ATLANTA – A new nonprofit has launched to help Georgians contribute to a state tax credit program aimed at helping young adults aging out of the foster care system.
Fostering Success Act Inc., named after legislation the General Assembly passed last year, will help taxpayers submit applications to the Georgia Department of Revenue to qualify for the program.
Individual taxpayers can receive dollar-for-dollar state income tax credits for up to $2,500 per year contributed to the program, while married couples filing jointly can receive up to $5,000. Corporate donations are limited to 10% of the company’s annual tax liability.
However, contributors may apply to exceed those limits under a change that has occurred because the program has not reached its $20 million cap. The legislation took effect in January with the beginning of the 2023 tax year.
About 700 young Georgians age out of the foster care system each year, most with no family to return to after they leave the system. Contributions to the tax credit program will be used for “wraparound” services – including housing, food, and transportation – to help support these young people while they attend college or technical school.
“This is a great opportunity for any Georgia taxpayer – individual or corporation – to designate where their tax dollars are spent,” said Heidi Carr, executive director of Fostering Success Act Inc. “Through the Fostering Success Act … we will be able to do more to reduce poverty, homelessness and despair than any program ever before.”
Applications to the revenue department are accepted on a first-come basis. Once approved, taxpayers have 60 days from the date of approval to send their contribution check or pay online.
ATLANTA – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has issued an investor alert warning consumers to watch out for a cryptocurrency scam known as “Pig-butchering.”
The scam, which originated in Southeast Asia, involves a predator building the victim’s confidence through casual conversation that leads to the scammer convincing the victim they will help them make money.
“Pig-butchering” refers to the constant feed of information to the victim as the scammer “fattens” the victim with the illusion of opportunities for a great return on their investment.
“Everyday Georgians, especially retirees, are falling victim to unscrupulous con artists miles and miles away,” Raffensperger said Monday. “We are doing everything in our power to protect the hard-earned savings of good, honest people.”
Scam artists are contacting victims through social media, text messages, email and messaging apps, using publicly available data to target their victims. The scammer may pretend to be an old friend, a trusted public figure, colleague, or even a prospective romantic partner.
The conversation may begin slowly to center around investments or cryptocurrency. The scammer’s goal is not to ask for money but coax the victim to invest in a fake trading website or platform that shows a bogus balance with lots of profit.
Allowing the victim to withdraw profits early creates the illusion of a trusted process. Scammers may even “lend” money to facilitate larger trades.
Once the scammer decides to make his or her move, the website will require more money to cover withdrawal fees or taxes. The scammer then runs off with the funds, never to be heard from again.
Consumers who suspect such a scam may be taking place should immediately stop transferring money to the suspected scammer and report the crime to their bank and local law enforcement agency.
For more information, contact the secretary of state’s office at [email protected] or call 470-312-2640.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) is about to launch an experiment with a different form of transportation tax designed to capture revenue from drivers of electric vehicles.
The agency is looking for 150 volunteers to take part in a federally funded pilot project that will replace gasoline and other motor fuels taxes with a tax based on the number of miles driven. Two states – Oregon, and Utah – already have adopted mileage-based user fees, while at least four others are doing pilot projects to test the concept.
“I’m glad we’re part of this,” Georgia Commissioner of Transportation Russell McMurry told members of the State Transportation Board July 19.
“I don’t think we have a choice,” board member Cathy Williams added. “We’re going to have to go to a mileage-based system.”
As Georgia motorists increasingly switch from gasoline-powered cars and trucks to hybrids and EVs, the amount of tax revenue available for building roads and highways dwindles. Technological improvements that are yielding higher gas mileage in cars with internal-combustion engines also are putting a dent in transportation tax collections.
A legislative study committee formed last year to look for ways to accommodate an expected increase in electric vehicles plying Georgia highways recommended making any future mileage-based tax the state adopts comparable to what drivers of gasoline-powered vehicles pay in fuel taxes.
That equity issue came to the forefront earlier this year as the General Assembly debated and subsequently passed a bill imposing an excise tax of 2.84 cents per kilowatt hour on electricity used to power EVs starting in 2025.
Electric vehicle owners and other advocates of EV technology complained that the new excise tax -combined with a $216 annual registration fee EV owners already are paying and the state sales tax on purchases of electricity – amounted to triple taxation.
“I’m thrilled the DOT is doing this pilot project,” said Anne Blair, Atlanta-based senior director of policy for the Electrification Coalition, a nonpartisan nonprofit working for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles. “Maybe we can get to something that’s more equitable to more drivers.”
Josh Waller, director of policy and government affairs for the DOT, said the agency will spend the next several months signing up volunteers for the pilot project. He said the four-month pilot will begin late this year and include a survey of the volunteers to gauge how they compare paying a mileage-based fee to the costs of gasoline.
“It’s really about the experience for the user of the mileage-based approach,” he said.
Waller said the test period will be followed during the first half of 2024 by a preliminary analysis of the results. A final report is expected later in the year.
Waller said the pilot project will include both GPS and non-GPS options to keep track of the miles the volunteers drive. The GPS option will determine how many miles a volunteer drives inside of Georgia compared to outside of the state, which is important for taxing purposes.
“Participants will choose what works best for them,” Waller said.
The idea of tracking where people are driving has raised privacy concerns. But Waller said worries about privacy have become essentially moot with the advent of cellphone technology.
“Our cellphones are going with us anywhere,” he said. “There are a lot of pieces of information we’re giving away.”
Nonetheless, Waller said the pilot project will include safeguards to protect the privacy of the drivers.
Waller said he doesn’t expect the various pilot projects states are conducting to lead to widespread adoption of mileage-based user fees anytime soon.
“This is a major change in how you fund transportation,” he said. “[The pilot projects] are really to understand how people react with it. … At this point, we’re still in the educational phase.”
“Every state is different,” McMurry added. “We’ll learn things that are unique to Georgia.”
ATLANTA – Georgia Power has completed a major step toward bringing the second of two nuclear reactors being built at Plant Vogtle into operation even as the first new unit is set to open this month.
Southern Nuclear, like Georgia Power a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Co., has submitted all 364 inspections, tests, and analyses that have been performed on the second unit to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Georgia Power reported Friday. The step is designed to assure the NRC that the reactor meets all nuclear safety and quality standards.
Once the NRC declares that Southern Nuclear has met all license acceptance criteria, fuel loading can begin.
The second unit is scheduled to begin operating late this year or early next year.
Meanwhile, Georgia Power spokesman John Kraft said the first unit remains on schedule to go into service by the end of this month.
The two reactors originally were expected to be in operation in 2016 and 2017. However, the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion ran into a series of delays that drove up the cost to more than twice the $14 billion estimated at the time the Georgia Public Service Commission approved the project more than a decade ago.
Critics have long maintained Georgia Power should have given up on the nuclear reactors and more aggressively pursued other sources of electrical generation.
Georgia Power officials have countered that nuclear power is the most efficient way to ensure the utility’s 2.7 million customers will enjoy reliable energy for the next 60 to 80 years. The company is building the new reactors in partnership with co-owners Oglethorpe Power, MEAG Power and Dalton Utilities.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) is posting new weight restrictions on more than 700 bridges across the state to comply with legislation the General Assembly passed this year allowing higher truck weights.
House Bill 189, which Gov. Brian Kemp signed in May, lets some commercial trucks exceed the previous legal weight limit of 80,000 pounds by 10% on roads other than federal highways, which are subject to federal limits.
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. However, the exemption does not apply in the 13-county Atlanta region.
The bill, which passed over the objections of the DOT, has touched off a flurry of activity by the transportation agency to comply with federal deadlines, Andrew Heath, the DOT’s deputy chief engineer, told members of the State Transportation Board this week.
The department must complete a load rating analysis of about 15,000 bridges across Georgia by Aug. 3 and post signs on bridges that lack the carrying capacity to handle the heavier trucks allowed under the new law by Sept. 2, Heath said. Failing to comply would subject the state to losing federal transportation funding, he said.
“We have to do it structure by structure,” Heath said. “It’s a heavy lift. … We have some work to do.”
Heath said 733 additional bridges beyond the 1,363 already posted before the adoption of House Bill 189 will have to post signs warning drivers of overweight trucks not to cross. The DOT is working to develop a map to guide the state Department of Public Safety in rerouting overweight trucks.
The work will require 1,500 new signs, Heath said. The agency has completed more than 250 thus far, he said.
Health said the DOT is on track to meet both the August and September deadlines.
