ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Revenue has lost a legal bid to tax the revenue generated from the leasing of coin-operated amusement machines (COAMs).
The state Supreme Court Tuesday unanimously upheld a lower-court ruling that declared gross revenue from COAMs is exempt from taxation in a case brought by Funvestment Group, which operates an arcade in Gwinnett County.
Funvestment sued the revenue department after the agency attempted to collect taxes on income from the company’s lease of COAM machines from Tiny Towne, a children’s amusement center in Norcross. The revenue department argued the state law exempting COAMs from taxes only applies to income generated from the customers who play the games.
Both the Fulton County Superior Court and, subsequently, the Georgia Court of Appeals, ruled against the state, declaring lease income from COAMs also is tax-exempt. On Tuesday, the Georgia Supreme Court agreed.
Justice Shawn Ellen LaGrua, writing for the court, wrote that the state law in question does not define what the terms “revenue” or “gross revenue” mean or what it means to “generate” gross revenue.
“[The law] does not indicate that the gross revenues can only be generated by playing the COAMs,” LaGrua wrote. “[It] is unambiguous and applies to any revenue a COAM generates or brings into existence, which, in this case, are revenues generated by the lease of the COAMs and revenues generated by the playing of the COAMs.”
The COAM industry is a topic the General Assembly has taken up almost every year.
The state House and Senate passed different versions of legislation this year to reform an industry that has been plagued by illegal cash payouts to winners. But the bill died when the two legislative chambers couldn’t reach agreement on a final version of the measure.
ATLANTA – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has awarded Georgia more than $1.3 million for land acquisition efforts aimed at protecting several imperiled species.
The Georgia funds are part of $40.6 million in grants to 10 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands to support acquiring and conserving more than 7,200 acres of habitat for 65 species listed as endangered or at risk. In Georgia, the money will be used to protect red-cockaded woodpeckers, gopher tortoises, and wood storks.
“Today’s funding announcement is another way in which we are honoring our promise to conserve and restore America’s land and waters for the benefit of all,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said Monday.
“The Endangered Species Act continues to make a difference with funding through grants to state and territorial fish and wildlife agencies and their partners in the conservation of our nation’s most imperiled species and their habitats,” added Martha Williams, director of the USFWS.
Monday’s announcement came as the U.S. Department of the Interior honors the 50th anniversary of the federal Endangered Species Act. Throughout the year, the agency is celebrating the importance of prevented imperiled species from becoming extinct, promoting the recovery of wildlife, and conserving the habitats upon which they depend.
Red-cockaded woodpeckers prefer living in stands of longleaf pines and have become endangered as old-growth longleaf forests continue to dwindle.
The gopher tortoise is Georgia’s official state reptile and lives throughout South Georgia. It is considered a threatened species.
Wood storks are long-legged wading birds that live mostly along the Georgia coast but can be seen in the state’s Piedmont region as well.
No decisions on where the Georgia grant money will be used for land acquisition have been announced.
ATLANTA – A joint legislative study committee launched an effort Monday to look for ways to help Georgia cities and counties divvy up the services they provide to local residents.
Under a law the General Assembly passed in 1997, cities and counties are authorized to negotiate service delivery agreements that determine how they will provide services including police and fire protection, road construction, water and sewer systems, and garbage collection.
“For the most part, the negotiation process works well,” Jim Thornton, director of governmental affairs for the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA), which represents city governments, told members of the Joint Study Committee on Service Delivery Strategy. “[But] there are points of conflict that lead to litigation.”
“[Disputes] become very protracted, very nasty, and very expensive,” added Larry Ramsey, general counsel for the Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG).
Rusi Patel, general counsel for the GMA, said disputes between cities and counties over service delivery often involve claims of “double taxation” by city residents who pay taxes both to their city governments for city services and to the counties where they live for services that go only to residents in unincorporated portions of their county.
Thornton said an inefficient duplication of services can occur when cities and counties fail to hash out service delivery agreements, resulting in both governments providing the same services in the same areas.
“What we lack right now is a reasonable dispute resolution process as an alternative to litigation,” he said.
State Sen. Frank Ginn, R-Danielsville, one of the study committee’s co-chairmen, said the committee is looking for a way to help steer that process.
Former Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, also former chairman of the Cobb County Commission, warned that time is of the essence considering a service delivery dispute between Barrow County and the city of Winder the Georgia Supreme Court is due to take up next month.
Olens encouraged both sides in the case to resolve their differences before the court issues a ruling. Otherwise, he said, Georgia cities and counties may end up with a court decision that would apply statewide, causing local governments to “arch their backs.”
“One-size-fits-all language in service delivery agreements is generally not good policy,” Olens said.
Clint Mueller, director of governmental affairs for the ACCG, said his organization and the GMA have assembled a committee to develop recommendations for the General Assembly.
“Under current law, a lot of these disputes end up in court and that gets very costly,” he said. “We’re trying to find solutions to keep people out of court.”
The study committee is expected to hold at least two additional hearings this fall before delivering its findings to the full legislature.
ATLANTA – Emory University and a state nursing organization are joining forces to address Georgia’s nursing workforce shortage.
Emory’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and the Georgia Nursing Leadership Coalition announced a new partnership Monday planning to open a center at Emory to research and address nursing workforce challenges and opportunities.
“The situation facing nursing is serious and consequential,” Linda McCauley, dean of the Emory School of Nursing, said Monday. “We need consistent data and solutions-minded collaborations to make nursing workforce decisions in this climate.”
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in 100,000 registered nurses leaving the profession, according to a national nursing workforce study conducted last year. About 31% of nurses under age 35 say they intend to leave their position, and 32% are considering resigning, a 2022 American Nurses Foundation survey found.
The new Georgia Nursing Workforce Center will look into nursing industry-related issues including retention, recruitment, educational capacity, and the distribution of nursing workforce resources. The center will work with health-care organizations, business partners, state leaders, universities, and community groups to develop policies addressing the need for more nurses.
“A healthy and well nursing workforce is key to a healthy and well Georgia,” said Chelsea Hagopian, an assistant clinical professor at Emory who will serve as the center’s executive director. “The opportunity for learning and community with this center will help to strengthen and promote a diverse, inclusive, and equity-minded nursing workforce prepared and supported to meet Georgia’s health and care needs.”
Funding from Emory will support the center, the brainchild of the nursing coalition.
“With the outstanding reputation of Emory and its nationally known workforce researchers, our workforce research and center will be taken to the next level,” said Lisa Eichelberger, a member of the coalition’s executive committee. “Moving the workforce center to Emory can go a long way to make nursing a rewarding a fulfilling career for greater numbers of Georgia nurses.”
ATLANTA – Georgia tax collections rose by 1.1% last month compared to August of last year but only because the state wasn’t collecting the sales tax on gasoline and other motor fuels a year ago.
Not counting the $181.6 million in fuel taxes that came in last month, tax receipts for August were down by 4.8% compared to August of last year, the Georgia Department of Revenue announced late Friday.
Individual income taxes declined by 5.2%, a drop-off driven by an increase in refunds issued by the revenue agency combined with a decrease in payments.
Net sales tax receipts decreased by 10.1% in August. Typically more volatile corporate income taxes fell by 103%. As with individual income tax revenues, the decline resulted from the state issuing more refunds while receiving less in payments.
Tax collections in Georgia now have declined in four of the last five months. Then-state economist Jeffrey Dorfman predicted last January that Georgia tax revenues were likely to drop this year because last year’s huge increase in capital gains tax payments was unlikely to be repeated.
However. the state finished fiscal 2023 at the end of June with an estimated budget surplus of nearly $4.8 billion built up during the last three years. With that much black ink, Gov. Brian Kemp is allowing state agencies to request 3% spending increases in both their fiscal 2024 midyear and fiscal 2025 budgets.
Kemp also suspended the gasoline tax again earlier this week, citing rising prices at the pump. That loss in tax receipts will be reflected in next month’s revenue report.
