ATLANTA, GA (GPB)- A committee of state senators looking at ways to eliminate Georgia’s income tax met at the state Capitol on Monday. GPB’s Sarah Kallis reports.
Georgia’s current income tax is just over 5%, but some lawmakers want to take it to zero.
The committee of state senators looking at ways to eliminate Georgia’s income tax met at the state Capitol on Monday. Committee chair Blake Tillery says Georgia will eliminate the income tax; it’s just a question of when and how.
Georgia Public Policy Foundation President Kyle Wingfield testified before the committee. He said a lower or fully eliminated income tax would incentivize workers and companies.
“When you lower the rate and you do it on a permanent basis, you’re telling business owners, you’re telling entrepreneurs, you’re telling households, your money is going to go farther in the future than it used to,” he said, “that’s a powerful incentive for people to work more, to save more, and to invest more. And those three things are the lifeblood of our economy and the growth of our economies.”
Wingfield also suggested putting some of the state’s reserve money in an emergency fund in case of a low revenue year, or setting up income tax cuts that only trigger if Georgia’s revenue grows.
Meanwhile, the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute released a study this month saying Georgia’s sales tax would have to rise to 12% to compensate for the elimination of income tax and that lower-income Georgians would suffer as a result.
Tillery slammed the study, and said that it did not consider all the avenues that the Legislature could take to make up lost revenue. He maintains that eliminating the personal income tax is the best way to put money back in Georgians’ pockets.
“You don’t have to go more than a block away from this building to see folks who are having a hard time paying for home prices, paying for groceries, paying for child care, paying for gas,” he said. “And this is the best way, this is our best lever to affect them.”
Meanwhile, Democratic Sens. Nan Orrock and Ed Harbison, who are on the committee, said personal income tax elimination and increased sales tax is a “handout” to the wealthy.
“At the end of the day, they’re making the affordability crisis worse and saying they’re doing you a favor,” they said in a statement. “Democrats on this committee are appalled by this wrongheaded, disastrous proposal.”
The senators have not unveiled policy recommendations that would explain how to make up lost revenue, but the committee has previously discussed ending some tax credits or exemptions.
