ATLANTA – The Georgia Senate gave final passage to an election-year tax cut bill Wednesday, sending it on to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature.
The legislation, which was proposed by the governor, will accelerate a state income tax reduction that took effect this year, rolling back the income tax rate from 5.49% to 5.39%. The bill will save Georgia taxpayers about $1.1 billion this year, Sen. Bo Hatchett, Kemp’s Senate floor leader, said before Wednesday’s vote.
“We are continuing to conservatively manage our budget and put money back in the pockets of our taxpayers,” said Hatchett, R-Cornelia.
While the measure cleared the Georgia House of Representatives unanimously last month, 12 Democratic senators voted against the bill on Wednesday. Forty senators supported it.
ATLANTA – Controversial legislation prohibiting businesses seeking state economic development incentives from voluntarily recognizing unions if a secret-ballot election option is available gained final passage in the General Assembly Wednesday.
The state House of Representatives’ Republican majority passed Senate Bill 362 96-78, voting along party lines, sending it to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature. The Senate passed the measure last month, also in a largely party-line vote.
Kemp asked lawmakers to enact the bill this year as part of his agenda for the 2024 legislative session.
On Wednesday, the governor’s House allies argued the legislation will protect workers’ right to privacy. Among other things, it forbids companies from disclosing their workers’ contact information to union organizers without written permission.
“It will make sure employees’ privacy is protected,” said Rep. Will Wade, R-Dawsonville, Kemp’s floor leader in the House.
But House Democrats charged the bill is an anti-union measure in that it prohibits businesses from voluntarily recognizing unions.
“I, as a small business owner, should have the final decision in how I handle labor,” said Rep. Long Tran, D-Dunwoody, who owns a coffee shop.
Other Democrats said punishing companies that wish to voluntarily recognize a union by denying them economic development incentives would discourage skilled out-of-state workers from moving to Georgia and helping to plug a serious workforce shortage.
“Why are we passing legislation that will make it harder for companies to fill the jobs they bring to Georgia?” asked Rep. Saira Draper, D-Atlanta.
Rep. Bill Werkheiser, R-Glennville, chairman of the House Industry and Labor Committee, said “card check” union elections are already illegal in Georgia under legislation the General Assembly enacted in 2013.
But House Minority Whip Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville, said the state was sued over the 2013 bill and lost.
He and other Democrats warned passage of this year’s bill will lead to a flurry of lawsuits challenging its constitutionality under the 1935 National Labor Relations Act.
However, Rep. Soo Hong, R-Lawrenceville, another House floor leader for the governor, said similar legislation has been taken to court in another state and been upheld.
“There is no preemption issue in this bill,” she said.
ATLANTA – Coroners in Georgia would receive hefty pay raises under legislation that cleared a state Senate committee Tuesday.
House Bill 625 would upgrade coroner to a full-time position and set a range of salaries, depending on the population of the county they serve.
The minimum salary for coroners would be $35,000 a year. Minimum salaries would go much higher for coroners in the largest counties that use coroners. Under current law, coroners in many counties earn no more than $3,600 annually.
Deputy coroners would be paid $250 for each case they handle, up from the current $175.
“We’re not trying to put a burden on counties,” state Rep. Danny Mathis, R-Cochran, told members of the Senate Economic Development and Tourism Committee Tuesday. “What we’re trying to do is compensate people in these positions who are competent.”
Mathis, who served as coroner in Bleckley County for 18 years, said the coroner system costs counties far less to operate than systems that use full-time medical examiners. Only four counties in Georgia – Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb, and Gwinnett – use medical examiners, he said.
But Sen. Mike Hodges, R-Brunswick, who represents six counties in southeastern Georgia, said he has been deluged with emails from county officials alarmed at the huge pay hikes in the bill.
“They tell me that they’re not prepared, they can’t afford it, that it’s not in their budget,” he said.
Todd Edwards, deputy director of governmental affairs for the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, said counties have the legal authority to raise their coroners’ salaries if they so choose.
“This might better be taken care of at the local level,” he said.
The committee amended the legislation Tuesday in an effort to resolve some of the concerns. One change would delay the bill’s effective date from Jan. 1, 2025, to the beginning of 2026 to give counties more time to incorporate the higher pay in their budgets.
A second amendment would delete from the legislation a provision calling for coroners to receive retroactive cost-of-living and longevity increases after the new salaries take effect.
The bill, which the House passed overwhelmingly late last month, now moves to the Senate Rules Committee to schedule a floor vote.
ATLANTA – Members of a state House committee expressed concerns Tuesday about legislation that would revive the Georgia Consumers’ Utility Counsel (CUC) to represent Georgians before the state Public Service Commission (PSC).
The CUC operated in Georgia from the 1970s until 2008, when it became a victim of budget cuts brought on by the Great Recession, Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, chief sponsor of Senate Bill 457, told members of the House Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee.
“We’ve got some complex issues out there,” said Hufstetler, R-Rome. “We want to make sure consumers have an advocate for them.”
But Tom Bond, director of utilities for the PSC, said commissioners don’t believe reviving the CUC is necessary because members of the commission are elected by Georgia voters.
“There is no intermediary between them and their constituents,” he said.
Bond said the commission also has a Public Interest Advocacy Staff to represent the interests of consumers as well as a hearings process that allows multiple intervenors to argue the public’s case.
However, Bryan Jacob, solar program director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, which frequently serves as an intervenor in matters before the PSC, said the interests of intervenors don’t necessarily align with those of the public.
“We are not a consumer advocate,” he said. “We are a clean energy advocate. … Residential and small business customers deserve to have an advocate that exclusively represents their interests.”
Committee members raised concerns about the costs of reviving the CUC and whether its duties would duplicate those of the state attorney general’s office, which has a Consumer Protection Division.
Hufstetler said the attorney general’s office handles all types of consumer complaints.
“Utilities are a tiny fraction of what they work on,” he said.
Other committee members said the presence of a CUC might increase the amount of costly litigation the state is forced to handle.
But Hufstetler said records from the previous iteration of the CUC did not show a rise in lawsuits during its tenure.
The Senate passed Hufstetler’s bill unanimously late last month, but it could face tougher sledding in the House. The committee did not vote on it Tuesday, and only four legislative days remain in this year’s General Assembly session.
ATLANTA – A proposed constitutional amendment the state Senate passed late last month letting Georgia voters decide whether to legalize sports betting got its first hearing in the state House of Representatives Monday.
While Georgia lawmakers have considered bills in recent years calling for legalizing sports betting by statute without changing the state Constitution, a statewide referendum should be the preferred route for the General Assembly, Sen. Bill Cowsert, the legislation’s chief sponsor told members of the House Higher Education Committee.
“When you have this major a policy shift, the public ought to be allowed a buy-in, to vote on it,” said Cowsert, R-Athens.
The constitutional amendment would create a gaming commission overseen by the Georgia Lottery Corp. to regulate sports betting. The state would receive 20% of the adjusted gross revenues sports betting generates.
Of that amount, 80% would be dedicated to Georgia’s HOPE Scholarships and pre-kindergarten programs. Fifteen percent would go into a fund to educate Georgians about the dangers of problem gambling.
While the other 5% would be used to market sporting events to be held in Georgia, committee Chairman Chuck Martin, R-Alpharetta, said Monday that he plans to remove that provision from the measure. He said those organizations interested in state support for sports marketing should be required to compete for those funds through the budget process.
Cowsert said setting aside dedicated funding for prevention and treatment of problem gambling is an approach few states that have legalized sports betting have taken.
“Young males are especially (likely) to become compulsive gamers,” he said.
While some supporters of sports betting have predicted it could generate up to $100 million or more each year in Georgia, Cowsert said it likely won’t produce more than $50 million in annual revenue.
That prompted some committee members to ask why the state would bother with legalizing the industry.
“Constituents want it. The sports teams want it,” Cowsert answered. “You don’t do this for the money.”
However, Cowsert went on to argue that sports betting would help promote fan interest in Atlanta’s pro sports teams, which have been among the legislation’s strongest backers.
“The teams want it badly,” he said. “Viewers of sports are more engaged if they have money on the game.”
The constitutional amendment is accompanied by an “enabling” bill, which the Senate also passed last month. The enabling measure includes details of how sports betting would be regulated in Georgia, including the process for awarding licenses to bookmakers.
Time is running short for both measures. The 2024 General Assembly session will wrap up next week.
ATLANTA – Legislation temporarily suspending a state sales tax exemption aimed at attracting data centers to set up operations in Georgia has barely made it through the General Assembly.
The state Senate gave the bill final passage Thursday 29-22, the minimum number of votes needed to pass legislation in the 56-member chamber. The measure cleared the Georgia House of Representatives two weeks ago 96-71.
After the legislature enacted the tax break in 2018, companies flocked to Georgia to build data centers. Such big names as Microsoft, Meta, and Google took part in the surge of construction.
But the industry has become a victim of its own success. The new data centers are sucking up so much electricity that Georgia Power executives testified before the state Public Service Commission recently that the industry accounts for 80% of the additional electrical generating capacity the utility is seeking from the PSC.
“These have taken about the equivalent of one of our [Plant] Vogtle units,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, referring to the nuclear expansion Georgia Power is expected to fully bring into service this spring.
During Thursday’s Senate floor debate, Hufstetler also cited a 2022 state audit that found the tax exemption for data centers was only returning 24 cents on the dollar.
“These do not create jobs,” said Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell. “They create big buildings, but they do not create jobs.”
The industry begs to differ. According to a fact sheet issued by the Data Center Coalition, an organization of companies that build data centers, the construction and operation of data centers in Georgia are had a direct economic impact of $1.4 billion in fiscal 2021, including 1,020 construction jobs and 3,480 operations jobs.
“Ninety percent of the investment in Georgia since 2018 wouldn’t have happened but for the incentive,” said Dan Diorio, the coalition’s director of public policy.
Data Centers also are paying economic dividends beyond the industry itself, Diorio said. The centers were responsible for $3.9 billion in indirect economic impact between July 2020 and June 2021 including 18,440 jobs, according to a report from Virginia-based Mangum Economics.
“They create business ecosystems around them,” Diorio said.
The bill would suspend the sales tax break for data centers for two years while a 14-member state commission the legislation creates would examine the impact data centers are having on Georgia’s electric grid.
Opponents say even a two-year hiatus would send the wrong message to companies that might be interested in coming to Georgia.
“When you go out and recruit somebody to come to this state and promise them incentives … this bill seeks to pull out the rug from underneath these folks,” Sen. Derek Mallow, D-Savannah, said Thursday on the Senate floor. “That’s not the way to do business.”
Albers took exception to that argument. He said the suspension of the tax exemption would not apply to companies that submit applications to the state Department of Revenue before the bill takes effect July 1.
“To say the rug would be pulled out of any business is a misrepresentation,” he said.
The bill’s opponents also argued that suspending the tax exemption isn’t necessary. Diorio pointed to Georgia Power’s recent testimony before the PSC that the utility will have enough power to meet its customers’ needs if the commission approves its request for additional generating capacity.
“They feel they have the opportunity to add that and hold ratepayers harmless,” he said.
“We have plenty of power for what’s coming down the pike,” added Sen. Frank Ginn, R-Danielsville, who once worked in the electric industry and was one of only two Senate Republicans to vote against the bill.
But environmental advocates countered that the stress power-hungry data centers put on the state’s electric grid fails to justify a tax incentive that is not delivering a return to taxpayers.
“The data center tax break has been a disastrous policy, exacerbating environmental degradation without significant economic benefits,” said Andrea Jones, government relations public policy director for Georgia WAND.
“By pausing the tax breaks and conducting a comprehensive study of energy and water usage, we can work toward a greener, more sustainable future for Georgia.”
The bill now goes to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature. The coalition is urging the governor to veto the measure.
“Georgia is currently a national leader in attracting data center investment and deploying the digital infrastructure that powers America’s innovation economy,” said Josh Levi, the coalition’s president. “Abruptly suspending the state’s data center program would send the wrong message to all capital-intensive businesses for which certainty and predictability are essential.”
