Kemp inks $1 billion state tax rebate for Ga. residents
ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp wasted no time signing the $1 billion state income tax rebate the General Assembly passed last week.
The Republican governor put his signature on House Bill 162 late Tuesday, March 14, just hours after the Georgia Senate gave the legislation final passage.
“While some in Washington D.C., are calling for tax increases, we’re sending money back to hardworking Georgians,” Kemp said in a prepared statement, referring to the federal budget plan President Joe Biden unveiled last week.
“And while they want to grow government, we’re growing opportunity. Last year, we returned over a billion dollars to the taxpayers of our state, and I’m proud we’re doing it again … to help Georgia families fighting through 40-year-high inflation.”
The tax rebates will go to Georgians who filed state income tax returns for both the 2021 and 2022 tax years. Individual tax filers will receive $250, with heads of households receiving $375 and $500 going to married couples filing jointly.
The state Department of Revenue will begin issuing the tax refunds within six to eight weeks, with the overwhelming majority going out by July 1 for those who file on or before April 18.
But the rebate received pushback on the Senate floor Tuesday from Democrats who argued it isn’t the best use of the state’s surplus revenue.
Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs, who voted for the bill, said he was doing so only because Georgia voters have come to expect tax rebates when the state builds up a large surplus. He said the money should be used to address the state’s serious workforce shortage.
“We have a critical understaffing problem in critical areas of government,” McLaurin said. “Our government is starving and has been starving for years.”
Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta, who voted against the bill, said Georgia’s workforce shortage is partly a result of the state failing to live up its promise to fund promised 3% cost-of-living increases for state retirees.
Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, another of the legislation’s opponents, suggested the surplus be spent on a state-level earned income tax credit for low- and middle-income families, an idea
that has drawn some Republican support in the past.
But Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, said the tax rebate was made possible largely because of one-time revenues — including federal pandemic assistance — that are not likely to reoccur.
“Isn’t it more prudent to give it back to taxpayers rather than have a deficit the following year?” he asked.
After passing the tax rebate, senators followed with a unanimous vote ratifying seven executive orders Kemp issued last year temporarily suspending the state sales tax on gasoline and other motor fuels. The governor issued the first of those orders last March as pump prices spiked in Georgia and across the nation.