ATLANTA – The Republican-controlled Georgia House of Representatives gave final passage Tuesday to legislation prohibiting local governments from regulating the hours or schedules of employees in private businesses.
The bill passed 99-67 largely along party lines and now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature.
House Democrats criticized the measure as as attempt by the state to usurp local control.
“We already tell [local] governments, ‘You can’t set minimum wages,’ ” said Rep. Stacey Evans, D-Atlanta. “All local governments are trying to do is give predictability to workers in their areas.”
Rep. Mandi Ballinger, R-Canton, who carried Senate Bill 331 in the House, dismissed arguments by Democrats that the measure is a “preemptive” bill that takes authority away from local governments.
“This is a preventive bill that allows free markets to continue,” she said.
Rep. Kasey Carpenter, R-Dalton, said the legislation provides a practical benefit to businesses by allowing them to operate across city and county lines without being subject to local regulations governing employee hours or schedules that could be different.
The Senate passed the bill 31-21 last month.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Legislation aimed at protecting Georgia farmers from nuisance lawsuits drew support Monday from representatives of agribusiness and opposition from environmental advocates.
The Freedom to Farm Act would replace a law the General Assembly passed in 1989.
Under House Bill 1150, which the Georgia House passed early this month, neighbors bothered by bad smells, dust or noise emanating from a farm would have one year to file a nuisance suit. After that, any farm operating legally would be protected.
Opponents told members of the Senate Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee the bill isn’t necessary because the current law is working.
“In 32 years of application, not a single nuisance lawsuit has been lodged successfully against an agricultural operation in this state,” said Neill Herring, a lobbyist for the Georgia chapter of the Sierra Club.
But the bill’s supporter said they’re concerned about the potential for future nuisance suits as urban encroachment into farmland spreads across the state.
“If we are to encourage future farmers to move back to their hometowns and take up a significant investment, they ought to have protection [from lawsuits],” said Alex Bradford, director of public policy for the Georgia Farm Bureau.
Opponents also maintained the one-year statute of limitations is not enough to protect current farmers from large agricultural operations moving next to them and interfering with their legal right to enjoy their property.
“A nuisance takes time to develop,” said April Lipscomb, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “They don’t typically occur overnight.”
Bryan Tolar, a lobbyist representing the Georgia Urban Agriculture Council – which includes the landscaping, gardening and turf industries – suggested the bill should specify that smoke, dust and noise are not to be considered nuisances under the law. As written, the measure doesn’t include those words, he said.
“All agriculture is going to generate some smoke, some dust and some noise,” Tolar said.
The committee did not vote on the legislation Monday. To reach the Senate floor during the final two weeks of this year’s session, the bill must pass both the Agriculture and Rules committees.
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 signed legislation Friday temporarily suspending Georgia’s sales tax on gasoline.
The state House and Senate passed House Bill 304 unanimously during the last week.
Gasoline prices have skyrocketed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine more than three weeks ago and the subsequent ban on U.S. imports of Russian oil President Joe Biden imposed last week.
The state has suspended the gasoline tax in the past when fuel supplies were disrupted, most recently when the Colonial Pipeline shut down last May following a ransomware attack.
The governor is legally allowed to suspend the tax by executive order when the General Assembly is not meeting. In this case, with lawmakers in session, Kemp waited until the bill he proposed made its way through the House and Senate.
The suspension is due to expire May 31 unless the governor decides pump prices are still high enough to warrant continuing it.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Two think tanks that have long been fixtures under the Gold Dome have reached dramatically different conclusions about a proposed $1 billion state tax cut before the General Assembly.
The Georgia Public Policy Foundation (GPPF) says the legislation, which the state House of Representatives passed March 9, would create tens of thousands of jobs and put more money in the wallets of a broad range of taxpayers.
The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute (GBPI) says most of the benefits would go to upper-income Georgians, while slashing tax revenues would threaten state funding of public education and health care.
The bill would set Georgia’s income tax rate at a flat 5.25%, down from 5.75%. It would eliminate the current standard deduction and replace it with a larger “standard exemption” of of $12,000 for single filers and $24,000 for married couples filing jointly.
House Bill 1437 also would eliminate most other deductions, with the exception of charitable contributions. The legislation would take effect Jan. 1, 2024.
The bill is the next step in reducing state income taxes the Republican-controlled legislature began after Congress passed federal tax reform in 2017. The General Assembly lowered Georgia’s income tax rate from 6% to 5.75% in 2018.
Lawmakers haven’t followed through with additional tax relief until now because of fears the state’s finances would plummet during the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, tax revenues have been on the rise, leading to this year’s push for another tax cut.
Reducing taxes by $1 billion would create more than 21,000 jobs in Georgia within five years of the bill taking effect, according to projections by the Beacon Hill Institute, a Massachusetts-based economics research organization the GPPF retained to analyze the legislation.
During that same period, the tax cut would generate $1.3 billion in economic impact, including $504 million in new investment. In addition, Georgians would have almost $2.4 billion more in disposable income, Beacon Hill found.
“Because of the reduction of the state’s top income-tax rate and the elimination of tax brackets, the reward for increased work and saving would rise, motivating investment and economic growth,” study co-authors David Tuerck and William Burke concluded.
Kyle Wingfield, president and CEO of the GPPF, which advocates free-market approaches to public policy, said the projected impacts of the tax cut are in keeping with the foundation’s philosophy.
“We’ve always been for broadening the tax base, getting rid of as many tax break incentives as we can and having a lower rate for everybody,” he said.
But an analysis by the progressive-leaning GBPI found that $620 million of the $1 billion tax cut would go to Georgians in the top 20% – earning more than $109,000 a year.
Only 62% of taxpayers would get a tax cut from the bill, while 28% would not see a change, and 10% would pay more in taxes, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
House Democrats used the group’s analysis to argue against the tax cut on the House floor.
“We are effectively raising taxes on the working poor,” said Rep. Matthew Wilson, D-Brookhaven.
The GBPI has urged Georgia lawmakers to pass a state-level Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) as an alternative to the bill now before the legislature. A statewide poll the group released last summer found 70% approval for using some share of Georgia’s COVID-19 relief aid to create an EITC.
“The state currently has the option to better fund core services that promote economic opportunity or enact broadly popular tax cuts for low- and middle-income Georgians,” GBPI spokeswoman Caitlin Highland said.
A bill calling for a state EITC introduced last year with bipartisan support has failed to garner even a committee vote in the House.
The analysis the tax policy group conducted for the GBPI warned the proposed tax cut threatens the state’s ability to finance its long-term obligations, particularly when the huge influx of federal pandemic relief money goes away.
But Wingfield said the strong tax revenues flowing into the state’s coffers mean Georgia can afford to offer tax relief to its citizens.
“When the rainy-day fund is maxed out and you still have all this money left over, it’s a good idea to return it to the taxpayers,” he said.
The tax cut is now before the state Senate with a better-than-even chance of passing.
This story isavailable through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The Georgia House of Representatives is looking to give Southwest Georgia an economic boost.
House lawmakers unanimously passed a resolution Friday asking the state Department of Transportation to study the potential costs and benefits of extending Interstate 185 south from Columbus to the Florida line and widening Georgia 300 through Albany into four or more lanes.
“These highways could benefit from improvements as an economic development tool for Southwest Georgia,” Rep. Gerald Greene, R-Cuthbert, the resolution’s chief sponsor, said on the House floor.
The four-laning of U.S. 27 south of Columbus was completed several years ago, a project that was done piecemeal over the course of several decades. Extending I-185 along the U.S. 27 corridor through Blakely and Bainbridge would upgrade the highway to interstate standards.
South Georgia House members cosponsoring House Resolution 1467 included Reps. Winfred Dukes, D-Albany; John LaHood, R-Valdosta; Penny Houston, R-Nashville, and Randy Nix, R-LaGrange.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
