state, said David Sjoquist, an economics professor at Georgia State University.
“March numbers are largely collected by firms in February,” he said.
The revenue increase in March was driven largely by individual income tax collections, which rose by 25.5% compared to March of last year. Individual income tax payments were up by 18.3%, while tax refunds plummeted 21.7%.
On the other hand, net sales tax receipts declined for the month by 2.4%. Corporate income taxes rose slightly, by 0.8%.
Sjoquist said the March report likely marks the end of positive revenues for the foreseeable future.
“The numbers next month will be quite a bit lower,” he said.
The General Assembly will have to grapple with the economic damage coronavirus is doing to the state’s bottom line when lawmakers resume a 2020 legislative session suspended indefinitely last month because of the virus.
Legislative leaders already have cast doubts on the state’s ability to continue making ends meet and still afford either the second installment of a $5,000 teacher pay raise Gov. Brian Kemp is recommending or an additional state income tax cut.
The $27.4 billion fiscal 2020 mid-year budget adjustment the General Assembly approved last month already is in place. The real challenge will be finding enough money to fund critical programs and services in fiscal 2021 starting July 1.
Chuck Eaton, chairman, Georgia Public Service Commission
ATLANTA – Georgia’s utility regulating board voted Tuesday to extend the suspension of service disconnections Georgia Power Co. began last month in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The state Public Service Commission (PSC) unanimously passed a resolution continuing the suspension of disconnections for non-payment of customer bills “due to the continued uncertainty surrounding the duration of [the] COVID-19 response.”
Customers won’t be cut off until the PSC decides to terminate the suspension of disconnections, subject to input from Georgia Power.
“There’s nothing more important right now than making sure everybody has electricity in their home,” commission Chairman Chuck Eaton said before Tuesday’s vote. “We need to be encouraging people to use their homes.”
“We recognize the extraordinary burden the COVID-19 pandemic has put upon our state and our customers,” added Paul Bowers, chairman, president and CEO of Georgia Power. “We commend the commissioners for their vote to extend the disconnect suspension and allow for special customer payment provisions.
“It is going to take all of us continuing to think about how we can support each other to see our communities through this uncertain time.”
The Atlanta-based utility suspended service disconnections on March 14 as the coronavirus crisis was beginning to take hold on Georgia, with businesses significantly reducing their operations or shutting down entirely, resulting in massive worker layoffs.
Cities and counties across the state began ordering residents to stay home unless they needed to shop for groceries or medicines or needed to go to essential jobs they couldn’t perform at home. Those local orders were subsequently superseded by the statewide shelter-in-place order Gov. Brian Kemp imposed late last week.
While the PSC resolution authorizes Georgia Power to dip into its storm damage reserves to help offset the costs of suspending service disconnections, it also acknowledges that won’t be enough to cover all of the financial impact the pandemic ultimately will have on the utility.
Under the resolution, the period during which Georgia Power will be allowed to recover those costs will be determined in the company’s next rate case.
The commission approved a rate increase last December that will raise the average Georgia Power residential customer’s bill by $168 per year.
Sen. Jack Hill, R-Reidsville, was the longtime chairman of the state Senate Appropriations Committee. He died on the evening of April 6, 2020. (Officials Georgia Senate photo)
Sen. Jack Hill, one of the longest-serving members of the General Assembly, who led efforts in the Senate to draft the state’s annual budget since 2003, died on Monday. He was 75.
Hill was found deceased at his office Monday evening, said Tattnall County Sheriff Kyle Sapp. Authorities do not suspect foul play or that his death was in any way related to coronavirus.
Hill’s death was confirmed by multiple state officials Monday night including Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and House Speaker David Ralston.
Hill, R-Reidsville, was among the longest serving lawmakers in the General Assembly at the time of his passing. He was also one of the legislature’s most influential members, tasked with overseeing lengthy and often testy negotiations each year of the state budget as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Words of praise and mourning poured from Hill’s colleagues at the state Capitol Monday night, shortly after Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan announced Hill’s passing in a message on Twitter sent around 7:15 p.m.
“For three decades, Georgians have benefited from his leadership and his calm and steady hand at the helm,” Duncan said in a statement. “He exhibited all the characteristics we hope for in a leader and was a true friend to all. Jack always ensured we were good stewards of taxpayer dollars, but it was more than that, he led with kindness and clarity.”
Hill was first elected to the Senate as a Democrat in 1990 and switched to the Republican Party in 2002. He was a grocer from rural Reidsville in Southeast Georgia and formerly chaired the Tattnall County Development Authority.
Hill was in the middle of complicated budget preparations that already involved challenging spending cuts before coronavirus hit Georgia on its pandemic march across the world. Lawmakers, especially Hill, were poised to reconvene in the near future for budget overhauling to account for the devastating economic impacts the virus is causing.
Kemp, in remarks on Twitter, called Hill “a gentle giant” who “was one of the kindest, most thoughtful people I ever served with.”
“His loss is devastating to our state, but he leaves behind an unmatched legacy of hard work and public service,” the governor said. “Please pray for his loved ones, colleagues and community.”
Ralston, the House speaker, described Hill as “one of the finest public servants I have known.”
“Quiet, studious, thorough, he exemplified the best in a leader,” said Ralston, R-Blue Ridge. “Senator Hill served with integrity. Georgia has lost one of its finest and I have lost a friend and a mentor.”
ATLANTA – Georgia Chief Justice Harold Melton Monday extended the statewide judicial emergency in effect because of the coronavirus pandemic until May 13.
Melton first declared the emergency on March 14 and set it to expire on April 13.
While the emergency declaration orders courts to remain open to deal with cases considered critical to protecting the “health, safety and liberty of individuals,” criminal trials and jury duty have been suspended.
Courts are urged to use teleconferencing and videoconferencing when feasible to avoid spreading COVID-19.
Melton’s order also suggests lawyers avoid creating a backlog of nonessential cases either by moving them forward or agreeing to continuances.
“The threat of this virus is difficult for everyone,” Melton said in a prepared statement. “Court personnel are no exception. We have to ensure that they can safely fulfill their mission.”
The order states that Melton will give notice when he is ready to lift the emergency “at least one week in advance to allow courts to plan the transition to fuller operations.”
Georgia Secretary of State announces the formation of an advisory group focused on absentee-ballot fraud amid the coroanvirus pandemic on April 6, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Georgia’s elections chief is gathering a group of law enforcement officials and elections experts to look at cracking down on mail-in ballot fraud with more voters poised to cast absentee ballots in the upcoming May 19 primaries due to coronavirus.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger also reiterated Monday he believes he does not have legal authority to change the date of the primaries amid the deadly respiratory virus unless Gov. Brian Kemp or state lawmakers take certain actions allowing him to do so.
The new advisory body aims to set up rules for investigating cases of signature mismatches on absentee ballots and instances when multiple votes are mailed from a single address, Raffensperger said. It will also create rules for investigating cases in which a person registers to vote using an address that is not their physical home address such as a P.O. box, he said.
Raffensperger said the group will work with his office’s in-house investigators and include elections experts, district attorneys and solicitors general. He did not have a list of members ready Monday but said they would be “well-respected people” with “the capability and the experience to make the appropriate decisions.”
“Those who wish to take advantage of us in these troubling times and undermine the strength of democracy in Georgia should be forewarned,” Raffensperger said at a news conference Monday. “Actions that delegitimize the integrity of the vote in Georgia will not be tolerated.”
State Democratic party leaders panned the announcement Monday, calling it “state sponsored voter intimidation” catering to unsubstantiated fears of absentee fraud.
“There is no empirical evidence that voter fraud is a legitimate issue in Georgia,” said Scott Hogan, executive director of the Democratic Party of Georgia.
“The best use of the Secretary of State’s time and resources is to continue ensuring that every single Georgia voter, regardless of who they are or who they’re voting for, is able to receive and cast their vote by mail ballot without fear for their health or safety,” Hogan said.
As coronavirus continues sweeping across Georgia and the U.S., Raffensperger’s office has started sending out request forms for absentee ballots to all roughly 7 million of the state’s registered voters. That decision came as many county poll workers signaled they would not show up on Election Day for fear of coming into contact with the highly infectious virus.
Previously, Raffensperger pushed the March 24 presidential primary back to May 19, coinciding with state and local party primaries. He has been under pressure from influential Republican lawmakers, including state House Speaker David Ralston and all 11 of the Georgia’s congressional Republicans, to postpone the primaries a second time to mid-June.
Ralston, in letters sent late last month, urged Raffensperger to reschedule the primaries in the interest of protecting the health and safety of in-person voters and precinct poll workers. Poll workers on average are older adults more susceptible to the harmful effects of COVID-19.
Raffensperger countered that state law does not allow him to change the presidential primary a second time or delay local and state primaries since the governor’s state of emergency – which grants Raffensperger authority to move the primaries – ends on April 13.
He said the General Assembly could convene to change state law or the governor could extend his emergency declaration. Either way, Raffensperger said he would defer to what top state officials want.
“At the present time, we don’t have the lawful authority to move the election because of the expiration of the emergency declaration by the governor,” Raffensperger said Monday.
Even so, the legislative counsel for the General Assembly last week reasoned that Raffensperger in fact could delay the primaries now, without any action needed from lawmakers or the governor.
A letter signed by Deputy Legislative Counsel Jeff Lanier notes that state law does not explicitly limit emergency election postponements to one time only, and that an overlapping federal emergency declaration now in place for a year would also give Raffensperger authority to make the delay.
Meanwhile, state Democratic leaders have pushed to keep the May 19 primary date as is. State Sen. Nikema Williams, who chairs the state Democratic party, said holding the primary then would ensure the right to vote for Georgians.
In a news release last week, Williams and the state party called for the state to pay the costs of postage for mail-in ballots and to continue mailing absentee ballot request forms for elections beyond the May 19 contest.
“Rather than delaying the vote, it is critical that the state expand vote-by-mail and make it accessible for more voters,” Williams, D-Atlanta, said in a statement.
Raffensperger, a Republican, came under fire from Democratic officials late last year for removing thousands of Georgia voters from the voter rolls. These were voters who had not participated in the last three elections, had moved to a new address or had their mail returned as undeliverable.
Raffensperger’s office stressed the removal action was required by state law and that persons on the removal list were sent notices advising them how to halt the proceedings. But the move came on the heels of controversy surrounding Kemp, who as secretary of state at the time he ran for governor in 2018 had previously removed voters from the rolls.
Speaking Monday, Raffensperger sought to assure the absentee-ballot fraud group will act as a buffer against illegal elections activity during an unprecedented time when millions of Georgians are poised to vote by mail as coronavirus deters many people from visiting local precincts on Election Day.
“We really want to make sure that we have the most robust and appropriate rolls to ensure that everyone’s vote counts once, that it’s accurate and that troublemakers can’t do things that don’t abide by that principle of one person, one vote,” Raffensperger said.
