ATLANTA – A downturn in state tax collections predicted several months ago is starting to show up.
The Georgia Department of Revenue brought in $4.19 billion in tax revenues last month, down 16.5% compared to April of last year, the agency reported Tuesday.
The declining revenues were found primarily in individual income taxes, which fell 32.4% from April 2022.
The sharp year-over-year drop in individual income tax collections is due in large part to the first-year implementation of legislation the General Assembly passed last year that permits certain pass-through entities such as S-corporations and partnerships to make entity-level tax elections on behalf of their individual partners. The bill took effect in tax year 2022 for returns filed this year.
Individual income tax payments declined by 49.4% last month compared to April of last year. Tax refunds also were down, but the 37.9% drop in that category was more than offset by the falloff in payments, resulting in the net decrease.
Net sales taxes actually rose by 2.4%, with consumer spending still strong due to a still robust state economy. Corporate income tax receipts in April increased by 4.7% over April 2022.
With gasoline prices up significantly over last year, state motor fuel tax collections shot up by 83.5%.
The state’s chief economist, Jeffery Dorfman, told lawmakers in January that state tax revenues were likely to drop sharply this year because last year’s huge increase in capital gains tax payments was unlikely to be repeated.
ATLANTA – The commissioner of the Georgia Department of Community Health is leaving state government for a position in the private sector.
Caylee Noggle will become president of the Georgia Hospital Association (GHA) on Aug. 1, according to an association news release.
“Caylee is an accomplished leader, relationship builder and understands what it means to advocate for the betterment of others,” GHA board Chairman Dan Owens said.
Noggle was appointed commissioner of the DCH in 2021 by Gov. Brian Kemp after serving as deputy chief of staff for operations in the governor’s office and as interim chief of staff at the state Department of Public Health. Before joining the Kemp administration in 2020, she filled several management positions at the Georgia Student Finance Commission.
Longtime GHA President Earl Rogers will be retiring at the beginning of next year. Noggle was chosen to succeed Rogers following a nationwide search, Owens said.
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp has been busy exercising his veto pen.
The Republican governor has vetoed 14 bills the General Assembly passed during this year’s legislative session, not including nine vetoes of line items in the $32.4 billion fiscal 2024 state budget he signed late last week.
The 14 vetoes were highlighted by legislation sponsored by several GOP legislative leaders to establish a needs-based program of tuition grants for Georgia college students.
Legislative Democrats have long argued the state should feature needs-based scholarships along with the popular HOPE program, which awards scholarships based on merit. But in his veto message, Kemp wrote that the legislature didn’t put up the money in House Bill 249 to fund the program.
“The proposals in this bill are subject to appropriations and the General Assembly failed to fully fund these educational incentives,” the governor wrote.
Other bills Kemp vetoed include:
— House Bill 193 increasing the value of local government public works contracts subject to competitive bidding requirements from $100,000 to $250,000. Kemp argued state contracts worth more than $100,000 must be competitively bid, and he saw no reason to be more lenient with local contracts.
— House Bill 541 expanding Georgia’s “move over” law to apply to any stationary vehicle displaying flashing hazard lights. Kemp argued applying the requirement to such a broad group of emergency vehicles would pose a safety and enforcement hazard.
— Senate Bill 199 allowing the Employee Benefit Plan Council to offer health savings accounts to all eligible state employees to be funded through automatic salary deductions. Kemp wrote the fiscal ramifications of such a step have not been fully explored.
The nine budget line-item vetoes include several projects on Georgia’s public university and technical college campuses to be financed through bonds. In each case, Kemp wrote the projects had not been requested by the University System of Georgia or the Technical College System of Georgia.
The projects include:
— $6 million for a dental school building at Georgia Southern University.
— $6 million to expand a medical building at Southeastern Technical College in Vidalia.
— $4 million for land acquisition for Georgia Piedmont Technical College in DeKalb County.
— $2 million to build a new student services and academic support center at Georgia Military College in Milledgeville.
Kemp also vetoed $4 million in bond funding to expand the medical examiner’s office in Bibb County, arguing the project already has received funding.
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp has signed two transportation bills that will allow heavier trucks to ply Georgia highways and pave the way for the widespread introduction of electric vehicles.
House Bill 189 will let commercial trucks exceed the current legal weight limit of 80,000 pounds by 10% on roads other than federal highways, which are subject to federal limits.
Commercial trucks had been hauling loads weighing up to 95,000 pounds since the pandemic struck Georgia more than three years ago, but an executive order Kemp issued in March 2020 to allow the heavier weights expired in March.
The 10% exemption letting trucks run with up to 88,000 pounds of cargo applies only to trucks hauling agricultural products – including livestock – and logs. During the pandemic, the farming, livestock and timber industries came to rely financially on the ability to transport heavier loads to reduce the number of trips.
The bill’s opponents warned that allowing heavier trucks permanently will pose a safety hazard and tear up the roads.
The legislation also allows the higher weight limits to apply only within a 150-mile radius of the farm or other point of origin of the cargo and prohibits heavier trucks from running inside metro Atlanta.
The bill sets penalties for violations that increase in several stages depending on how much a truck is exceeding the new legal weight limit.
While House Bill 189 takes effect immediately, the impact of the electric vehicles legislation won’t be felt for some time.
Senate Bill 146 changes the way motorists charging their EVs will pay for the electricity they buy from the current system, which is based on the length of time a customer uses an EV charger. Instead, they will pay by the kilowatt hour, a federal requirement Georgia must meet to be eligible for $135 million in federal funds earmarked by Congress to build a network of charging stations across the state.
The new law will continue imposing the flat annual registration fee of $216 EV owners have been paying, while adding an excise tax of 2.84 cents per kilowatt hour.
Those double taxes prompted complaints from the bill’s opponents that Georgians will be paying the highest taxes on EVs in the nation. Supporters argued the excise tax is necessary to capture tax revenue from out-of-state motorists traveling through Georgia.
Most of the bill’s provisions won’t take effect until the beginning of 2025 to give the state agriculture and revenue departments time to prepare. The agriculture department will handle the inspection and permitting of the new public EV charging stations, while the revenue agency will collect the taxes on EVs.
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp signed a $32.4 billion fiscal 2024 state budget Friday that provides pay raises of $4,000 to $6,000 for law enforcement officers and $2,000 increases for other state workers, teachers, and university system employees.
The budget, which takes effect July 1, increases state spending by $2.2 billion, or 7.4%, over the budget the General Assembly adopted last spring.
The spending plan fully funds Georgia’s Quality Basic Education (QBE) k-12 student funding formula with a record $13.1 billion in state dollars and covers 100% of tuition for Georgia’s HOPE scholars for the first time since 2011.
“This budget improves the quality of and access to education all across the board,” Kemp said during a signing ceremony held at the massive construction site of a Hyundai Motor Group electric vehicles manufacturing plant near Savannah.
Wearing an orange safety vest and white hard hat, Kemp used the construction backdrop to highlight Georgia’s economic development progress, including announcements of the four largest projects in state history in just the past year, including the Hyundai plant.
As the budget went through the General Assembly, lawmakers added $47 million to the governor’s request for mental health services, bringing the total to $117 million.
The spending plan also includes $52 million to launch Georgia Pathways, Kemp’s limited Medicaid expansion that – unlike the federal version – includes a work requirement for enrollees.
The budget also funds construction, planning and/or design of 24 buildings, primarily projects on university and technical college campuses.
Also during Friday’s ceremony, Kemp signed legislation extending through 2026 a state sales tax exemption for “competitive projects of regional significance,” including the Hyundai plant. Kemp said most of those large economic development projects are located outside of metro Atlanta.
Separate from the signing ceremony, Kemp signed a bill Friday creating an oversight board, the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission (PAQC) to investigate complaints lodged against Georgia prosecutors and hold hearings. Senate Bill 92 passed the Republican-controlled General Assembly along party lines.
During the legislative debate on the bill, GOP lawmakers complained that district attorneys in some parts of the state have been soft on crime.
“As hardworking law enforcement officers routinely put their lives on the line to investigate, confront, and arrest criminal offenders, I won’t stand idly by as they’re met with resistance from rogue or incompetent prosecutors who refuse to uphold the law,” Kemp said Friday. “The creation of the PACQ will help hold prosecutors driven [more] by out-of-touch politics than commitment to their responsibilities accountable and make our communities safer.”
A coalition of criminal justice reform and voting rights advocates opposed the bill as a blow to democracy.
“This anti-democratic legislation creates a state commission with powers to investigate, sanction, and remove duly elected local prosecutors,” the group Progress Georgia wrote in a statement issued Friday. “This legislation is part of a coordinated anti-democratic power grab and attempts to undo the will of voters.
