Georgia lawmakers are weighing whether to abolish the state income tax, a move that would make Georgia the 10th state in the nation without one.
A state Senate study committee chaired by Senate Appropriations Chair Blake Tillery of Vidalia will meet Tuesday to explore how to phase out the tax. The House has formed a similar committee.
“We owe this to our taxpayers,” Tillery told GPB’s Donna Lowry during a recent interview. “We’ve got a surplus. We’ve built up quite the reserve. They’ve been paying it in. So, we need to return the money to the folks who sent it to us to begin with.”
Tillery said the push goes beyond giving back to taxpayers. He argued it is about keeping Georgia competitive with neighboring states. “Florida and Tennessee have figured out how to do their budgeting without an income tax. North Carolina and South Carolina are quickly on their way down to zero. If Georgia is going to stay competitive, we’ve got to do this, too.”
If lawmakers succeed, Georgia would become the 10th state to eliminate income taxes. “The nine have already done it. We’d be the 10th,” Tillery said.
The state is already on track to lower its flat income tax rate to 4.99% by 2028. Tillery said stopping there is not enough. “I think most Georgians believe that Georgia’s the Empire State of the South, then we’ve got to be competitive with our neighbors.”
He added that eliminating the tax could influence decisions by both residents and businesses. “When folks are deciding to live in Georgia, you’ve probably heard it from your neighbors, folks who say, ‘Well, I’m just going to live across the line in Florida.’ Well, it’s not quite that simple, but it is when businesses are deciding where they’re going to locate.”
Tillery stressed that the committee’s task is not to debate whether to end the tax but to determine how to do it responsibly.
“Lt. Gov. Burt Jones has appointed a committee, a study committee that I will chair over the next several months. And we’ll work closely with our colleagues in the Senate, with Lt. Gov. Jones, just to chart a realistic and responsible path to eliminating Georgia’s income tax,” he said. “Of course, you can’t pass a bill in the Legislature unless you’re working with your colleagues and friends in the House, too.”
Income taxes pay for government services such as education, public safety, infrastructure and more. Asked if Georgia could survive without that revenue, Tillery responded: “You know, I think we can, and the way that we know we can, is that nine states have already figured a way” to do it.
Still, he would not speculate on what revenue changes the committee might recommend. “I think it’s probably premature for me to prejudge the committee’s work on what they will decide. I understand what my role is as chair and it’s not to debate whether we should eliminate the income tax. It’s to determine how we eliminate the income tax.”
The interview took place before Tillery announced his campaign for lieutenant governor in 2026.
This article is drawn from a transcript of an interview on GPB News.
