The Savannah Convention Center expansion is receiving $90 million in state bond funding this year.
ATLANTA – The state agency in charge of bond sales Wednesday approved the sale of nearly $1.1 billion in general obligation bonds to finance a variety of building projects.
The Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission acted two weeks after the three main credit rating agencies renewed the state’s AAA credit rating, allowing favorable interest rates that will save tax money.
“This bond sale allows us to build and update various infrastructure projects and create good-paying jobs for hardworking Georgians across the state,” Gov. Brian Kemp said in a prepared statement.
“Due to low interest rates here in the Peach State, we will be saving taxpayers dollars for years to come while also ensuring Georgia continues to lead the nation in economic recovery.”
The bonds were sold on a competitive basis through four different bids with investors showing high demand for them. The overall interest rate for the bonds was 1.74%, the second-lowest ever for an issue of the state’s general obligation bonds.
“We are extremely pleased with the bids we received,” said Diana Pope, director of the commission’s Financing and Investment Division. “As we approached the sale date, the bond market was demonstrating a lot of strength, but it proved to be even stronger than we were expecting.”
The largest portion of the funding provides $304.7 million for K-12 school construction projects. Another $250.9 million will go toward building projects on University System of Georgia campuses.
Public safety-related agencies will receive almost $156 million for buildings and equipment, and $112.9 million is earmarked for the Technical College System of Georgia. The state Department of Transportation will put $112.5 million toward road, bridge and rail projects.
The expansion of the Savannah Convention Center will get $90 million, the largest single project to benefit from the new bonds. The state kicked in $70 million toward the $271 million project last year.
The expansion, which broke ground in March, will double the current exhibit hall space to 200,000 square feet and include a 58-foot-wide hangar door, a 40,000-square-foot ballroom, 15 additional meeting rooms, and a 900-space on-site parking garage.
The CMA CGM Marco Polo, the largest ship ever to call at the Port of Savannah, arrived May 26. Photo credit: Savannah Morning News
ATLANTA – The Port of Savannah is experiencing strong year-over-year growth despite the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
Savannah handled 478,620 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containerized cargo last month, an increase of 41.9% over May of last year, making it the second-busiest month in its history. The port has posted 10 consecutive months of positive year-over-year growth.
The strong numbers came as a surprise to officials at the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA).
“Last year, at this time, we were uncertain of the road ahead and expecting a double-digit loss in business,” said Will McKnight, the authority’s board chairman.
“To see how the GPA team and our supply chain partners have turned things around to achieve a string of the most successful months ever speaks volumes for this world-class workforce.”
With one month remaining in fiscal 2021, the Port of Savannah is on pace to surpass 5 million TEUs for the first time.
Total cargo crossing all GPA docks reached 3.8 million tons last month, up 26 percent. Rail volumes for the month grew 28 percent to a total of 54,436 containers.
A factor in the Port of Savannah’s growth is that increasingly large container ships are calling at the port’s Garden City Terminal. Two weeks ago, the port welcomed the largest vessel ever to call at Savannah, the CMA CGM Marco Polo.
“We believe managing the new cargo that’s coming our way benefits the economy, jumpstarts economic development and sustains long-term growth,” said Griff Lynch, the authority’s executive director.
To keep pace with the growth, the GPA has accelerated its hiring efforts by adding nearly 150 employees since January.
Strong growth also is occurring at the Port of Brunswick, which slumped during the pandemic because of the economic hit the auto industry took. The authority’s trade in vehicles and machinery units soared by 347% in May to 62,873 units.
“We expect strong growth to continue in autos and machinery as manufacturers return to normal operations,” Lynch said.
ATLANTA – U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., is putting his entire stock portfolio into a blind trust, the first-year senator announced Wednesday, fulfilling a campaign promise.
Stock holdings by members of Congress became an issue early last year when the Justice Department began investigating stock transactions then-Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., and two Senate colleagues made following a closed-door briefing during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.
Loeffler said the transactions were made by a third-party advisor without her input, and the Justice Department later dropped the investigation without finding any wrongdoing.
However, Loeffler later liquidated her holdings in individual stocks and converted those assets into broader exchange-traded funds and mutual funds, a step she said she took to end a distraction over false allegations.
In putting his stock holdings into a blind trust, Ossoff said he’s following an example set by former Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.
“Georgians deserve confidence that elected representatives are serving the people and not themselves,” Ossoff said. “I will continue to work in the Senate to strengthen ethics rules.”
Ethics and good government groups have pointed to blind trusts as a way to increase Americans’ faith in government by ensuring members of Congress avoid conflicts of interest and cannot trade on inside information.
ATLANTA – Georgia tax collections rose dramatically in May for the second straight month, a trend due not so much to a boost in economic productivity but to changes in the filing schedule.
The state Department of Revenue brought in $2.66 billion in tax revenue last month, a 68.1% increase over May of last year. That followed a $52.4% rise in tax receipts in April compared to April 2020.
Year-over-year comparisons of state tax collections for the spring quarter of April, May and June are less meaningful than usual because the IRS postponed last year’s filing deadline to July 15and put back this year’s deadline to May 17. The agency also cited the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
Individual income tax revenues were up 82.7% in May compared to the same month last year, driven in large part by an astronomical increase of 2,030.7% in tax return payments compared to last May, when the pandemic was at its height.
Net sales taxes for the month rose by 46.2%, another sign of increased economic activity last month compared to May 2020.
With businesses back to nearly normal operations, corporate income taxes more than doubled to $51.2 million, up from $24.5 million in May of last year.
Another big winner was motor fuel tax revenue, which soared last month by 49.7% over May 2020, when fuel purchases were depressed by the pandemic-driven economic slowdown.
A more useful comparison of year-over-year tax receipts will be available next month when the full report for fiscal 2021 is released.
ATLANTA – The Justice Department is seeking to bar a tax return preparer in Wilkinson County from continuing his business.
A civil complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia alleges that Shondre D. Pitts of Irwinton has a long history of preparing fraudulent tax returns for clients. Pitts has run a company named First Choice Tax Services since 2014.
He is accused of claiming false itemized deductions, false income and business expense deductions, as well as fabricating business losses in order to fraudulently reduce a customer’s liability.
The complaint also accuses Pitts of falsely claiming earned income tax credits, residential energy credits, additional child tax credits, and education credits.
As a result of Pitts’ conduct, his customers may face large income tax debts and be liable for penalties and interest, according to the complaint.
With return preparer fraud numbering among the IRS’ so-called “Dirty Dozen Tax Scams,” the agency advises taxpayers to consult the IRS website for tips on how to choose a tax return preparer. A preparer refusing to sign a tax return is a red flag that should give customers pause.
In the past decade, the IRS Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of unscrupulous tax preparers.
