ATLANTA – Georgia’s net tax collections soared last month due to a large decrease in taxpayer refunds, the state Department of Revenue reported Wednesday.
The state agency brought in more than $1.93 billion in February, an increase of 42.9% over the $1.35 billion the state collected in February of last year.
Most of the increase was driven by individual income tax receipts, which rose to $1.06 billion, up 96.7% compared to February 2020.
Most of the increase was the result of a 77.5% drop-off in refunds issued last month because of a delay in processing both tax returns from 2020 and the resulting tax refunds until mid-February, a step the revenue department took to comply with new IRS guidelines.
Net sales taxes rose by 16.3% last month, while corporate income tax collections plummeted by 69%, a decrease due to a large drop in corporate tax payments coupled with a big increase in refunds.
The revenue agency warned that as the processing of tax refunds picks up during the next several months, the favorable impact the large increase in net tax collections that occurred in February had on the state’s coffers will go away.
ATLANTA – As was the case with the entire U.S. House, Georgia’s congressional delegation voted along party lines Wednesday on President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package.
The Democrat-controlled House passed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 by a vote of 220-211, with all but one Democrat supporting it and all of the Republicans voting “no.” Georgia’s six Democrats voted in favor of the legislation, and the eight Republicans opposed it.
The plan includes $1,400 economic stimulus checks for Americans earning up to $75,000 a year and couples earning up to $150,000 annually, an extension of $300-per-week in unemployment benefits, aid to state and local governments, funds to help schools reopen safely and an expanded federal child tax credit.
It also provides new funding for small businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program and additional funding to administer COVID-19 vaccines and expand testing and contact tracing.
“This bill is about saving lives and livelihoods,” said Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux, D-Suwanee.
“After a year of grief and pain in America, a year that caused economic hardship for hardworking families across America … this bill helps us move past this year of pain and struggle,” added Rep. Lucy McBath, R-Roswell.
But Georgia’s congressional Republicans called the legislation a hugely expensive overreach by Democrats that goes far beyond what is needed to address the public health and economic impacts of the pandemic.
“You can’t call it a COVID-19 relief bill when 91% of the $1.9 trillion goes toward unrelated Democrat priorities,” said Rep. Rick Allen, R-Augusta.
“It’s nothing but a liberal wish list parading as pandemic relief,” added Rep. Drew Ferguson, R-West Point. “This package is wrong for America, and it’s wrong for the state of Georgia.”
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston objected to a provision in the measure that prohibits state and local governments from using any of the relief funds to offset tax cuts. Legislation the state House of Representatives passed last week and sent to the Georgia Senate would reduce taxes by $140 million a year by raising the standard deduction for state income taxpayers.
“In Georgia, we have prioritized providing tax relief to our citizens, and [the American Rescue Plan] appears to prohibit that relief,” Ralston wrote in a letter to Biden dated March 10. “I pray that you will prevail upon Congress to have this flaw in the legislation corrected before signing it into law.”
Of the $350 billion the bill earmarks for state and local governments, $8.1 billion is headed to Georgia. Of that, $4.6 billion will go to the state, with the rest earmarked for local governments.
Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., who voted for the legislation when the Senate passed it last weekend, said the relief will go to those who need it most.
“Zero percent of the tax credits and stimulus checks go to the top 1%,” he said. “This is getting help directly to working class and middle class people.”
ATLANTA – Community groups and health-care providers in Southwest Georgia will get help addressing problems with medical billing and debt thanks to a $190,000 grant, Atlanta-based consumer advocacy group Georgia Watch announced Wednesday.
The grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will let Georgia Watch work with two other nonprofits – Georgians for a Healthy Future and SOWEGA Rising – to help hospitals in the region improve their billing and collections practices.
“We will leverage the policy expertise and relationships Georgians for a Healthy Future has in the region, as well as the local knowledge and community trust SOWEGA Rising has as a minority-led grassroots organization based in Southwest Georgia,” said Liz Coyle, executive director of Georgia Watch.
Medical debt has been a growing problem across the country that has only worsened during the coronavirus pandemic. About 40% of Americans reporting problems with medical debt have received lower credit scores as a result, according to 2016 data from The Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to improving health care.
Also, 26% reported they have been unable to pay for basic necessities such as food, heat and housing, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“Medical debt burdens Georgians significantly, stemming in part from the state’s large uninsured population,” said Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future. “Southwest Georgia, in particular, has some of the highest health costs in the country due primarily to the lack of competition among providers and insurers.”
Sherrell Byrd, chair of SOWEGA Rising, said the medical debt burden in Southwest Georgia falls disproportionately on the region’s minority population.
“Particularly in rural Georgia, you will see the highest rates of medical bills, which drives up insurance costs, creating barriers to people who have to choose between paying bills and seeking necessary medical care,” Byrd said. “With this funding, we can find solutions that will restore health-care dignity for many people living in Southwest Georgia.”
ATLANTA – A constitutional amendment to legalize online sports betting in Georgia is the only game in town after the state House of Representatives shelved a bill that would not require a constitutional change.
Lawmakers still had not taken up House Bill 86, legalizing sports betting by statute, when the General Assembly’s annual Crossover Day deadline fell shortly before midnight Monday.
With that bill essentially dead for the year, the only sports betting measure left for lawmakers to consider is a constitutional amendment the state Senate passed last week putting the issue on the statewide ballot next year for Georgia voters to decide.
While a coalition of Atlanta’s four professional sports teams was pushing for the House bill, the group is comfortable pursuing the constitutional amendment route, Billy Linville, spokesman for the Georgia Professional Sports Integrity Alliance, said Tuesday.
“We still believe sports betting could be done by statute,” Linville said. “[But] we’re in a strong and positive position. … We’re confident it will move forward.”
The most significant difference between the House bill and the Senate legislation is that constitutional amendments require two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate to pass, while statutes only need simple majorities.
Sports betting cleared that difficult hurdle last week, passing in the Senate 41-10, marking the first time in more than a decade of effort that any expansion of legalized gambling in Georgia beyond the lottery has made it to the floor of either legislative chamber and passed.
“We were not surprised,” Linville said. “This is a popular piece of legislation throughout Georgia. We knew we were in a strong position once we got it to the floor.”
Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, was the chief sponsor of House Bill 86. But he, too, said Tuesday he believes he can get the constitutional amendment through the House Economic Development & Tourism Committee, which he chairs.
“So many people are more comfortable with pushing this on to voters,” he said. “I’m supremely confident it will come out of committee.”
Stephens said a key reason he favored passing online sports betting by statute is that it could have been put in place quickly, so the state could begin bringing in tax revenue from the proceeds. Going the constitutional amendment route means delaying sports betting until 2023 because it couldn’t be put on the statewide ballot until November 2022.
Under the Senate measure, a state tax of 16% on the proceeds from online sports betting would be divided between need-based scholarships, rural health care and broadband deployment.
“I just hate the loss of that potential revenue,” Stephens said.
An amendment senators approved on the floor of the chamber last week specifies that least 50% of the state’s share of the proceeds from sports betting would be earmarked for needs-based scholarships. The lottery-funded HOPE Scholarships program originally based awards on family income when the lottery was created during the 1990s but soon was converted into strictly a merit-based initiative.
Legislative Democrats pushed for needs-based scholarships to be included in the legislation in order to win their support.
Stephens said needs-based scholarship awards have become increasingly essential as cuts to HOPE awards that began in 2011 have eaten into the tuition coverage it provides. At one time, HOPE covered full tuition, books and fees for eligible students.
“Especially now that HOPE only pays 70% of the scholarship, it’s become a [financial] barrier,” Stephens said.
The constitutional amendment’s Senate supporters also sought to attract votes by putting a provision in the legislation prohibiting bettors from using credit to place bets and limiting the amount of money a bettor could deposit into his or her online account each month.
A major argument against legalizing sports betting has been that it would lead to problem gamblers squandering their paychecks or the family’s grocery money.
“The issue for us was to do what we could with the compulsive gambler to make sure they don’t bet the farm on sports betting,” Stephens said.
With time growing short in the 2021 General Assembly session, Stephens said he plans to bring the Senate legislation before his committee soon.
ATLANTA – Georgia Chief Justice Harold Melton Tuesday lifted a suspension of jury trials in Georgia he had imposed for a second time in December.
Melton’s statewide judicial emergency order, the 12th he has issued since the coronavirus pandemic struck Georgia last March, will allow jury trials to resume immediately if it can be done safely and according to a plan developed with input from local judicial officials.
The state’s courts have remained open since Melton issued his initial order a year ago, but jury trials were suspended due to the number of people required to be present at courthouses.
Melton first lifted the suspension of jury trials last October but prohibited them again in December following a spike in COVID-19 cases. Tuesday’s order noted that cases of the virus once again have subsided.
Jury trials are “fundamental to the American justice system,” Melton declared in a public service announcement due to air soon in which he appeals directly to Georgia citizens.
“You and every citizen are critical to this process because we cannot conduct a trial by jury without jurors, without you,” he said. “We have put into place the most rigorous safety protocols available.”
Safety precautions that will accompany jury trials include temperature checks, masks, plexiglas barriers, touch-free evidence technology, constant surface cleaning and the reconfiguration of courtrooms and jury spaces to ensure social distancing.
As with previous judicial emergency orders, Melton urged all courts to use technology to conduct remote judicial proceedings where practicable and lawful as a safer alternative to in-person proceedings.
The new order is set to expire April 8.
Melton is expected to address the judicial system’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic in detail when he delivers his final State of the Judiciary address to a joint session of the General Assembly March 16. The chief justice announced last month he is leaving the court on July 1.
