ATLANTA – Georgia tax collections continued to fall last month, and even the gasoline sales tax failed to lift the state out of the red.
Net tax receipts in February totaled more than $2.03 billion, down 4.3% compared to the same month last year.
Year to date, tax revenues, are up 1.1% compared to the first eight months of fiscal 2023. The increase was driven by the gasoline tax, which was suspended during those months last year. Not counting the gas tax revenues, year-to-date tax collections actually declined by 3.1%.
Individual income taxes fell by 18.9% last month compared to February of last year, with refunds issued by the state Department of Revenue increasing by 53.5% and payments to the state agency declining by 3.1%.
Net sales tax collections bucked the downward trend, increasing by 3.2%.
Typically volatile corporate income tax receipts also rose by 84.4%, as payments to the state shot up by 141.3%.
Gov. Brian Kemp and Georgia lawmakers aren’t overly concerned about the red ink. The state has built up a $16 billion surplus during the last three years, allowing the governor and legislature to give state and university system employees and public-school teachers healthy pay raises.
The $36.1 billion fiscal 2025 state budget, which cleared the Georgia House of Representatives last week, increases spending by $3.6 billion – or 11% – over the original fiscal 2024 spending plan the General Assembly adopted last spring.
ATLANTA – Every member of Georgia’s congressional delegation running for reelection this year will face at least one opponent.
But as Qualifying Week at the state Capitol ended on Friday, the most interesting congressional race will be for the only open seat in the 14-member delegation. With U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson, R-West Point, leaving office, seven Republicans had signed up to run in the heavily Republican 3rd Congressional District when the qualifying deadline fell at noon.
The list includes several former state legislators: former state Sens. Mike Dugan of Carrollton, who served as Senate majority leader for three two-year terms; former Sen. Mike Crane of Newnan, who served two terms and part of a third in the state Senate, and former state Rep. Philip Singleton, also from Newnan, who was elected in 2019 but fell victim to legislative redistricting in 2021.
While 10 of the 13 congressional incumbents seeking reelection will not face a primary challenge, three others will have win party primaries on May 21 to advance to the general election in November.
Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, who is running for another two-year term in the newly redrawn 6th Congressional District, is being challenged for the Democratic nomination by Cobb County Commissioner Jerica Richardson and state Rep. Mandisha Thomas of South Fulton. In the 11th Congressional District, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville, will face two challengers in the Republican primary.
But the congressional incumbent facing the most opponents from inside his party is Rep. David Scott, D-Atlanta. Scott’s 13th District – like McBath’s 6th District – was significantly redrawn by the General Assembly’s Republican majorities late last year, leaving him with a lot of new constituents.
Six Democrats qualified this week to challenge Scott in the upcoming primary, including Marcus Flowers, the Democrat who ran unsuccessfully against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome, in 2022.
Unlike the congressional landscape, where every incumbent is being opposed in a party primary and/or the general election, 26 incumbent state senators will get to relax during this election year because they didn’t draw any opposition.
Sixteen Republican state senators and 10 Democrats skated through Qualifying Week unchallenged and, thus, have automatically won another two-year term under the Gold Dome.
Four of the 56 Georgia Senate seats are being vacated by incumbents deciding not to seek reelection. Republican Sen. Shelly Echols of Gainesville, who chaired the Senate redistricting committee that redrew the Senate maps last year, announced Friday that she is leaving office after serving a single term.
Longtime Democratic Sens. Horacena Tate of Atlanta, who has missed this year’s legislative session due to illness, and Valencia Seay of Riverdale also did not qualify to seek reelection this week. Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler, D-Stone Mountain, announced late last month that she will leave office this year.
The three open Democratic state Senate seats drew a flurry of interest from Democrats this week. Eighteen Democrats qualified to seek those seats, including former Rep. Randall Mangham, who is running to succeed Butler.
Nadine Thomas, another former Democratic lawmaker who left the Senate way back in 2005, qualified in Senate District 44, where she will take on incumbent Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, in the Democratic primary. The new Senate map moved Parent’s district east and south to include part of Clayton County, where Thomas lives.
In the Georgia House, eight incumbents have opted not to seek reelection. The most prominent departure is that of House Minority Leader James Beverly, D-Macon. Other Democrats leaving office at the end of this year include Reps. Pedro “Pete” Marin of Duluth, Gloria Frazier of Hephzibah, Gregg Kinnard of Lawrenceville, and Doug Stoner of Smyrna.
On the Republican side, the retirees include Reps. Penny Houston of Nashville, Clay Pirkle of Ashburn, and David Knight of Griffin.
Two Democratic House members – Reps. Becky Evans and Saira Draper of Atlanta – will face off in the Democratic primary after being put inside the same House district during the redistricting session.
Not surprisingly, House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, qualified to run for reelection unopposed.
AT A GLANCE
Here is the list of candidates who qualified for congressional seats this week:
ATLANTA – Two veteran members of the Georgia House of Representatives announced Friday that they won’t seek reelection this year.
Reps. David Knight, R-Griffin, and Gregg Kinnard, D-Lawrenceville, addressed their colleagues from the House floor on the final day of Qualifying Week for legislative candidates.
Knight, now serving in his 20th year in the House, is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s Higher Education Subcommittee.
On the House floor Friday, Knight said the recent death of House Rules Committee Chairman Richard Smith convinced him it was time to leave office and spend more time with his wife and young son.
Knight praised Democrats and Republicans in the House for debating issues in a civil manner, even when they disagree.
“People are tired across this nation of bad politics and people being mean to each other,” he said. “If we treat each other with civility, we’ll all be better for it, and the people of Georgia will be better for it.”
Kennard, elected to the House in 2018, had indicated late last year he would not run for a fourth term after House Republicans redrew the House map during a special redistricting session.
The new map put Kennard in the same district as House Minority Whip Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville, and Kennard decided to step down rather than face Park in a Democratic primary contest in May.
ATLANTA – Electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian will delay indefinitely plans to build a $5 billion EV plant east of Atlanta, the company announced Thursday.
Instead, Rivian initially will begin building its new R2 midsize SUV model at its plant in Normal, Ill.
“Rivian’s Georgia plant remains an extremely important part of its strategy to scale production of R2 and R3,” the company wrote in a news release. “The timing for resuming construction is expected to be later to focus its teams on the capital-efficient launch of R2 in Normal, Illinois.”
Rivian announced plans to build the $5 billion plant in Georgia in December 2021 amid much fanfare. It was the largest economic development project ever to come to the Peach State at the time, although it was surpassed five months later by an announcement that Hyundai would build a $5.5 billion EV plant west of Savannah.
In exchange for creating 7,500 jobs, state and local economic development agencies offered Rivian $1.5 billion in incentives including tax credits, a 25-year no-cost lease, and $198.1 million in site and road improvements on 1,978 acres.
Thus far, Rivian has made two payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) to the Joint Development Authority (JDA) of Jasper, Morgan, Newton, and Walton Counties on the property totaling $3 million, the most recent on March 1.
The economic development agreement with Rivian requires that it meets 80% of its $5 billion investment commitment and 7,500 jobs commitments, and maintain those commitments by Dec. 31, 2030, through 2049. Rivian has committed to maintaining those timelines.
“Rivian has restated its commitment to Georgia, and the state and JDA are in steady communication with Rivian regarding its manufacturing plans at Stanton Springs North,” the state Department of Economic Development and JDA wrote in a joint statement.
Rivian estimated that shifting production of the R2 to Illinois from Georgia will save the company more than $2.25 billion. The savings are expected to come from capital expenditures, product development investment, and supplier sourcing opportunities.
ATLANTA – The Georgia House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a $36.1 billion fiscal 2025 state budget Thursday with generous raises for teachers and state employees made possible by a huge surplus.
“This is an awesome budget that addresses the needs of every Georgian from all walks of life,” House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, said following the 172-1 vote.
The budget, which takes effect July 1, would increase state spending by $3.6 billion – or 11% – over the original fiscal 2024 spending plan the General Assembly adopted last spring.
It includes 4% pay raises for most state employees, with an additional $3,000 one-time increase for state law enforcement and correctional officers. Workers in state agencies suffering from high turnover also would receive additional targeted raises above the 4% salary hikes.
“Agency attrition is a problem,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin. “The slow, steady increase in salaries … is moving the needle on state employee recruitment and retention.”
The budget also includes $2,500 raises for public school teachers. Separate legislation the House passed last month would provide salary increases to superior court judges, judges on the state Court of Appeals, and justices on the state Supreme Court.
With the state sitting on a $16 billion surplus, House lawmakers approved significant increases for education and health care, either agreeing with Gov. Brian Kemp’s budget recommendations or adding to the spending plan Kemp proposed in January.
The budget includes $249.6 million to account for public school enrollment growth, $204 million for more school buses, and $104 million in grants to improve safety on public school campuses. Each public school in Georgia would receive a $45,000 safety grant.
The spending plan also includes $146 million to fully fund reimbursement increases for health-care providers to Medicaid patients.
“We constantly are losing providers because we don’t reimburse them enough,” Hatchett said.
The fiscal ’25 budget now moves to the Georgia Senate.
ATLANTA – Georgia’s unemployment rate declined in January for the first time in more than a year, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday.
The jobless rate of 3.1% was down from 3.2%, a rate that held steady throughout 2023.
“With low unemployment and a competitive job market, Georgia’s workers and employers are thriving together,” Georgia Commissioner of Labor Bruce Thompson said Thursday.
“Fostering innovation, investing in skills, diversifying our economy and supporting businesses, especially sectors experiencing hiring and labor challenges, ensures Georgia will remain a hub of opportunity and prosperity for all.”
The state’s labor force grew by 914 in January to more than 5.3 million, while the total number of jobs rose by 1,500 to more than 4.9 million. However, the labor force participation rate declined slightly from 61.5% in December to 61.4%.
The number of employed Georgians hit an all-time high of nearly 5.2 million, up by 4,814 from the December total.
However, initial unemployment claims increased by 51% in January to 37,331. The January over-the-month increase is typical coming out of the holiday season.
