ATLANTA – Georgia’s unemployment rate fell for the 21st consecutive month in January to 3.2%, down slightly from the 3.3% jobless rate posted in December.
At the same time, the number of jobs in the Peach State climbed to an all-time high of almost 4.7 million, while the number of employed Georgians rose to more than 5 million.
“I am not surprised that our unemployment rate dropped again in January,” state Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler said Thursday. “However, with the number of jobs at an all-time high, we must be careful to not lose focus on supporting our workforce and getting qualified workers into the right careers.”
On the negative side, initial unemployment claims in January were up 11,335 from December to 28,257. However, compared to January of last year, jobless claims declined by 102,169, or 78%.
More than 240,000 job opportunities are listed online at EmployGeorgia.com, resulting in a minimum of more than 325,000 unfilled positions.
The health-care industry posted the most openings with 41,000, followed by retail trade with 23,000, manufacturing with 20,000 and accommodation and food services with 19,000.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The Georgia House and Senate reached agreement Wednesday on a mid-year budget that provides pay raises and bonuses to state and University System of Georgia employees as well as school workers.
Budget negotiators added nearly $450 million to the spending plan at the 11th hour, bringing the mid-year budget to $30.3 billion, thanks to new projections that allowed Gov. Brian Kemp to increase his revenue estimate for the fiscal year ending June 30.
House lawmakers approved the mid-year budget 162-2 on Wednesday. The Senate is expected to follow suit on Friday.
Most state and university system employees would receive $5,000 raises, with an additional $2,000 going to correctional officers in the juvenile and adult prison system in an effort to reduce high turnover.
School employees, including cafeteria and custodial workers and school bus drivers, would receive $2,000 bonuses, up from $1,000 in Kemp’s original mid-year budget plan.
Georgia teachers are slated to get $2,000 raises in the fiscal 2023 budget the House Appropriations Committee is expected to approve on Thursday. The increase would combine with $3,000 raises teachers received in 2019 to fulfill the governor’s campaign pledge to increase teacher salaries by $5,000.
The mid-year budget also includes $950 million to fully fund the state’s K-12 student funding formula, which was cut amid the financial uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic’s early stages.
Lawmakers added spending in other areas of the mid-year budget, including $17.5 million in rural downtown development grants, $18.5 million in airport aid and $30 million in maintenance and upgrades to state parks, which saw increased use – and the resulting wear and tear – during the pandemic.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp and legislative leaders moved Wednesday to temporarily suspend the state sales tax on gasoline amid record-high prices at the pump.
Fuel prices that already had increased significantly in recent weeks with inflation have soared since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions imposed against Russia. On Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced a ban on oil imports from Russia into the U.S.
The average price of a gallon of gas in Georgia rose from $2.59 in March of last year to $4.06 through the end of last month, a figure that is continuing to increase rapidly.
“We know that Georgia families and businesses are hurting from outrageously high gas prices,” said Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge. “In these extraordinary times, every little bit helps.”
The state has temporarily suspended the gasoline tax on a number of previous occasions.
Most recently, Kemp issued an emergency order last May halting collection of the tax after the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline disrupted fuel supplies. The General Assembly was not in session at the time.
This time, the suspension is being included in a bill making its way through the legislature on a fast track.
The revenue the state loses by not collecting the gas tax would be replaced either with undesignated surplus money left over from fiscal 2021 or with the state’s “rainy-day” reserves, state Rep. Jodi Lott, R-Evans, one of Kemp’s floor leaders in the House, told a legislative subcommittee Wednesday.
The temporary suspension would take effect when the governor signs the bill and expire May 31.
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp and legislative leaders moved Wednesday to temporarily suspend the state sales tax on gasoline amid record-high prices at the pump.
Fuel prices that already had increased significantly in recent weeks with inflation have soared since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions imposed against Russia. On Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced a ban on oil imports from Russia into the U.S.
The average price of a gallon of gas in Georgia rose from $2.59 in March of last year to $4.06 through the end of last month, a figure that is continuing to increase rapidly.
“We know that Georgia families and businesses are hurting from outrageously high gas prices,” said Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge. “In these extraordinary times, every little bit helps.”
The state has temporarily suspended the gasoline tax on a number of previous occasions.
Most recently, Kemp issued an emergency order last May halting collection of the tax after the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline disrupted fuel supplies. The General Assembly was not in session at the time.
This time, the suspension is being included in a bill making its way through the legislature on a fast track.
The revenue the state loses by not collecting the gas tax would be replaced either with undesignated surplus money left over from fiscal 2021 or with the state’s “rainy-day” reserves, state Rep. Jodi Lott, R-Evans, one of Kemp’s floor leaders in the House, told a legislative subcommittee Wednesday.
The temporary suspension would take effect when the governor signs the bill and expire May 31.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The General Assembly weighed in Wednesday on the Russian invasion of Ukraine with condemnation and a determination not to do business with the government that brought on the war.
The Georgia Senate unanimously passed legislation prohibiting companies owned or operated by the Russian government from bidding on state contracts.
“The killing of innocent women, children and men has to stop,” said Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, the bill’s chief sponsor. “If we can send a message, this is one we need to send.”
Senators amended the bill to add the government of Belarus to the ban on state contracts.
“Belarus is allowing its territory to be used as a staging ground for attacks on Ukraine,” said Sen. Marty Harbin, R-Tyrone, the amendment’s sponsor.
Separately, the state House of Representatives unanimously approved a resolution condemning the invasion and calling on President Joe Biden and Congress to work toward bringing the conflict to a peaceful end.
“It is important to say what should be obvious – to stand with good against evil,” said House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, the resolution’s chief sponsor.
Ralston noted that both the House Republican and Democratic leaders cosponsored the resolution.
“This is not a Democrat or Republican issue,” he said. “On this point, politics stops at the water’s edge.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The Republican-controlled Georgia House of Representatives passed a $1 billion state income tax cut Wednesday over objections from Democrats that most benefits would go to upper-income taxpayers while some Georgians would pay more.
The bill, which passed 115-52 and now moves to the state Senate, would reduce Georgia’s income tax rate from 5.75% to 5.25%.
While doing away with the standard deduction, the legislation would increase the standard exemption from the current $2,700 to $12,000 for single filers and from $7,400 to $24,000 for married couples filing jointly.
“A family of four will not pay one penny of state income tax on their first $30,000 of income,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Shaw Blackmon, the bill’s chief sponsor, told House lawmakers during a brief debate.
Blackmon, R-Bonaire, said that same family of four with an annual income of $50,000 would receive a tax cut of more than $400.
“[This] will make us more competitive for wage earners at every income level,” he said.
But Rep. Matthew Wilson, D-Brookhaven, cited an analysis by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute that the bill would raise taxes on about 10% of taxpayers, while $620 million of the $1 billion tax cut would benefit only the top 20% of taxpayers.
“We are effectively raising taxes on the working poor,” he said.
Rep. Jasmine Clark, D-Lilburn, said the legislation’s sponsors haven’t explained what state services would have to be cut for the state to afford doing away with $1 billion in tax revenue.
“We’re going to have to cut from education, health care … mental health,” she said.
Wilson accused Republican leaders of playing politics with the issue by shoving the bill through the House just one week after introducing it.
“This bill has been rushed through in an election year because it looks good on a [campaign] mailer,” he said. “But it’s not good policy.”
The legislation would take effect during the 2024 tax year.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
