Georgia House Speaker David Ralston (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Republicans in the Georgia House of Representatives are proposing the third state tax cut in the last five years.
Legislation introduced in the House Tuesday calls for lowering Georgia’s income tax rate from 5.75% to 5.25%, returning $1 billion to state taxpayers.
“We believe as a core principle that government must live within its means, that there is no such thing as government money,” House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, told reporters during a news conference unveiling the bill. “It belongs to Georgia taxpayers.”
The Republican-controlled General Assembly rolled back the state income tax rate from 6% to 5.75% in 2018, then followed that up last year by raising the standard deduction for single taxpayers and couples filing jointly.
In proposing a third tax cut, Ralston cited the highest inflation rate in the last 40 years – 7% statewide last year and 9.8% in Atlanta – leaving Georgians in need of tax relief.
“Everything is costing more, food, gas, the things Georgians buy every day,” he said.
Rep. Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said the tax cut would mean Georgia families with incomes of $30,000 a year would pay no state income taxes, while those with incomes of $50,000 annually would owe only $400. The cuts would take effect with the 2024 tax year.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Terry England, R-Auburn, said strong growth in tax revenues despite the impact of the pandemic means the state can afford an additional tax cut.
“The growth we’ve seen in revenues … is outpacing what the needs are,” he said.
But Ralston cautioned against completing eliminating the state income tax, an idea being pushed by state Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller, R-Gainesville.
“That would blow a catastrophic hole in the budget,” the speaker said. “The responsible way to do it is taken the incremental approach we’ve adopted in the House.”
Minority Democrats likely will push back against even an incremental tax cut. Democratic lawmakers have long argued the state is underfunding such critical needs as education and health care.
House Republicans rolled out the proposed income tax cut on the same day the chamber passed a one-time $1.6 billion reduction in taxes proposed by Gov. Brian Kemp. The bill passed 148-18 and now heads to the state Senate.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Women in Georgia would be prohibited from obtaining abortion-inducing drugs through the mail without seeing a doctor under legislation that cleared the state Senate Tuesday.
The bill, which passed 31-22 and now moves to the Georgia House of Representatives, targets providing such drugs through telemedicine, a practice the Biden administration authorized last year as a pandemic measure.
“Telemedicine may be appropriate in certain instances but not when it places a patient in grave danger,” said Sen. Bruce Thompson, R-White, the bill’s chief sponsor. “This bill is about assuring powerful drugs such as these are prescribed as intended.”
But Senate Democrats accused the bill’s Republican backers of trying to make abortions more difficult to get – particularly for low-income women in rural communities – rather than protecting women.
Sen. Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain, said telemedicine is a critical option in a state where half of the 159 counties don’t have an ob-gyn.
“This bill is really about access to health care,” she said. “Without access, there can be no equity in health care.”
Other Democrats said abortion-inducing drugs have been thoroughly studied and proven safe.
But Thompson said some women have died after taking abortion-inducing drugs without the supervision of a qualified physician.
“This bill’s about protecting women,” he said. “It’s about the health and safety of women.
This story isavailable through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
University of Georgia football coach Kirby Smart (Credit: Dawg Post)
ATLANTA – A General Assembly that has been sharply divided during the current legislative session came together Tuesday to honor Kirby Smart, head coach of the national champion University of Georgia Bulldogs.
Smart, who led the Dawgs to a 33-18 victory over the University of Alabama in January, brought the national championship trophy with him to the Georgia House and Senate chambers.
After being greeted with standing ovations and Dawg barks from lawmakers, Smart thanked Georgia’s political leaders for helping him do his job through their efforts to make the Peach State an attractive place to live and – for top-level high school recruits – to play college football.
“Our university wouldn’t be what it is without the people in this room,” Smart told members of the Senate from the chamber’s podium. “You’re part of this team. … The better you make the state, the better off our football team will be.”
Smart told members of the House his team already has begun spring workouts with an eye toward the 2022 season this fall.
He said the Dawgs can’t afford to dwell on the successes of last season and the championship win over Alabama and legendary coach Nick Saban.
“If you sit for too long, that guy on the other side of the border will catch up to you,” he said.
This story isavailable through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – A federal judge has upheld the use of Georgia’s new legislative and congressional district boundaries for this year’s elections.
A ruling handed down Monday by U.S. District Judge Steve Jones declared the May 24 primaries are too close for the court to change the maps drawn by the General Assembly’s Republican majorities last fall.
Civil rights and voting rights groups filed lawsuits after the November special legislative session claiming the new district lines violate the federal Voting Rights Act by discriminating against minority voters.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia noted that Monday’s ruling keeps the lawsuits alive.
“Georgia voters deserve fair elections,” said Sean Young, the organization’s legal director. “We will never stop fighting to protect the sacred and fundamental right to vote.”
But Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called the ruling a “clear victory of common sense.”
“Georgia’s maps are fair and adhere to traditional principles of redistricting,” he said. “I look forward to defending them through this case and in the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court.”
The new congressional map is expected to help Republicans gain one congressional seat in Georgia, which would give the GOP a 9-5 majority.
On the other hand, projections show Democrats stand to gain at least one seat in the state Senate this year and a half dozen seats in the House.
However, the plaintiffs in the lawsuits argue Republican legislative leaders could have drawn at least a half-dozen additional new Black-majority districts to reflect the tremendous growth in Georgia’s Black population during the last decade.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
