(The Center Square) – A bill that would increase the standard deduction for Georgia families to $100,000 is up for a state Senate vote on Thursday.
Senate Bill 476 would also increase the standard deduction to $50,000 for single filers.
It’s the first step in a plan proposed by Senate Republicans to eliminate the state income tax over the next six years. The income tax break would eliminate state income taxes for some families in its first year, they said.
Slashing some corporate tax breaks would make up the lost revenue in the second year, according to Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, the bill’s sponsor. Some of the cuts are to little-known sales tax credits like a “yacht tax credit” on boat parts.
Other cuts have been previously discussed by lawmakers, including the slashing of tax reprieves for data centers.
The bill would cut two tax credits, one for new data centers and one for computer equipment.
“The University of Georgia Carl Vinson Institute said that at least 70% of them would have come anyway and that we were giving our money away,” said Chairman Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome. “And like I said earlier, that’s one whole month of income taxes to gave a small group that credit.”
Hufstetler has introduced a separate bill to eliminate tax relief for data centers.
The bill covers the first two years of a six-year plan to eliminate the state income tax to zero, according to Tillery.
Some Democrats have opposed the bill, citing concerns about cuts to services or increased taxes elsewhere. The bill does not raise motor fuel or sales taxes, nor does it add a property tax.
The Senate meets at 10 a.m. on Thursday.
