Georgia Senate members take the oath of office on the first day of the 2021 legislative session on Jan. 11, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Georgia senators advanced a bill Wednesday aimed at auditing up to five tax credit programs each year in a bid to curb wasteful loopholes in the state’s tax structure.
The bill, introduced by state Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, would appoint outside auditors to scrutinize the chosen tax programs on request from certain General Assembly committee heads. It passed the state Senate last February but was sidelined by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is a great opportunity for us to look at [tax credits] that are performing well … and others that may need to be tweaked or changed,” Albers told the state Senate Finance Committee Wednesday.
The revived audit bill comes as the committee looks to possibly clamp down on lucrative tax credits and exemptions in Georgia that supporters say attract economic activity and opponents argue diminishes the state’s already-tight revenues.
State Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, an anesthetist who has chaired the Finance Committee since mid-2019, has set his sights on taxes like the state’s tobacco levy to give lawmakers an alternative for drumming up new revenue instead of cutting spending during tough economic times.
Hufstetler said Wednesday lawmakers plan to propose a two-year study focusing on areas to trim the fat on Georgia’s entire $9.5 billion tax-incentive structure. Georgia’s tax incentives were last examined in a 2017 study.
“I think it’s time we take a look at it again,” Hufstetler said at Wednesday’s committee meeting.
Last year, lawmakers passed a tax on online retailers like Google and Amazon that has netted the state millions of dollars in additional revenue. But they rejected any changes to Georgia’s $4.5 billion tax break for films, which has been a boon to the state’s film industry but a thorn for fiscal hawks.
Renewed discussions over tax breaks come as the General Assembly grapples with state government budgets for 2021-22 that have been hit hard by the COVID-19 economic downturn. State tax revenues have picked up since summer, prompting Gov. Brian Kemp to avoid ordering more budget cuts.
Lawmakers like Hufstetler and analysts from the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute have called for increasing the state’s tax on tobacco from 37 cents a pack up to the national average of $1.81. That could raise up to $700 million in revenues per year, according to state budget estimates.
Kemp and other top Republican leaders have not yet said where they stand on raising the tobacco tax in the 2021 legislative session that kicked off earlier this month.
This story was updated to state the correct national tobacco-tax average of $1.81 per pack, not $1.35 as originally reported.
Georgia House lawmakers gather for Day 6 of the 2021 legislative session on Jan. 27, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
COVID-19 liability protections for Georgia businesses and hospitals would be extended until July 14, 2022, under a bill introduced in the General Assembly.
Since August, the liability protections have shielded businesses and health-care facilities in Georgia from lawsuits brought by people who contract COVID-19 in all but the worst negligence or recklessness cases.
The bill, sponsored by Georgia House Majority Whip Trey Kelley, R-Cedartown, only calls for a one-year extension. However, it could undergo changes as lawmakers and lobbyists haggle over what level of liability protections to provide going forward.
After passing in late June, the liability protections were hailed by business leaders as a way for Georgia enterprises from mom-and-pop shops to sports stadiums to feel assured they will not face crippling litigation during the pandemic.
Unions and employee advocates worried Georgia workers will be left in the lurch as thousands of Georgia’s front-line and low-wage workers struggle to stay safe from the virus while keeping their jobs.
Republican lawmakers in the Georgia Senate took issue with the “gross negligence” threshold for bringing a damage claim, which they argued would be too weak to fully protect businesses and hospitals.
That threshold marked a compromise between health-care professionals, business leaders and trial attorneys in the final days of last year’s legislative session, which resumed in June after a three-month suspension due to COVID-19.
Kelley chairs the House Special Committee on Access to the Civil Justice System, where the liability protections were assigned for debate last June.
Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan outlined his priorities for the 2021 legislative session at the State Capitol on Jan. 26, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan became the latest high-ranking Georgia Republican Tuesday to oppose ending no-excuse absentee voting following the state’s 2020 election cycle.
Duncan, who presides over the state Senate, said halting the ability of Georgians to request mail-in ballots for any reason besides just living out of state or due to disability should not be part of “meaningful election reform” state Republicans are seeking in the 2021 legislative session.
His stance mirrors Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, who earlier this month also urged Republican lawmakers to avoid proposals ending no-excuse absentee voting. Ralston wants to focus on changing voter ID laws to require photo identification when requesting mail-in ballots instead of signature verification.
“I think the best step forward is for us to just look for an opportunity to create a photo ID process,” Duncan said. “I think that best fits the needs of 11 million Georgians.”
While ending no-excuse absentee voting looks in doubt, top state Republicans including Duncan, Ralston, Gov. Brian Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger have all called for tighter voter ID laws for requesting mail-in ballots – a move Democratic lawmakers oppose.
Efforts to change Georgia’s election laws will likely be among the top issues in the General Assembly session that began Jan. 11 after Democrats carried Georgia in the 2020 presidential election and flipped both of the state’s U.S. Senate seats, largely due to historically huge mail-in voting amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Raffensperger, who is the state’s election chief, has pressed for limiting who can vote by mail after county election officials were overwhelmed with millions of absentee ballots in the June 9 primaries, the Nov. 3 general election and the Jan. 5 Senate runoffs.
The Georgia Senate Republican Caucus also called for eliminating no-excuse absentee voting after election fraud claims pushed by former President Donald Trump and his allies stirred mistrust among many Georgia conservatives over the state’s election integrity.
Duncan was among the first Republican state leaders to dismiss the election fraud claims, even as several Republican members of his chamber held hearings after Nov. 3 that let Trump’s allies air their claims unchecked. State election officials and federal courts repeatedly dismissed the claims.
Additionally, state Senate Republicans have pushed for outlawing the popular absentee ballot drop boxes used in the 2020 elections, a proposal Duncan said has “pros and cons” that should be settled in committee debates.
“I think that’s one of those issues where we’ll create a solid work product that an overwhelming majority of Georgians will agree with,” Duncan said Tuesday.
Democratic state lawmakers have condemned Republicans’ targeting of election laws, likening voter ID and absentee-voting changes as attempts at voter suppression. They have already filed bills to permit same-day voter registration, restore voting rights for felons and require counties to set up absentee drop boxes.
Duncan also said Tuesday he wants to focus this session on legislation aimed at improving foster-care services in Georgia, creating a new special-needs scholarship and changing the state’s controversial citizen’s arrest law.
Gov. Brian Kemp (right) gives an update on Georgia’s vaccine rollout with state Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey (left) on Jan. 26, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Georgia has not yet reached the halfway point in giving first doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the roughly 2 million people currently eligible more than a month after the state’s distribution program began, Gov. Brian Kemp said Tuesday.
The number of shots administered to Georgia health-care workers, nursing home residents and staff, first responders and people ages 65 and older has gone up in recent weeks after a halting mid-December start, Kemp said at a news conference in the state Capitol.
Kemp’s office announced Tuesday night the Biden administration will start allocating Georgia an additional roughly 25,000 vaccine doses per week. That will increase Georgia’s current weekly allotment to 145,900 doses, Kemp’s office said – an amount still lagging far behind the millions of doses needed to halt the virus’ spread.
“Although we still expect demand to far exceed supply for the foreseeable future, this is no doubt welcome news, and we will work around the clock to get these vaccines distributed and safely administered as quickly as possible,” Kemp said in a statement Tuesday night.
Kemp had earlier on Tuesday said his office did not know when the federal government would allocate more vaccine doses, saying he had not yet spoken directly with the new Biden administration and that he did not expect Georgia’s weekly allotment “to change certainly for the next few weeks.”
As of Monday, nearly 714,000 vaccines had been administered to the initial round of Georgians eligible to receive them, said state Public Health Director Dr. Kathleen Toomey. Health departments across the state have enough vaccines to schedule second doses for people who have received their first, she said.
More than 99% of the state’s nursing homes have also been supplied vaccines through a federal partnership with CVS and Walgreens pharmacies, Kemp said. He has set a goal to vaccinate all of Georgia’s nursing home residents and staff by the end of this month.
But limited shipments from the federal government have kept state officials so far from expanding which Georgians can be eligible for the vaccine to school teachers and other at-risk groups such as those with developmental disabilities, Toomey said.
“All this is dependent on the availability of vaccine,” Toomey said at Tuesday’s news conference.
Vaccine providers have also met resistance from some nursing homes and hospitals where people have refused to take the vaccine. Kemp said some nursing homes saw up to 70% of staff refuse the vaccine early on during the rollout, while as many as 50% of employees in some hospitals refused it.
“I think they should get it,” Kemp said. “That was one of the reasons that we expanded the criteria … to people 65 and older.”
The governor added officials are creating a statewide vaccine scheduling and tracking tool as local health departments field a flood of calls for the few available appointments, but more work is needed before that tool can go online.
“Doing that prematurely could be disastrous,” Kemp said.
Meanwhile, the number of hospitalizations and positive case rates from COVID-19 has fallen in recent days amid a rough winter spike that began in November, Kemp said. He urged Georgians to continue wearing masks, washing hands and keeping their distance from others despite the downward trend.
“We cannot take the improving numbers we’re seeing for granted,” Kemp said.
More than 722,000 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in Georgia as of Monday afternoon, with nearly 150,000 more reported positive antigen tests indicating likely positive results. The virus has killed 11,854 Georgians.
This story was updated to note Kemp’s office announced late Tuesday the Biden administration will start allocating Georgia an additional roughly 25,000 vaccine doses per week.
Gov. Brian Kemp (right) and First Lady Marty Kemp (left) led a roundtable meeting on human trafficking in Atlanta on Sept. 30, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
State lawmakers plan to bring new legislation aimed at helping victims of human trafficking in Georgia recover from abuse and protect their identities, Gov. Brian Kemp and First Lady Marty Kemp announced Monday.
One bill would change state law to give privacy protections for human-trafficking survivors who want to legally change their names, Marty Kemp said at a news conference. Another bill would let survivors sue their traffickers for damages in civil court.
A third bill would require anyone seeking to obtain or renew a commercial driver’s license in Georgia to complete a human-trafficking awareness course, the first lady said.
“We are dedicated to giving survivors opportunities for promising futures and holding their captors accountable,” said Marty Kemp, who heads up the human trafficking-focused GRACE Commission.
The slate of bills on deck in the current legislative session would follow legislation passed last year that toughened penalties on foster parents engaging in improper sexual behavior with children in their care and on commercial drivers with human-trafficking criminal convictions.
Legislation was also passed last year allowing victims to clear their court records of any offenses stemming from activities while they were being trafficked.
The governor has made fighting human trafficking a priority since taking office in 2019. On top of tasking his wife to lead the GRACE Commission, he charged the Georgia Bureau of Investigation with cracking down harder on traffickers through a multi-agency task force created last year.
State officials also created a new hotline in September for Georgians to alert law enforcement officers of sexual or labor exploitation and to receive help for victims. Thousands of state government employees have also taken a trafficking-awareness course during the past year on how to spot abuse.
“There is always more work to be done,” Kemp said Monday. “We will not let up. We’re still fighting.”
The number for the state’s human-trafficking hotline is 1-866-ENDHTGA.
