ATLANTA – Georgia House Speaker David Ralston is asking Congress for $500 billion in aid to state governments suffering the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a letter to U.S. Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., this week, Ralston called for assistance to the states to be included in the latest federal COVID-19 relief legislation, which is stuck in Congress amid sharp disagreements between congressional Democrats and Republicans and the Trump administration.
The state is doing its part to respond to plummeting tax revenues resulting from the economic downturn brought on by the pandemic, Ralston wrote. He pointed to the 10% across-the-board spending cuts the General Assembly imposed in the fiscal 2021 budget lawmakers adopted in late June.
“In addition to reductions that include hiring freezes, new programs slated to begin in [fiscal] 2020 were rescinded,” he wrote. “The only significantly new service approved is to address Georgia’s unacceptable maternal mortality rates.”
The state also has reduced its budget reserves by more than half since the start of fiscal 2020 just more than a year ago, from $2.7 billion to about $1.3 billion, Ralston wrote.
The Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill in May earmarking more than $1 trillion for state and local governments. Thus far, however, the White House has offered $150 billion, the same amount states and cities received from a coronavirus relief package Congress passed back in March.
“Georgia’s economy is typically a strong network of diverse revenue streams, but the pandemic has affected all of them, even those like motor fuels that typically resist downturns,” Ralston wrote. “The lagging effect on our largest revenue sources, income and sales taxes, is presenting us with additional challenges for months to come.”
Without significant congressional assistance, more spending reductions could be in the offing. Gov. Brian Kemp announced Wednesday he intends to call the General Assembly back to the Capitol for a special session later this year in part to take up adjustments to the budget.
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp Wednesday vetoed four bills the General Assembly passed during the 2020 session, signed a fifth bill reluctantly and hinted he will call a special session of the legislature later this year.
The most significant of the vetoed bills called for the creation of an oversight committee to review the performance and conduct of all contractors and subcontractors working for the insurance plan that covers Georgia teachers and state employees.
In a veto message issued late Wednesday, Kemp argued the committee would violate the separation of powers provision of the Georgia Constitution.
“Two-thirds of the proposed committee’s members would be members of the General Assembly,” the governor wrote. “Further, the powers prescribed to the proposed committee largely supplant the planning, policy making, and oversight powers exercised by the [state] Board of Public Health.
“Since such boards are considered creatures of the executive branch of state government, it is possible that service by members of the General Assembly on the Healthcare Transparency and Accountability Oversight Committee could violate the separation of powers.”
Kemp also vetoed legislation calling for a nonbinding referendum asking voters in Glynn County whether the local police department should be abolished and its functions transferred to the Glynn County Sheriff. He pointed out that the General Assembly also passed legislation this year providing a binding referendum on that issue, and there can’t be two laws on the books on the same subject.
A third vetoed bill would have authorized Georgia to enter into a compact with other states to regulate the audiology and speech-language pathology professions. Kemp wrote the measure was not put before a state council that reviews occupational regulations.
Finally, Kemp nixed a local bill for Gwinnett County at the request of its sponsor, Rep. Chuck Efstration, R-Dacula, that would have added senior judges to the county Recorder’s Court.
Kemp also issued a statement explaining that he signed House Bill 105 only because it will provide a critical income tax exemption for Georgia farmers who received state and/or federal disaster relief to help offset losses from Hurricane Michael, which ripped through South Georgia in October 2018.
The governor pointed to a technicality in a late amendment to the bill unrelated to the tax exemption that could render the entire measure open to a legal challenge.
“If the bill is ever challenged, the measure may not withstand judicial scrutiny, resulting in the unraveling of the tax structures it created,” Kemp wrote. “Our farmers, especially, cannot afford further economic hardship.”
As a result, Kemp indicated he plans to call lawmakers back to the Gold Dome for a special session to pass the tax exemption as a separate measure to make sure farmers are protected.
Importantly, he also hinted the special session might include adjustments to the $25.9 billion fiscal 2021 state budget the General Assembly passed in late June. As the economic impact from the coronavirus pandemic stretches on, more business closures and job losses could drive state tax revenues even lower, which might force Kemp and the legislature to make additional spending cuts.
ATLANTA – Georgia’s electric membership corporations (EMCs) will play a major role in expanding broadband service in rural Georgia under legislation Gov. Brian Kemp has signed into law.
Under House Bill 244, the state Public Service Commission will decide how much EMCs can charge telecommunications providers for broadband attachments to their utility poles.
High pole attachment fees have been a key obstacle to extending broadband technology into underserved rural communities in Georgia.
The goal of the Georgia Broadband Opportunity Act is to lower those fees to encourage telecoms to invest in delivering the service in rural counties while not making them so low they force EMCs to raise electric rates for their existing customers.
“The EMCs eagerly look forward to working with the Public Service Commission as an integral partner to expand access to broadband in rural Georgia, while keeping our neediest and most vulnerable citizens from shouldering the burden of that progress,” Dennis Chastain, president and CEO of Georgia EMC said Wednesday.
“The EMCs are fully invested with staff and technical resources dedicated to one goal: working with PSC commissioners and staff to help solve the digital divide while simultaneously protecting rural Georgians, our EMC members, from unfair subsidies and increasing energy costs. This is even more critical now, as entire communities of EMC consumers struggle from the financial fallout of COVID-19.”
Despite arguments from opponents that the bill would hurt the pocketbooks of EMC customers and give the PSC unprecedented power, the measure cleared the Georgia House of Representatives on Crossover Day in March, the deadline by which bills must pass at least one legislative chamber.
The Senate then passed it during the final week of the 2020 General Assembly session in June.
The bill was sponsored by Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah.
ATLANTA – U.S. Sen. David Perdue has answered a TV ad aired by Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff accusing President Donald Trump and – by association – Perdue of failing to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
In a new ad sponsored by Perdue’s campaign, a voice-over narrator says the incumbent Republican “got to work” on COVID-19.
Specifically, the ad cites Perdue’s work to save 1.5 million Georgia jobs with his support of the Paycheck Protection Program, steer $6 billion to Georgia hospitals for “critical health-care needs,” and introduce legislation providing federal resources to help students and teachers return to schools safely or conduct classes online.
Perdue is seeking a second six-year term in the Senate. Ossoff, an investigative journalist, won the Democratic nomination to take on Perdue in June over a crowded primary field.
Ossoff’s ad attacking the Republicans’ handling of coronavirus was recorded in his home, where he has been self-quarantining since wife, Dr. Alisha Kramer, tested positive for COVID-19. Ossoff has tested negative for the virus,
ATLANTA – The state tax credits that have spurred the exponential growth of Georgia’s film industry will get added scrutiny under legislation Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law Tuesday.
House Bill 1037, which the General Assembly passed during the last week of this year’s session, will require all film productions located in Georgia to undergo mandatory audits by the Georgia Department of Revenue or third-party auditors selected by the state agency.
It also tightens rules governing how film companies transfer or sell unused tax credits to other businesses, a common practice for production groups that conduct part of their movie-making work outside Georgia.
The economic impact of film and TV production in Georgia has soared from $93 million in direct spending in fiscal 2007, the year before lawmakers adopted the film tax credit, to a peak of $2.9 billion in fiscal 2019 before dipping to $2.2 billion when the coronavirus pandemic ground production to a halt during the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year.
However, two critical audits released in January put the tax credit’s supporters on the defensive, spurring efforts to bring the program under tighter control. The reports found the program has been poorly managed and called into question the accuracy of the fiscal impact estimates.
The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Matt Dollar, R-Marietta, passed both the Georgia House and Senate overwhelmingly.
Dollar’s legislation was among a flurry of bills Kemp signed Tuesday as he neared the deadline for signing the measures lawmakers passed during the General Assembly session that ended in June. The governor has until Wednesday – 40 calendar days after the session’s conclusion – to sign or veto bills.
Also on Tuesday, Kemp signed legislation banning utilities from burning wooden railroad ties treated in creosote to produce electricity. House Bill 857, sponsored by Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell, was sparked by complaints from residents in two Northeast Georgia counties who have been pestered over the past year by foul smells and water pollution emanating from two new biomass plants.
