More tax cuts and another effort to pass school vouchers are at the top of Republican state legislators’ agenda for the General Assembly session starting Jan. 8, Athens-area lawmakers said at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast earlier this month.
Last year the legislature passed two $1 billion tax-cut bills, one cutting the income tax rate and another giving tax rebates to property owners. State Rep. Houston Gaines (R-Athens) said he’d like to reduce the income tax rate further, to 5%.
“In the face of 40-year high inflation, we’re doing everything we can to make sure Georgians are getting money back that’s their money,” Gaines said. (While inflation did hit a high of 9% in June 2022, it was down to 3.1% in November.)
With $16 billion in reserve funds, the state government has an $11 billion surplus going into 2024. Gov. Brian Kemp has already announced that state employees, including teachers and UGA faculty and staff, will receive a $1,000 bonus in their holiday paychecks. “We are rolling in the money now,” said Sen. Bill Cowsert (R-Athens).
By law the state is only allowed to keep 15% of its yearly budget—about $5 billion—in reserves. Democrats want to spend that money on programs like K-12 education and expanding Medicaid, but they are outnumbered by Republicans who want to spend it on tax cuts. “We need to be returning your money instead of stockpiling it,” Cowsert said.
Meanwhile, generous tax credits for Georgia’s growing film and TV industry may be adjusted but are not likely to be eliminated, according to Cowsert, who serves on an ad hoc committee that’s looking at the state’s many tax breaks for various industries. At a hearing earlier this year, UGA economist Jeff Humphreys told the committee that tax breaks should be aimed at emerging industries rather than mature ones like film and TV. The industry pushed back, producing a study that pegged film and TV productions’ economic impact at $4.4 billion, and said Georgia will soon have the second-most studio space of any state besides California (including Athena Studios in Athens). Another report commissioned by the state found that film and TV created 60,000 jobs, but virtually all those productions would leave Georgia without the tax credits, moving to competing states like Texas instead.
“We learned a lot,” Cowsert said of the committee’s work. “It’s a heck of a film business we have here in Georgia.
“I think we’re headed more toward tax reform than [ending] tax breaks,” he added.
After a House vote narrowly failed last year, Republicans will also try again to pass vouchers for K-12 students to attend private school. “Something I think we’ve got to do is provide choice for students and families,” said Gaines, who attended private Athens Academy.
The bill would have given families with students in the bottom 25% of public schools $6,500 to attend private school or homeschool. “It was very tailored for students in failing schools,” Gaines said.
Critics say vouchers take much-needed funds away from public schools. “It’s like Fascism 101,” Clarke County Board of Education member Mark Evans, who attended the Dec. 16 breakfast, told Flagpole. “Quote me on that.”
Other issues the trio of lawmakers said they will tackle include tort reform and housing. But sports betting isn’t on the agenda, according to Cowsert. It wouldn’t bring in a significant amount of revenue, and it’s lobbyists rather than constituents who are asking for it. “I think most people who want to do sports betting already have their own bookie and do it,” he said. If it happens, Cowsert added, it should be put before voters as a constitutional amendment and include strong protections against problem gambling.
Sen. Frank Ginn (R-Danielsville) also attended the breakfast. Rep. Spencer Frye (D-Athens) was visiting family out of state, and Rep. Marcus Wiedower (R-Watkinsville) was attending his daughter’s graduation.
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