ATLANTA – The Georgia Senate passed legislation Thursday to establish a $100 million tax credit program for donations to support local law enforcement.
The bill, which passed unanimously and now heads to the state House of Representatives, is at the top of Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan’s agenda for this year’s General Assembly session.
It’s modeled after the highly successful rural hospital tax credit lawmakers created in 2016.
“The Senate is sending a message strong and clear to 11 million Georgians that we do care about their public safety,” Duncan, the Senate’s presiding officer, said after Thursday’s vote.
The new tax credit would let Georgians redirect state tax dollars they owe to a nonprofit foundation formed to support law enforcement in the taxpayer’s community.
Single taxpayers could receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit of up to $5,000. Married taxpayers filing jointly could receive up to $10,000 in credits.
Each local foundation would be limited to $5 million in donations annually to make sure the money is spread around the state. The total program would be capped at $100 million per year.
“We’ve seen a big spike in violent crime. It impacts all of Georgia – rural, urban and suburban,” said Sen. Larry Walker III, R-Perry, the bill’s chief sponsor. “This is a way for us to enhance Georgia’s public safety efforts.”
The legislation would require law enforcement agencies receiving foundation funding to spend it to hire more officers, provide officer pay raises, buy equipment, work with mental health “co-responders” to answer calls that could require intervention with a mentally ill person or enhance training of officers in avoiding violence.
“We’re talking about de-escalating a situation by being trained properly … to do other things before you pull a weapon,” said Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga. “Training is a key to make sure our communities are safe.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.