House Speaker David Ralston said Thursday that the Georgia Senate is wasting its time considering legislation that would cut all corporate tax breaks by 10%.
The Senate Rules Committee on Wednesday amended House Bill 1035 to cut all tax breaks on the books 10% to match the 10% cut lawmakers are having to make in state spending because of the coronavirus pandemic recession.
Cutting all tax breaks - including tax credits for film production, the break manufacturers get on energy used in production and Delta’s tax exemption on jet fuel - would save the state hundreds of millions of dollars in fiscal 2021, which begins Wednesday.
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But Ralston said a recession is no time to be hamstringing businesses and that the measure would lead to layoffs. He had also criticized an earlier proposal, which passed the Senate Finance Committee that killed or limit about three-dozen special-interest tax breaks.
“It’s still a job killer. A little bit of job killing is still job killing,” Ralston said. “I don’t think that’s the way Georgia recovers.
“You know, they can pass it all they want. We’ve got other things to do that are more productive than killing jobs.”
The Senate has HB 1035 on its calendar of bills to vote on during the final two days of the 2020 session. The session ends Friday.
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