ATLANTA – The state House of Representatives passed legislation Thursday that would put new restrictions on Georgia’s generous film tax credit.
House Bill 1180, which passed 131-34, would require film production companies to meet at least four of 10 criteria to qualify for an additional 10% income tax credit on top of the 20% base credit the General Assembly enacted in 2008.
TV and film producers would have to spend at least $500,000 on a single production to qualify for the credit. The bill also would limit the total amount of sales or transfers of credits within a calendar year to 2.5% of the governor’s revenue estimate for that year.
In 2007, the year before lawmakers adopted the film tax credit, the film industry generated just $300 million in direct economic impact, a number that had grown to $4 billion by last year.
However, the credit also costs Georgia taxpayers about $1 billion a year in lost tax revenue, more than any of the state’s other tax incentives by far.
“This bill seeks to make this program sustainable,” said state Rep. Kasey Carpenter, R-Dalton, the bill’s chief sponsor. “It’s going to make sure the taxpayers of Georgia get the best value for their bucks.”
But Rep. Long Tran, D-Dunwoody, who works in the film industry, said the proposed restrictions on the tax credit would hurt an industry that is paying huge dividends in Georgia.
“We have grown into a competitive industry, third in the world, because we do not have a cap,” he said. “This will stagnate our industry.”
Rep. Derrick Jackson, D-Tyrone, said passing the measure would have ramifications far beyond just the film industry.
“This bill sends the wrong message to all businesses that Georgia’s commitments are subject to change,” he said.
But House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, said the bill balances the interests of filmmakers and taxpayers.
“This is a very measured and efficient approach,” he said.
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp signed a record $37.9 billion fiscal 2024 midyear budget Thursday that includes $5.5 billion in new spending.
“This is a very, very good budget,” House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, said during a signing ceremony at the state Capitol. “It reflects the shared priorities of both (legislative) chambers.”
The midyear budget, which covers state spending through June 30, includes a $1.5 billion infusion of funding for transportation improvements, $250 million for local water and sewer projects, $102.5 million to account for public school enrollment growth, $100 million for rural economic development projects, almost $70 million in additional funding for the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, and $50 million to expand Georgia’s rural workforce housing program.
“When you add everything in this document up, it demonstrates you can make smart investments when you budget wisely,” Kemp said shortly before signing the midyear budget.
The spending plan allocates $2 billion of an unprecedented $16 billion budget surplus toward the new spending, a far cry from the days of the Great Recession, when Georgia’s “rainy-day” fund was severely depleted.
“It is probably harder with a surplus than any other time,” said Lt. Gov. Burt Jones. “Everybody has special projects.”
With so much extra money on hand, the midyear budget for the first time in memory pays for major capital projects with cash instead of bond financing. It allocates $436 million for a new state prison in Washington County, $178 million for a new dental school at Georgia Southern University’s Armstrong campus in Savannah, and $50 million for a new medical school at the University of Georgia in Athens.
The General Assembly also made an 11th-hour allocation of $392 million to fund major renovations at the state Capitol complex both to improve security and enhance public access. Another $300 million will go for $1,000 one-time pay supplements for Georgia’s public school teachers and state and university system employees.
With the midyear budget now in the rearview mirror, lawmakers next will tackle Kemp’s $36.1 billion fiscal 2025 budget plan.
ATLANTA – Georgia lawmakers are expected to pass legislation this week targeting illegal immigration following the arrest of a Venezuelan man in the U.S. illegally for the murder of an Augusta University nursing student in Athens.
A law aimed at “sanctuary cities” – where law enforcement authorities do not seek to arrest and prosecute illegal immigrants – has been on the books in Georgia since 2006.
House Bill 1105, which cleared the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee late Tuesday, seeks to ensure local law enforcement agencies enforce the 18-year-old law, said state Rep. Jesse Petrea, R-Savannah, the bill’s chief sponsor.
“Unfortunately, some municipalities and counties have been able to circumvent the funding restrictions we have in place today,” he said.
Committee Chairman J Collins, R-Villa Rica, said many of House 1105’s provisions have been before the General Assembly since last year.
“We’re always very careful not to just tee up reactionary legislation,” he said. “This committee has been working on this issue for quite some time.”
But cracking down on illegal immigration took on a sense of urgency after Jose Ibarra, 26, was arrested and charged in last Friday’s murder of Laken Riley, whose body was found by a lake near the intramural fields on the University of Georgia campus.
House Bill 1105 contains new language added since last week’s killing strengthening the existing law, including a provision to “require” rather than simply “encourage” local law enforcement officials to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
Those agencies that fail to determine the nationality of suspects being held in local jails and notify the U.S. Department of Homeland Security when they have an illegal immigrant in custody would be subject to the withholding of state funds and state-authorized federal funds.
“That is the job of every sheriff in this state today,” Petrea said. “Maybe half of our sheriffs are following that law.”
The committee approved the bill on Tuesday. It’s expected to reach the House floor on Thursday, Crossover Day in the General Assembly, the deadline for legislation to clear either the House or Senate to remain alive for the 2024 session.
ATLANTA – The Georgia House of Representatives has passed a bill that would call a temporary halt to a sales tax exemption the state has been using since 2018 to attract huge high-tech data centers.
House Bill 1192, which passed 96-71, would suspend the exemptions for two years while a newly formed commission studies the impact data centers are having on Georgia’s power grid.
The drain data centers are putting on the state’s electric supply was documented last month when executives from Georgia Power testified before the state Public Service Commission that 80% of the additional demand for electricity driving the utility to ask for a huge increase in generating capacity is due to data centers.
“This is an immense subsidy for an industry that takes up a tremendous amount of resources, power and water,” Rep. Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said on the House floor Tuesday.
The bill’s supporters stressed that suspending the tax exemption would not affect companies operating existing data centers.
“We’re not pulling the rug out from anybody that’s trying to be in business today,” said Rep. Chuck Martin, R-Alpharetta.
But opponents, including some lawmakers with data centers in their districts, argued that suspending a tax credit the General Assembly approved just six years ago and extended in 2022 to attract a fast-growing industry to Georgia would send the wrong message.
“We have signaled to this industry that Georgia is open for business,” said Rep. Matthew Gambill, R-Cartersville. Bartow County is home to a data center currently under construction that is expected to generate $44 million in tax revenue during the next 10 years.
“Please don’t change the game at midstream and say Georgia is closed to business,” Gambill said.
House Minority Whip Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville, said House Bill 1192 is one of the few pieces of legislation before the General Assembly that has drawn opposition from both business and labor. The Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers oppose the bill.
“This bill is bad for business,” Park said. “It will kill thousands of jobs.”
ATLANTA – The Georgia House of Representatives passed legislation Tuesday that would significantly reform the state law governing hospital construction and medical services but stop short of repealing it entirely.
House Bill 1339, which passed 166-1 and now heads to the state Senate, includes changes to Georgia’s 45-year-old certificate of need (CON) law aimed at making health care more accessible and affordable, particularly in rural Georgia.
A state Senate study committee late last year recommended repealing the CON law as an obstacle to quality health care in Georgia. But on the House side, a committee formed by Speaker Jon Burns last year concluded reforming rather than repealing CON would offer a more realistic approach.
“We wanted to move forward in a measured way,” Rep. Butch Parrish, R-Swainsboro, who chaired the House Special Committee on Health Care and House Bill 1339’s chief sponsor, said on the House floor Tuesday. “We didn’t want to take giant leaps.”
Georgia’s CON law requires applicants wishing to build a new medical facility or provide a new health-care service to demonstrate to the state Department of Community Health that the facility or service is needed in that community.
Parrish’s bill includes provisions aimed at speeding up the state agency’s review of CON applications. The measure also removes spending thresholds governing hospital construction projects and increases the cap on the state’s tax credit supporting rural hospitals from $75 million a year to $100 million.
The legislation focuses special attention on mental health-care and obstetrics needs with new exemptions from the CON law for certain psychiatric and obstetrics services. Also, rural hospitals would be exempt from CON in some circumstances.
Although only one House lawmaker voted against the bill, several argued it doesn’t go far enough. Rep. Michelle Au, D-Johns Creek, said Georgia suffers from the second-highest uninsured rate in the nation, a problem that could be addressed if the state’s political leaders would agree to expand Medicaid coverage in Georgia through the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Forty states, including many led by Republican governors and legislatures, have approved Medicaid expansion in the 12 years since the Congress passed the ACA. But Gov. Brian Kemp and Georgia’s GOP legislative leaders have balked at a full Medicaid expansion, citing the cost.
“We need to address our high uninsurance rate and close the coverage gap,” Au said Tuesday. “We know what we need to do. We’re just not brave enough to do it.”
