SMYRNA – Gov. Brian Kemp had a pithy message as he signed two tax relief bills Tuesday.
“Tax cut bill on tax day,” the Republican governor exclaimed as he prepared to sign legislation accelerating income tax reductions the General Assembly put in place last year.
House Bill 111, which Kemp signed at an event inside the Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre sponsored by the Cobb Chamber of Commerce, will reduce the state income tax rate from 5.39% to 5.19% retroactive to the beginning of the current tax year.
The second tax relief measure Kemp signed Monday will provide a one-time rebate to Georgia taxpayers. Under House Bill 112, single tax filers will receive $250. A single filer who is the head of his or her household will get $375, and married couples filing jointly will receive $500.
The rebate legislation sailed through the General Assembly during the recently concluded legislative session without a single “no” vote. But House Bill 111 proved controversial, with Democrats arguing most of the benefits of the tax cut will go to upper-income Georgians.
Kemp defended both bills Monday before a crowd of state and local business and political leaders.
“We know this is your money, not the government’s, and we know you know best how to spend it,” he said.
The Georgia House of Representatives and the state Senate passed House Bill 111 largely along party lines.
Kemp was flanked by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, House Speaker Jon Burns, other Georgia lawmakers and state constitutional officers as he put his signature to the bills.
ATLANTA – Georgia taxpayers will pay a little less after Gov. Brian Kemp signs two tax relief measures following their approval Thursday by the state Senate.
“The final passage of these two measures today brings us one step closer to eliminating the state income tax, while providing tax relief for Georgia families and businesses,” said Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who thanked Kemp for leading the effort.
House Bill 112, which passed unanimously, seeks to give one-time rebates equaling $250 to single tax return filers, $375 to heads of household and $500 to married couples filing jointly.
But a tax cut bill – House Bill 111 – was as controversial in the Senate as it had been in the state House of Representatives, with Democrats calling it a sop to the rich that would reduce funding for services to the poor and Republicans labeling their criticism “class warfare.”
The bill, which passed 30-23 with mostly Democrats opposed, would reduce Georgia’s income tax rate from 5.39% to 5.19% retroactive to the beginning of the current tax year.
Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, said it amounts to $10 off the taxes for earners in the bottom 20% but at least $3,000 for the top 1%.
“That is a finger in the eye of everyone who struggles to afford gas, eggs and rent,” she said. “When you make $2 million a year, you’re probably not worried about $3,000.”
Sen. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, said a large portion of those top earners are actually small businesses. They’ll notice $3,000, he said, adding that it’s enough to pay their internet bill.
In conjunction with the tax cut, Republicans said, a low-wage family of four will owe nothing.
“You won’t pay a dime in state income tax unless you make over fortyish thousand a year,” said Sen. Bo Hatchett, R-Cornelia, adding that he’d like to see the state income tax eliminated altogether.
The two Republicans who sided against HB 111 did so accidentally.
One of them, Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, asked to reconsider the vote before withdrawing that request. A spokesman later explained that he and Sen. Clint Dixon of Buford, the other Republican ‘no’ vote, had pushed the wrong button at their desks and had intended to support HB 111.
Both later filed clarifying statements with the secretary of the Senate. (Something similar happened last month when Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta, accidentally voted with two Republicans against a measure to ban cockfighting.)
The Senate also on Thursday gave bipartisan approval to House Bill 161, which would empower the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to issue subpoenas in investigations into domestic terrorism. The GBI must get court approval for subpoenas, but this legislation would bypass that process to expedite investigations of crimes like swatting.
HB 161 now returns to the House for approval of Senate amendments.
ATLANTA – The Georgia House of Representatives passed two tax relief bills Thursday, one unanimously and another that proved controversial.
House Bill 112, which cleared the chamber 175-0, would provide $1 billion in one-time income tax rebates to Georgia taxpayers.
Single filers would get a rebate of $250, while heads of households would receive $375 and married couples filing jointly would get $500.
House Bill 111, on the other hand, drew substantial opposition from Democrats before passing 110-60. The legislation calls for reducing Georgia’s income tax rate from 5.39% to 5.19% retroactive to the beginning of the current tax year.
Rep. Saira Draper, D-Atlanta, said she supported a similar tax cut the General Assembly passed last year because it was tied to certain financial benchmarks that would only allow it to take effect if the state’s finances were strong.
“I was good with that approach because it was thoughtful and conservative,” she said.
Draper said she opposed HB111 because Gov. Brian Kemp and legislative Republicans are going ahead with additional tax cuts even though the state’s revenue estimate for this year is lower than last year.
Other House Democrats complained the tax cut would benefit primarily the wealthy while the state is failing to adequately essential services including health care and education adequately.
But House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, said reducing taxes would help all Georgia taxpayers. Under the bill, a family of four wouldn’t pay any taxes on its first $32,000 of income, he said.
“This measure allows Georgians to keep more of their money – not the government’s – and reduces the tax burden for every family that pays taxes,” Blackmon said.
U.S. Sens. Raphael Warnock (right) and Jon Ossoff (left) won election to Georgia’s Senate seats on Jan. 5, 2021. They are pictured here on the campaign trail in late 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Newly seated U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia unveiled legislation Friday to give states that skipped out on early Medicaid expansion equal federal cost-sharing coverage if they join later.
The bill, called the “States Achieve Medicaid Expansion (SAME)” Act, aims to quell concerns over possible future changes to the federal-state payment arrangement for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which has been a stumbling block for many states opposed to full coverage expansion.
Its leader sponsors are Warnock and U.S. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia. Georgia’s U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, who teamed with Warnock in the 2020 elections to flip both of the state’s Senate seats, is also joined on the bill.
Currently, the federal government pays 100% of the costs for the first three years for states that provide Medicaid to residents with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level, the definition of full coverage. Georgia is set to partially expand coverage this year but remains among about a dozen states that have declined full expansion.
Warnock, a Democrat who is Georgia’s first Black senator and remains senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, campaigned on a platform to expand Medicaid, institute a national $15-an-hour minimum wage and bolster voting rights. He called his bill a push to blanket all Americans with health-insurance coverage.
“Health care is a human right, and for too long, too many Georgians have been denied access to affordable health care through Medicaid,” he said. “I’ve long believed that expanding Medicaid in Georgia is an important step toward making affordable health care for all a reality.”
Medicaid enrollment has spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic that began last March. In Georgia, Medicaid rolls increased by 338,000 between March and December 2020, raising the total number of children, adult and family recipients to roughly 2,104,000, according to state Department of Community Health (DCH) data.
Opponents have warned covering thousands more people could bust Georgia’s budget for Medicaid, even with the extra federal spending. Currently, the federal government pays about two-thirds of the more-than $10 billion Georgia spends on Medicaid each year.
Critics also worry policy changes now could saddle Georgia with costly terms for jumping on the full-expansion train late in the ballgame, years after other states joined the Obama-era health-care program.
“I don’t know if the federal government will ever return to a period of budget austerity,” Chris Denson, policy and research director for the nonprofit Georgia Public Policy Foundation (GPPF), said last week. “But there’s always a chance that the feds will drop that matching rate.”
Medicaid coverage is now available for Georgia adults with incomes about 35% below the federal poverty line, as well as children in households making up to 138% above the poverty line and low-income senior, blind and disabled adults.
Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, gained federal approval last October from the Trump administration for a partial Medicaid expansion, covering adults earning up to 100% of the poverty level. That would cover about 50,000 Georgians, according to state estimates.
Kemp’s plan also requires Georgia Medicaid recipients to work, attend school or volunteer at least 80 hours each month – a controversial provision critics argue strips deserving low-income Georgians and families of a safety net.
Warnock’s bill leveling Medicaid cost-sharing percentages stands a good chance to win approval in Congress, thanks to his and Democratic co-campaigner Ossoff’s wins in last month’s runoff elections.
Ossoff, who is Georgia’s first Jewish senator and currently the chamber’s youngest member, called his colleague’s bill both a moral document and good incentive for states like Georgia that have not expanded Medicaid.
“This bill would ensure Georgia gets the same funding as other states that expanded Medicaid years ago – and create even more incentive for our state government to do what should have been done a decade ago and expand Medicaid for Georgia families,” Ossoff said.
Both of Georgia’s new senators have been busy since taking office on Jan. 20. They have called for showering Georgians with more dollars for COVID-19 pandemic relief, as well as bolstering voting rights even as Republican state lawmakers move to put new restrictions on absentee voting.
Gov. Brian Kemp discusses health-care legislation he signed at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta on July 16, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Gov. Brian Kemp signed a spate of bills Thursday that passed out of the 2020 legislative session on curbing surprise medical charges, temporarily licensing out-of-state dentists and extending Medicaid coverage for new mothers.
At a signing ceremony Thursday, Kemp highlighted the importance of signing health-care focused legislation as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to hit Georgia. More than 131,000 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in Georgia as of Thursday afternoon, including 3,104 people who have died.
“This is certainly an important moment and a historic step forward in my opinion for Georgia when it comes to health care,” Kemp said during the ceremony at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta. ”Frankly, it couldn’t come at a better time as our state and our country face the greatest public health challenge that we’ve seen.”
State lawmakers passed numerous bills in the coronavirus-interrupted session that wrapped up last month. Many still await Kemp’s signature including COVID-19 liability protections for businesses and hospitals, home-delivery alcohol services and an excise tax on vaping products.
House Bill 888, by Rep. Lee Hawkins, R-Gainesville, aims to reduce the chances for patients to receive unexpectedly high hospital bills by requiring health insurers and health-care providers to settle cost disputes arising from emergency medical procedures performed by out-of-network providers.
Its companion legislation, House Bill 789, creates a rating system for hospitals based on how many medical specialty groups like anesthesiologists and radiologists are contracted. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Mark Newton, R-Augusta, said the intent is to promote “truth-in-advertising” that can help curb surprise billing practices.
Another health-care piece of legislation, House Bill 1114 authorizes the state to apply for a federal waiver extending Medicaid coverage to new mothers for up to six months after birth instead of the current limit of two months. Sponsored by Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, the bill also extends Medicaid coverage for breast-feeding and lactation care.
House Bill 521, by Rep. Houston Gaines, R-Athens, allows dentists licensed outside the state to temporarily practice dentistry in Georgia if they are serving low-income patients at clinics or charitable events. The temporary licenses will be valid for five days.
Other legislation Kemp signed Thursday includes:
House Bill 932 (by Gaines): Allows podiatrists in Georgia to organize professional corporations with other doctors and revises certification rules for podiatrists performing foot amputations.
House Bill 578 (by Rep. Katie Dempsey, R-Rome): Permits the state Department of Human Services to conduct criminal background checks on volunteers and interns.
Senate Bill 28 (by Sen. Lester Jackson, D-Savannah): Prohibits insurance copayments for health benefits plans from being set in a way that could “unfairly deny health-care services.”
Senate Bill 395 (by Rep. Ben Watson, R-Savannah): Sets terms for investments in mutual, trust and retirement funds, and revises terms on reserving proceeds from the sale of hospitals for indigent care.
