Georgia House of Representatives passes income tax cut
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 thirdparty 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%.
The Georgia Senate passed legislation Monday, March 9, that would expand free-speech protections for religious and ideological groups, which opponents say could encourage oncampus discrimination.
Senate Bill 318, called the “Forming
Open and Robust University Minds Act,” would bar schools from designating so-called “free-speech zones” where student groups can convene outdoors on campus, including for protest events.
Contentiously, the bill would also prohibit Georgia colleges and universities from denying meeting spaces and funding for “religious, political or ideological student organizations.”
While not protecting students or groups that harass other students, the bill would prevent students who do not abide by a particular group’s belief systems from joining or intentionally disrupting that group’s activities.
The bill would let groups sue a college or university for injunctive relief and seek monetary damages of at least $5,000.
Those provisions aim to keep certain groups from being diluted and to block Georgia schools from adopting so-called “all-comer policies,” in which school administrators have greater say in what activities student organizations can undertake, said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. William Ligon.
Ligon, R-Brunswick, said his bill aims to broadly protect free speech on college campuses, including for groups that may hold beliefs not grounded in fact or reality. Allowing those groups and ideologies to face debate and challenges to their beliefs is a key part of the bill, he said.
“I’m not afraid of having more free speech,” Ligon said. “That’s the great thing about this country and this state, and we need to encourage that as much as possible.”
An amendment made to