ATLANTA – Georgia Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller pre-filed legislation Monday calling for the repeal of the state income tax.
Miller, R-Gainesville, who is running for lieutenant governor, cited the large budget surplus the state posted at the end of the last fiscal year in June, which is likely to continue through the current year.
“We must figure out a way to only tax what is needed and no more,” Miller said in a prepared statement. “Georgians know how to use their hard-earned money more than we do, and in order for Georgia to continue building on its reputation and attract top businesses and talent, we must do more to limit the financial burden placed on our citizens.”
Georgia’s income tax rate stood at 6% for decades until 2018, when the Republican-controlled General Assembly lowered it to 5.75%. Last year, legislative leaders held off on a proposal to further reduce the tax rate, arguing the fiscal uncertainty raised by the coronavirus pandemic made it the wrong time to reduce state tax revenues.
With the pandemic now on the wane, GOP leaders are expected to push legislation during the 2022 session starting in January to further reduce the tax rate to 5.5% or even lower, but Miller’s repeal proposal promises to lend a new element to that debate.
Florida and Texas, states that compete with Georgia for jobs, do not collect state income taxes, and neighboring Tennessee doesn’t tax wages.
While other states in the region do impose an income tax, some including North Carolina charge a lower tax rate than Georgia.
Miller’s proposal likely will get pushback from legislative Democrats, who have warned in recent debates on tax policy that many critical state services – including education and health care – are chronically underfunded.
Monday marked the first day members of the General Assembly could pre-file bills for consideration during the 2022 legislative session.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The Georgia House of Representatives Monday adopted a new map of state Senate districts drawn by majority Republicans over the objections of minority Democrats.
The 96-70 House vote nearly along party lines sent the bill to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk, ending once-a-decade legislative redistricting carried out by the General Assembly. The Georgia Senate approved a new House map last week.
As has been the case throughout the special redistricting session lawmakers began nearly two weeks ago, Democrats accused Republicans of drawing district boundaries to the GOP’s advantage while ignoring minority population growth during the last decade that favors Democrats.
“We are a 50-50 state. We are a battleground state,” Rep. Bee Nguyen, D-Atlanta, told her House colleagues, referring to the close margins of recent statewide elections. “This map creates a 60-40 split with the advantage to the Republican Party.”
Nguyen, who is running for secretary of state, and other Democrats singled out several Senate districts as examples of what they called Republican gerrymandering. She said the Senate map changes Senate District 48 now served by Sen. Michelle Au, D-Johns Creek, the Senate’s only Asian woman, from a minority voting-age population (VAP) of 60% to a district with a slight white majority VAP.
Rep. Debra Bazemore, D-South Fulton, the House’s chief deputy whip, pointed to major partisan changes in the 6th Senate District in Fulton and Cobb counties as well as a dilution of Black voting strength in two Senate districts taking in portions of Henry County.
But Rep. Bonnie Rich, R-Suwanee, chairman of the House Legislative & Congressional Reapportionment Committee, said the Senate map complies with the federal Voting Rights Act and splits fewer counties than the Senate map that has been in place since the last redistricting in 2011.
In other business Monday, the House overwhelmingly passed a resolution ratifying an executive order Kemp issued last May temporarily suspending the collection of the state gasoline tax after the Colonial Pipeline was hit by a ransomware attack and forced to shut down. The suspension lasted from May 10 until June 2.
Next up for the special session is consideration of a proposed map for Georgia’s 14 congressional districts.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Officials at the Port of Savannah cut the ribbon Friday on the Mason Mega Rail Terminal, a project that will immediately increase rail capacity to and from the port by more than 30%.
A first set of nine new rail tracks at the $218 million project opened for business last year, and the other nine tracks are now operating.
The project is well timed, with the port working to overcome a backlog of cargo containers resulting from pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions.
“The added rail capacity, along with new container storage on and off terminal, are already serving as important tools to resolve the supply chain issues for Georgia and the nation,” Gov. Brian Kemp said Friday.
Efforts to clear the backlog of containers at the port are paying off. Since Sept. 1, the ports authority has seen a 60% reduction in the amount of time containers are on terminal, as major retailers have begun moving cargo away at a faster pace.
The improved flow of cargo and additional space at the Garden City Terminal is allowing the Port of Savannah to expedite vessel service, reducing the number of ships waiting at anchor by 40%.
As early as Monday, the authority will open its first off-terminal overflow container yard fewer than five miles from the port.
“We’re setting up multiple inland locations that will be connected via truck or rail to the Port of Savannah,” said Griff Lynch, the ports authority’s executive director. “We think this will make a huge difference for both importers and exporters as we clear out our yard.”
The Mason Mega Rail Terminal will increase the port’s rail lift capacity to 1 million containers of cargo per year, opening Savannah to new markets in the Midwest, including Chicago, Cincinnati and St. Louis.
ATLANTA – The bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending bill Congress passed early this month promises massive investments in Georgia highways and bridges, public transit, electric-vehicle charging stations and broadband deployment.
But some of the infrastructure improvements the legislation will help fund will come sooner than others.
“We know there are projects there that can start being built,” said Chris Clark, president and CEO of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. “[But] some of this is going to require the federal government to expedite the permitting process.”
The U.S. House of Representatives gave final passage to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Nov. 5, and President Joe Biden is expected to sign it into law on Monday. Under the bill, which remained in the same form as when the U.S. Senate passed it in August, Georgia will receive:
$8.9 billion to repair and rebuild roads and highways.
$1.4 billion for public transit.
$913 million for water projects.
$619 million for airport improvements.
$225 million to repair and replace bridges.
$135 million to expand the state’s network of electric-vehicle charging stations.
$100 million for broadband deployment.
“The bipartisan infrastructure deal will touch every corner of the Peach State,” U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta, chairman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, said this week. “[It] is going to have an unprecedented impact on Georgia’s economy.”
Georgia’s roads and highways are in better shape than those in a lot of other states, due to the region’s milder weather but also thanks to transportation funding legislation the General Assembly passed in 2015 that provides about $900 million a year.
Only 2% of the state’s roads and bridges are rated in poor condition, Meg Pirkle, chief engineer for the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), told the Georgia House Transportation Committee early this month.
However, the average bridge in Georgia is more than 42 years old, while 40% are 50 or older, Pirkle said.
“Even with good maintenance, bridges that have reached their useful life need to be replaced,” she said.
Clark said the state has laid the groundwork to move quickly on some of the projects the infrastructure bill will help fund.
A study committee in the General Assembly began meeting this year to look for ways to pay for needed improvements at airports across Georgia to bolster the state’s aviation industry.
Last summer, Gov. Brian Kemp announced the formation of a task force aimed at strengthening Georgia’s status as a leader in the electric mobility industry.
A commission of state lawmakers and logistics industry executives has been exploring what the state can do to ease the movement of freight through Georgia, an issue that has grown more pressing in recent months due to supply-chain disruptions.
“We’ve got a good list of projects,” Clark said. “We know where they need to go.”
Tejas Kotak, chairman of the Georgia chapter of the Sierra Club’s Transportation Committee, said the infrastructure bill represents the largest investment in public transit since the 1970s.
Georgia Commissioner of Transportation Russell McMurry said the state will see a 30% increase in federal transit funding.
MARTA will receive the largest share of the transit money headed to Georgia since it’s by far the state’s largest transit agency.
But Kotak said smaller transit systems across Georgia also will be able to apply for capital investment grants through a new initiative included in the infrastructure legislation.
“It will be up to a competitive grant process as to who gets it,” he said.
Kotak said the federal funds earmarked to build more electric-vehicle charging stations should help revive demand for EVs in Georgia, which has flattened out since the General Assembly eliminated a state tax credit on EV sales in 2015.
The repeal’s supporters argued that EVs had become so popular the incentive of a tax credit was no longer necessary. But Kotak said that reasoning was premature.
“In the next five years, federal and state subsidies might not be needed as much, but we’re still in that transitional period,” he said.
Georgia utilities have been aggressively rolling out broadband service to previously unserved communities across the state – largely rural – since the General Assembly passed legislation two years ago allowing electric membership cooperatives (EMCs) to deploy broadband.
Kevin Curtin, senior vice president of government relations for Georgia EMC, said the $42 billion included in the infrastructure bill for broadband projects nationwide will further help states close the “digital divide” between rural and urban communities. The bill is expected to extend broadband availability to at least 649,000 Georgians now without internet.
“It may serve as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to ensure all Georgians have access to robust broadband service and help co-ops assist in meeting the needs of the communities they serve,” Curtin said.
While the new federal bill provides huge funding allocations for a variety of infrastructure needs, obstacles stand in the way of fulfilling those promises quickly.
Clark said Georgia is still suffering from a labor shortage, even with companies paying workers up to twice what they paid before the coronavirus pandemic struck the state.
“I don’t know that federal spending is going to alleviate that,” he said.
McMurry said procedural requirements mean funding the bill provides for some transportation programs will come before money for others.
“It is expected that the existing transportation formula programs will see the increased funding levels immediately,” McMurry wrote in an email to Capitol Beat. “New programs, formula or discretionary, will have to be developed by [the U.S. Department of Transportation], have public comment, and then be implemented.”
McMurry said the amount of increased infrastructure funding Georgia ultimately receives remains uncertain because of the rules governing the awarding of grants.
.”A significant portion of the overall funding increases in the [legislation] are in competitive grants, which are not guaranteed to any individual state,” he wrote. “GDOT and local governments will have to compete for current and newly established infrastructure grants along with other states.”
Shane Hix, spokesman for the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA), said the U.S. Environmental Protection still must work through “program administration and funding allocation issues” before GEFA can be certain about the impact the additional funding will have on water system improvements in Georgia.
But once the kinks get ironed out, the bill promises to create an influx of new jobs.
Sandra Williams, executive director of the Atlanta North Georgia Labor Council, said the legislation is projected to generate about 2 million jobs per year nationwide during the coming decade.
“This is a major win for Georgia workers,” she said. “We’re going to see thousands of good-paying jobs reach Georgia.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The Republican-led Georgia House of Representatives adopted new boundaries for the 180 House districts Wednesday.
After nearly two hours of debate, the House approved a map proposed by GOP leadership 99-79, voting mostly along party lines.
The General Assembly redraws Georgia’ legislative and congressional district lines each decade to accommodate changes in population reflected in the U.S. Census.
The map crafted by House Republicans not only keeps House districts as close to equal in population as possible – the goal being 59,511 residents – Rep. Bonnie Rich, chairman of the House Legislative & Congressional Reapportionment Committee, told her House colleagues.
The map also creates 49 majority Black House districts, an increase of one district over the current House map lawmakers adopted in 2011, as well as 27 “minority-opportunity” districts where minority candidates should be competitive, said Rich, R-Suwanee.
The Republican map splits 69 counties, compared to 73 under the current map, Rich said.
It also pairs only eight incumbent House members in four districts, she said. The House map Democrats drew in 2001, the last time they held a majority in the chamber, paired 37 Republican incumbents and nine Democratic incumbents, she said.
“This is a map that complies with the law, first and foremost, with the Voting Rights Act and the United States Constitution,” Rich said. “The map is fair to Georgia.”
But Democrats complained the map favors Republicans in a state that has evolved into a 50-50 split between the two parties, which is reflected in the outcomes of recent statewide elections.
“Georgia has grown more diverse and urban,” said Rep. Carolyn Hugley, D-Columbus. “This map ignores the fact the Georgia is equally divided politically.”
Other Democrats accused Republican leaders of diluting minority voting strength by “packing” minority voters into certain districts in order to reduce the minority voting-age populations of surrounding districts.
Rep. Winfred Dukes, D-Albany, who is paired in a House district with Rep. Gerald Greene, R-Cuthbert, cited District 153 in the city of Albany adjacent to his redrawn district as an example of such packing.
Rich objected to Dukes’ characterizing of Republicans’ strategy as packing.
“We didn’t have any packing in our map,” she said. “We have drawn legal districts that comply with the Voting Rights Act.”
The Republican map’s opponents also repeated complaints over the rushed pace of the special session they have raised frequently during the past week.
Hugley argued the 11 public hearings the committee held across the state during the summer were of little use when they came before the 2020 Census data was released and before the release of any proposed maps.
House Minority Leader James Beverly complained that the final version of the House map Republican leaders proposed was being voted on just two days after its release to the public.
“The people of Georgia deserve better,” said Beverly, D-Macon. “The people demanded a fair and transparent redistricting process. What they got instead was a rushed and secretive process.”
But Rich said the 2022 election schedule requires the General Assembly to act without delay.
“We have deadlines,” she said. “The elections officials are going to have to rush to implement this. … We have a job to get done now.”
The House map now heads to the state Senate, which approved its new map on Tuesday.
