Evergreen Conference Center and Resort at Stone Mountain
ATLANTA – Georgia
lawmakers don’t have as much money at their disposal as usual in a tight budget
year to load up Gov. Brian Kemp’s bond package with tens of millions of dollars
in additional construction projects.
But the state
House of Representatives still found room in the $28.1 billion fiscal 2021 budget
the chamber adopted Tuesday for a menu of projects around the state the
governor didn’t request.
The list of
House adds is highlighted by $10.2 million in bonds to finance a second phase
of improvements to Stone Mountain’s Evergreen Conference Center and Resort. The
General Assembly put up $12.5 million two years ago for renovations at both the
conference center and the Stone Mountain Inn.
Another $3.5
million in the new budget would go toward renovating the campground at Stone
Mountain Park.
As usual,
the largest number of projects the House added to the budget would be built on
Georgia’s public college and university campuses.
The
University System of Georgia’s capital budget would be increased by $4.8
million in bonds for a dental hygiene teaching lab on Georgia State
University’s Dunwoody campus, $2.5 million for the third phase of renovations
to the University of Georgia’s Driftmier
Engineering Center, $2.45 million to continue a multi-year renovation project
at Augusta University’s Robert B. Greenblatt Library, and $2.4 million for
renovations at the Dublin Center Library Building on the Middle Georgia State University
campus in Dublin.
The House also added $3 million in bonds to pay for a Georgia College and Career Academies building to serve Appling, Bacon, Jeff Davis and Pierce counties and $2.95 million to finance a campground expansion on Jekyll Island.
To help pay for the projects House budget writers added, lawmakers also zeroed out $54.5 million in bond funding to replace the Georgia Department of Public Safety’s headquarters building in Atlanta. The House opted to delay the work until fiscal 2022.
The budget now moves to the Senate, which likely will add projects of its own to Kemp’s bond package.
ATLANTA – If
short-term indications are to be taken seriously, Republican leaders in the
Georgia House of Representatives have some new ammunition in their fight for another
state income tax cut.
State tax
collections rose 4.2% last month compared to February of last year, Gov. Brian
Kemp’s office announced Wednesday. February marked the second consecutive month
tax revenues have gone up in Georgia, following January’s 4.5% increase.
Georgia Rep.
Brett Harrell, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, cited a positive
trend in state revenues when he argued on the House floor Tuesday in support of
his bill that would reduce the state income tax rate from 5.75% to 5.375%,
effective Jan. 1. The House passed the measure virtually along party lines.
Harrell,
R-Snellville, said Georgia income tax revenues for the first seven months of
the current fiscal year were up over the same seven months in fiscal 2019.
However, tax
collections overall were flat or declining for much of calendar 2019, a trend
that has prompted Kemp and some Senate Republican leaders to express
reservations about reducing taxes beyond the income tax cut lawmakers enacted
two years ago, which sent the income tax rate from 6% to 5.75%.
Lawmakers
advocating a cautious approach to further tax relief also argue the state can’t
afford it at the same time the General Assembly is being asked to approve deep
spending cuts in the budget.
The revenue
report released Wednesday showed income tax collections in Georgia rose 15.4%
last month, driven by a slight decrease in refunds issued and a larger hike in
payments to the state Department of Revenue.
On the other
hand, net sales taxes were down 1.8% in February compared to the same month a
year ago.
Corporate
income tax revenues rose 44.1% last month. As with income taxes, refunds were
down slightly while tax payments showed a large jump.
ATLANTA – The
Georgia House of Representatives is taking note of coronavirus.
House
Speaker David Ralston announced Tuesday that the chamber will limit who can be
on the House floor starting Thursday, the next day the General Assembly is in
session.
Until
further notice, there will be no House pages, the school-age young people who carry
messages back and forth to lawmakers. Also, the House will not bring guests to
the floor for “invite resolutions,” which honor Georgians from around the state
for accomplishments from high school sports champions to beauty pageant
winners.
“Out of an
abundance of caution … the floor of the House will be limited to members,
authorized staff and the media subject to the House rules,” said Ralston,
R-Blue Ridge.
The speaker
said the visitors gallery above the House floor will remain open to the public.
But he urged those who want to follow the progress of the House to do so online.
“We’re not
trying to be alarmist,” Ralston said. “We’re trying to be cautious and protect
the people who need to be here so we can continue our work.”
The Georgia
Senate is taking a different approach. Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who presides over
the upper legislative chamber, announced Tuesday the Senate will remain open
for public access while monitoring the situation.
“We are in
Phase 1 of this virus,” Duncan wrote in a letter to the senators and their
staffs. “At this stage, we should be using good common sense to protect
ourselves, the staff and visitors to the Capitol.”
Duncan
reiterated the precautions against coronavirus that are being echoed around the
world, including frequent handwashing, staying home when sick and avoiding
handshakes.
“This is an
evolving situation, and the [Georgia Department of Public Health] and the
governor’s task force [on COVID-19] are working hard to stay ahead of it,”
Duncan wrote.
The General
Assembly will be back under the Gold Dome on Thursday for the typically lengthy
annual Crossover Day, the deadline for bills to make it through at least one
legislative chamber in order to remain alive for the current session.
ATLANTA – The
second phase of a state income tax cut Georgia Republicans launched two years
ago cleared the state House of Representatives Tuesday.
Lawmakers
voted 100-68 nearly along party lines to reduce Georgia’s individual income tax
rate from 5.75% to 5.375%, effective next Jan. 1. The General Assembly approved
the first phase of the tax cut in 2018, reducing the rate from 6% to 5.75%.
This year’s
bill, which now moves to the Senate, also would offer a new earned income tax
credit for income-eligible Georgians and triple the state’s tax credit for
foster parents from $2,000 to $6,000 a year.
While Gov.
Brian Kemp has expressed reservations about doing another tax cut this year
because of the state’s tight finances, House Republican leaders have supported
the reduction as fulfilling a promise they made to voters.
“It’s
important that we keep our promises,” said House Ways and Means Committee
Chairman Brett Harrell, R-Snellville, the bill’s chief sponsor.
House
Democrats argued the state can’t afford another tax cut that would primarily
benefit upper-income taxpayers. They also accused Republicans of low-balling
the hit the tax cut would inflict on the state budget.
House
Minority Leader Bob Trammell said the tax cut would eventually cost the state
$600 million a year, not Harrell’s estimate of $98 million during its first
year in effect and $250 million annually in the out years.
“This bill
as is creates a hole in terms of revenue,” said Trammell, D-Luthersville. “We
should go very slowly before we go into a change of this significant a nature.”
But Harrell
said other legislation that would increase state revenues would help offset the
impact of the tax cut. He pointed to a bill the General Assembly passed in
January imposing the state sales tax on purchases Georgians make through
third-party market facilitators including Amazon, and pending legislation that
would prohibit taxpayers who itemize from deducting federal income tax payments
from their state tax bill.
“We are not
going to put the state, the citizens of Georgia and our valuable programs at
risk,” Harrell said.
The income
tax cut would apply not only to individual Georgians but to small business
organizations including S-corporations, LLCs, partnerships and sole
proprietorships. However, Georgia’s corporate income tax rate would remain at
5.75%.
ATLANTA – The
Georgia House of Representatives adopted a $28.1 billion state budget Tuesday that
would restore many of the spending cuts Gov. Brian Kemp proposed in January.
The fiscal
2021 budget, which passed 134-35 and now heads to the state Senate, would
soften the impact of spending reductions to state education, health-care programs
and public safety services House Republican leaders argued are vital to Georgia
taxpayers.
“There may
be more changes in this document than any budget you’ve ever seen,” House
Appropriations Committee Chairman Terry England told lawmakers before Tuesday’s
vote.
To achieve
the budget savings needed to restore the spending cuts, the House among other
things cut in half the teacher pay raise the governor recommended, from $2,000
per teacher to $1,000. But House lawmakers still found enough money in the
budget for 2% merit pay raises for all state employees and targeted increases
of 2%, 4% and 5% for workers in state agencies suffering high turnover rates.
However, the
House was only able to restore 236 of 1,212 vacant positions in state
government the governor proposed eliminating.
“State
employees are being asked to carry more of the load,” said England, R-Auburn.
“There should be some financial recognition of that.”
Key
additions the House made to the budget include $19.7 million to expand Medicaid
coverage to low-income mothers for up to six months after the birth of their
babies, a proposal prompted by Georgia’s high maternal mortality rate.
“This is a
major step in taking care of our Medicaid mothers,” said Rep. Sharon Cooper,
R-Marietta, chairman of the House Health and Human Services Committee.
The House
also put money back into the budget to help the Georgia Bureau of Investigation
reduce a rape test kit backlog that has long plagued the agency, funding for
local accountability courts aimed at reducing the state’s prison population,
funding for grants to county boards of health and money to hire two
environmental engineers to monitor the disposal of coal ash at Georgia
landfills.
Besides the
teacher pay raise, the House budget adds 1,000 slots for children to attend pre-kindergarten
and funds counselors in Georgia schools to the full allotment of one counselor for
every 450 students.
The
Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities would receive an
influx of funds for “personal services” to help families caring for disabled
relatives lead more normal lives.
“Many of
these services allow parents and caretakers to go out and work a job,” England
said. “It gives them a respite as well.”
But the
budget’s Democratic opponents argued Republicans didn’t restore enough of the
governor’s spending cuts in areas including personal services, criminal justice
reform, veterans services and maternal mortality. A legislative study committee
recommended late last year expanding Medicaid coverage for new mothers for a
full year.
Rep. David
Dreyer, D-Atlanta, blamed the income tax cut then-Gov. Nathan Deal pushed
through the General Assembly two years ago for the revenue crunch that prompted
the spending cuts.
“We have
made a policy decision with this budget that we would rather cut taxes than
adequately serve many of our Georgia residents,” he said.
But Rep.
David Knight, R-Griffin, who chairs one of the appropriations subcommittees, said
House Republicans did the best they could with the hand they were dealt.
“We came in
here with reduced revenues, faced with cuts,” he said. “We rolled up our
sleeves and went to work to figure out how to allocate the resources we had.”
