Georgia state lawmakers passed a sweeping overhaul of the state’s tax code on Thursday without giving airlines a tax break on jet fuel. Republicans removed the jet fuel tax break from the bill to punish Delta for severing its ties to the NRA.
Delta and United cut ties with the National Rifle Association in the wake of last month’s deadly school shooting in Florida. Both airline carriers stopped offering discounts to NRA members and asked the gun lobbying group to remove their brands from its website.
As payback, GOP lawmakers joined Georgia Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle in denying a tax break worth more than $40 million to Delta and millions to other airlines. This despite Republicans’ earlier push to sell the jet fuel tax break as being good for the state’s economy.
“What is important is not that (tax break) anymore but that Georgians are going to get their tax relief, and we couldn’t let that fall victim to everything that was going on with Delta,” House Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) said after the House gave the measure final approval.
Evans calls for investigation
Democrats say Republicans’ actions prove the Georgia GOP is in the gun lobby’s pocket.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Evans tweeted that Cagle, “once again confirms he puts ideology ahead of Georgians & Georgia’s economy.” She asked the State Attorney General to investigate.
Today, I requested that Attorney General @ChrisCarr_Ga investigate whether @CaseyCagle‘s irresponsible threat of @Delta violated state law. Not only are Cagle & the @GaRepublicans endangering our economy, they may have violated the spirit and letter of the law in doing so. #gapol https://t.co/VbYq8weoaN
— Stacey Evans (@EvansforGeorgia) February 28, 2018
What tax cut means to you
Cagle left out any mention of the Delta/NRA controversy in a press release issued by his office on Thursday. He joined other lawmakers in praising the tax cuts that are projected to save Georgians more than $5 billion over the next five years.
Under the plan, the top income tax rate for individuals and businesses will be reduced from 6 percent to 5.75 percent in 2019. It will be further reduced to 5.50 percent in 2020.
The standard deduction is doubled from $2,300 to $4,600 for individual filers and from $3,000 to $6,000 for married joint filers. Those changes will go into effect this year.
