ATLANTA – Tax credits are the weapon of choice for Georgia lawmakers looking for ways to make child care more accessible and affordable.
A state Senate study committee wrapped up its work Dec. 12 by recommending a series of new and expanded tax credits aimed both at families with young children and the child-care providers who serve them.
A new Georgia Child Tax Credit would help families with the youngest children offset the costs of child care as their children reach school age.
Expanding eligibility for the state’s existing tax credit for employer-sponsored child care and increasing the amount of that credit would help companies retain their workforce.
And a refundable tax credit for early childhood educators would help child-care providers offset their costs of doing business.
“We won’t solve this problem as a state government,” Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough, chairman of the Senate Study Committee on Access to Affordable Child Care, said shortly before the panel unanimously approved a list of recommendations. “(But) there are things we can do to make child care more accessible and more affordable.”
Affordable child-care options that already were limited in Georgia became even less so during the pandemic, which forced many child-care centers to close. Many have failed to reopen or opened back up with limited staff.
Ideisha Bellamy, CEO of the Georgia Child Care Association, told members of the study committee early this month that a survey of member child-care providers found 86% were having problems finding enough employees and retaining the workers they have. Nearly 70% said they are operating at less than capacity because of staffing shortages or funding gaps.
“What this lends itself to is an instability for centers and a lack of child-care access for families,” Bellamy said.
Added to the shortage of child-care options is affordability.
Strickland said the average cost of child care in Georgia is $11,000 per year, while 35% of Georgians spend one-third or more of their incomes on child care.
Bellamy said the shortage of accessible and affordable child care is being felt throughout the state’s economy.
“(Child-care) providers are the backbone of Georgia’s economy, ensuring parents can work and businesses can thrive,” she said.
The Senate is expected to take the lead on the tax credits. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who presides over the Senate, has endorsed several of the study committee’s tax credit recommendations.
The panel also is suggesting that the state create a dedicated trust fund to support child care, a step that would require amending Georgia’s Constitution.
Ife Finch Floyd, director of economic justice at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, told committee members this month that child care trust funds are succeeding in other states. New Mexico, for example, set up a trust fund in 2020 with $300 million in seed money, Floyd said.
“This trust fund has really contributed to the increase in resources for child care in New Mexico,” she said. “It’s helping the state continue a lot of the improvements they were able to make during the pandemic.”
The study committee also recommended increased funding of Georgia’s CAPS (Childcare and Parent Services) program, which assists low-income families with the cost of child care. After operating at about the same level of state funding since 2005, the CAPS program received a $9.2 million increase this year.
“It’s the biggest increase we’ve seen in a generation,” Floyd said.
The study committee’s recommendations will be forwarded to the full Senate for consideration during the 2025 legislative session starting next month.
ATLANTA – The controversial election bill the Republican-controlled General Assembly passed in March garnered the most publicity by far of anything lawmakers did during this year’s session.
But the legislature approved a host of other bills during 40 days under the Gold Dome covering a variety of issues that, like the election measure, take effect on Thursday.
July 1 will see the implementation of a state tax cut and a series of new tax breaks for Georgia businesses. Local police departments will get new protections from budget cuts, and a new crime applicable to a type of theft popularized during the pandemic will go on the books.
The tax cut will increase the standard deduction for married couples who file joint state income tax returns by $1,100. Single taxpayers can deduct an extra $800, while Georgians ages 65 and older can deduct another $1,300. Married couples filing separately will be able to deduct an additional $550.
House Bill 593 is a follow-up to legislation the General Assembly adopted in 2019 lowering Georgia’s income-tax rate from 6% to 5.75%.
Mostly lower- and middle-income families will benefit from the higher standard deduction, said Georgia House Speaker David Ralston.
“Today marks another chapter in Georgia’s continuing commitment to provide sustainable, meaningful tax relief to Georgians to let them keep more of their hard-earned money,” Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, said after the mid-March vote passing the bill.
Separate legislation also taking effect Thursday serves up a smorgasbord of new tax breaks aimed at spurring business investment in Georgia. It offers tax credits to medical equipment and pharmaceutical manufacturers, aerospace defense projects, performing arts venues, short-line railroads and developers of corporate “mega-sites.”
While most of the bill doles out more largesse in the form of tax credits, Senate Bill 6 also seeks to rein in tax breaks that don’t give enough bang for the buck. It requires independent audits of up to five tax credit programs each year to determine whether their economic impact justifies the loss of state tax revenue.
“This is a large bill,” state Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, said as the multi-faceted measure was being debated on the Senate floor during the final day of the 2021 legislative session. “It brings checks and balances. It has us measure the return on investment, and it keeps Georgia the No.-1 place to do business.”
Republican legislative leaders focused much of their attention this year on crafting friendly tax policies to help Georgians and Georgia businesses cope with the economic damage wreaked by the pandemic.
But another thread that ran through the 2021 session stemmed from last year’s murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis, which sent demonstrators into the streets of America to protest racism and police brutality.
An offshoot of those protests was the “defund the police” movement, as some on the left called for slashing police budgets and redirecting those funds to social programs aimed at the causes of a nationwide surge in violent crime.
Georgia lawmakers reacted by passing legislation limiting local government from reducing funds for police more than 5% during a 10-year span.
“This legislation sends a strong message that we support our law enforcement officers and we will never defund police here in Georgia,” said Rep. Houston Gaines, R-Athens, chief sponsor of House Bill 286.
Legislative Democrats overwhelmingly opposed the bill as a power grab by the state over local governments. Critics also argued it would stall efforts to fund other areas like mental health, housing and education that aim to keep people from landing in jail.
Lawmakers also were divided over a bill criminalizing “porch piracy,” a form of theft that hadn’t been given much thought before the pandemic prompted shoppers hunkered down in their homes to do most of their buying online.
House Bill 94 makes it a felony to be caught in possession of at least 10 different pieces of stolen mail that is addressed to three or more separate recipients – even if it is unclear who exactly stole the mail.
The bill also makes it a felony to steal three or more envelopes, bags, packages or other mailed items from the porch, front or back entrance of a residence.
“This was a problem before the pandemic,” Rep. Bonnie Rich, R-Suwanee, the measure’s chief sponsor, said during a committee hearing on the bill. “It has become even more of a problem now.”
While the legislation drew some support from Democrats, others questioned the severity of the bill’s penalties, noting porch pirates could face more jail time and a worse criminal record than those who commit petty theft at a retail store.
Other bills the General Assembly passed this year that take effect July 1 include:
House Bill 112 – extends COVID-19 liability protections for Georgia businesses and hospitals into the summer of 2022.
House Bill 317 – extends the state tax on hotel and motel rooms to “marketplace facilitators” including Airbnb and Vrbo.
House Bill 511 – prohibits spending money deposited in nine state dedicated trust funds on any other purpose.
House Bill 617 – lets student-athletes at Georgia colleges, universities and technical colleges receive compensation for their name, image and likeness.
Senate Bill 34 – allows victims of human trafficking to petition to change their name without public disclosure.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Water Coalition’s annual Dirty Dozen report highlights a combination of broad concerns over pollution of the state’s rivers, streams and groundwater and threats posed by specific projects.
The report, released Tuesday, also includes items that have appeared previously on the list and remain unaddressed as well as newly identified issues.
Topping the seven returning concerns are a coal ash pond at Georgia Power’s Plant Scherer that residents of nearby Juliette say is polluting their drinking water, pollution of the Altamaha River from the Rayonier Advanced Materials chemical pulp mill in Jesup, a proposed titanium mine adjacent to the Okefenokee Swamp and Spaceport Camden, a proposed rocket launching facility in Camden County opposed by property owners on nearby Little Cumberland Island as a safety hazard.
Another issue back on the coalition’s list not tied to a specific project is the Right to Farm Act, which drew opposition in the General Assembly this year from environmental advocates who argued it would make it easier for large animal-waste generating livestock operations to locate in Georgia. While the bill failed to make it through the legislature this year, supporters are vowing to reintroduce it in 2021.
New items that made the list include the discharge of untreated sewage in the Chattahoochee River in Columbus within a popular whitewater paddling run, a proposed landfill that has drawn opposition in Brantley County and a proposed $20 million development within the floodplain of Little Lotts Creek near downtown Statesboro.
One past item from the list was addressed this month when Georgia voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment prohibiting the diversion of tax money from environmental trust funds that are supposed to be used to clean up hazardous waste sites and illegal tire dumps.
“That amendment is the first step in keeping millions of dollars dedicated to their intended purposes, and we hope we never spend ink on that issue in this report again,” said Jesse Demonbreun-Chapman, executive director of the Coosa River Basin Initiative in Rome.
“This is our tenth annual report, and the goal each year is to correct these issues so that they’ll never be considered for the Dirty Dozen again.”
The Georgia Capitol building in Atlanta (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – While high-profile races in Georgia remained uncertain on the morning after Election Day, voters have overwhelmingly approved two constitutional amendments and one statute on this year’s statewide ballot.
A constitutional change requiring that state fees and taxes collected for a specific purpose are spent as intended passed with 81.4% of the vote.
A second constitutional amendment prohibiting the state and local governments from using the legal doctrine of “sovereign immunity” to avoid citizen lawsuits won approval from 74.3% of the voters.
Georgia voters also authorized a tax exemption for property owned by charitable organizations for the purpose of building or repairing single-family homes. House Bill 344 was endorsed with 73% of the vote.
The General Assembly put Amendment 1 on the ballot in honor of the late state Rep. Jay Powell, R-Camilla, a longtime leader of the effort to ensure that fees collected for Georgia’s Hazardous Waste and Solid Waste Trust funds are spent cleaning up hazardous waste sites and tire dumps.
Georgia governors and legislatures have a history of redirecting the revenue those dedicated fees collect into the general fund during tight economic times.
The sovereign immunity amendment stems from a 2014 Georgia Supreme Court decision that essentially granted the state blanket immunity from citizen lawsuits in a case brought by the Center for a Sustainable Coast. The group had filed suit alleging the state Department of Natural Resources was illegally allowing alterations to private property in fragile coastal wetland areas protected by state law.
To discourage the filing of frivolous lawsuits, the amendment prohibits plaintiffs from recovering monetary damages or attorney fees.
Supporters pushed House Bill 244 as a way to help grow the stock of affordable housing in Georgia, particularly in small cities and rural communities.
ATLANTA – Georgians heading to the polls next month will decide the fate of two amendments to the state Constitution supporters have been pushing for years.
A third ballot question is being pitched as a way to increase Georgia’s stock of affordable housing.
Here is a description of the three statewide referendum measures in the order they will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot:
Amendment 1
House Resolution 164 requires that state fees and taxes collected for a specific purpose be used as intended in most circumstances.
Supporters point to a history of Georgia governors and lawmakers raiding the state’s Hazardous Waste and Solid Waste Trust funds when money is tight.
Between 2009 and 2019, only $56.4 million of $153.8 million paid into the Hazardous Waste Trust Fund was actually used to clean up waste sites. During the same decade, $72.7 million went into the Solid Waste Trust Fund, but only $22.5 million was spent getting rid of tire dumps and other waste management programs including recycling.
Governors and the General Assembly redirected the rest of that money into the state’s general fund budget for a variety of needs, particularly during years when income and sales tax revenues fell off.
“It really got bad during the Great Recession,” said Mark Woodall, chairman of the Georgia Sierra Club’s legislative committee. “But they’ll grab that money even in a good year.”
Kathleen Bowen, associate legislative director at the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, said of the two state trust funds, the Hazardous Waste Trust Fund has the greater need.
The Georgia Environmental Protection Division has done a good job bringing funds from its budget to bear to clean up tire dumps when money from the Solid Waste Trust Fund wasn’t available, she said.
But there’s not nearly enough money to clean up the 503 hazardous waste sites scattered across Georgia, Bowen said.
“The state has only been able to fund a couple of sites per budget cycle,” she said. “It costs a lot of money.”
The Georgia House of Representatives has passed the amendment to dedicate the two trust funds to their intended purposes repeatedly, a tribute to the work of the late Rep. Jay Powell, R-Camilla, who died last November.
But the state Senate has blocked the proposal just as many times. The late Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jack Hill, R-Reidsville, who died last April, was concerned that requiring the trust fund money to stay put would leave the state without budget flexibility during economic downturns.
Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, Hill’s successor on the budget-writing committee, said he shares his predecessor’s reservations. But he said he comes down on the side of truth in advertising.
“The citizens of Georgia deserve honesty and transparency in fees,” Tillery said. “It does hamper flexibility, but transparency is worth it.”
Georgia Rep. Andrew Welch, R-McDonough, who picked up sponsorship of the constitutional amendment from Powell, said the measure contains several safeguards to protect the state when money is tight.
Under the proposal, the governor can temporarily suspend the requirement to dedicate all fees to a trust fund in a financial emergency. It also prohibits designating 1% or more of total state revenues during a given year to trust funds, and any fee or tax intended to fund a specific purpose automatically expires after 10 years.
“I worked with Jack on that, trying to address his and other members’ concerns about what you do when you have a contraction of the economy,” Welch said.
“There are adequate safeguards, which we support,” Woodall added. “You do have to keep the government running.”
Amendment 2
Welch also played a major role in Amendment 2 as chief sponsor of House Resolution 1023. It prohibits the state and local governments from using the legal doctrine of “sovereign immunity” to keep citizens from suing them when government officials commit unconstitutional actions.
The amendment stems from a 2014 Georgia Supreme Court decision that virtually gave the state blanket immunity from citizen lawsuits in a case brought by the Center for a Sustainable Coast. The group had filed suit alleging the state Department of Natural Resources was illegally allowing alterations to private property in fragile coastal wetland areas protected by state law.
The court doubled down two years later, citing sovereign immunity in refusing to consider a legal challenge to a University System of Georgia policy requiring students who are illegal immigrants to pay out-of-state tuition rates.
“Historically, citizens were able to sue their government, state or local, in state court to seek an injunction or declaration that their rights were being violated,” Welch said. “With those decisions, the citizens of this state were not able to get into the courthouse.”
Supporters put the measure into the form of a constitutional amendment after two governors vetoed previous bills passed by the General Assembly. Unlike statutes, constitutional amendments bypass the governor and go directly to Georgia voters.
Both Gov. Brian Kemp and Nathan Deal, Kemp’s immediate predecessor, argued that denying the state the defense of sovereign immunity would allow “unprecedented judicial intervention into daily management decisions entrusted to the executive branch of government,” as Deal put it in a 2016 veto message.
Welch said the proposed amendment includes provisions to limit the scope of citizen lawsuits. It prohibits plaintiffs from recovering monetary damages or attorney fees.
“We don’t want people just filing frivolous lawsuits to try to generate attorney fees,” Welch said. “This is about upholding legal rights.”
Referendum A
House Bill 344 authorizes a tax exemption for property owned by charitable organizations for the purpose of building or repairing single-family homes to be sold to individuals through no-interest loans.
If passed, the measure would help grow the stock of affordable housing in Georgia, particularly in small cities and rural communities, said Ryan Willoughby, executive director of Columbus-based Habitat for Humanity of Georgia.
“Every dollar we can save makes a difference in terms of completing a project in a timely manner,” he said.
Willoughby said helping Georgians forced to rent move into their own home is a quality-of-life issue. He cited a 2017 Georgia Tech study that found children who live in owner-occupied homes do better in school.
Offering tax breaks to encourage single-family home construction also pays off in the long run for a local community’s tax base, Willoughby said.
“Our lots are usually vacant in undeveloped areas that don’t tend to have large property tax bases,” he said. “The smaller municipalities will really benefit in a big way.”
BY THE NUMBERS
Most of the fees paid into Georgia’s Hazardous Waste and Solid Waste Trust funds from 2009 through 2019 were redirected to other uses:
Hazardous Waste Fund Solid Waste Fund
Collected $153.8 million $72.7 million
Appropriated $56.4 million $22.5 million
Redirected $97.4 million $50.2 million
Source: Association County Commissioners of Georgia
