(The Center Square) – A Georgia Senate committee unanimously recommended approval of a bill that would remove the taxes on tips for the state’s service workers.
Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, told the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday that Senate Bill 2 would return $65 million to $95 million a year to taxpayers.
President Donald Trump said during his campaign that he would remove the tax on tips at the federal level. A bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill that would do so in the U.S. Senate.
Other states, including Arizona and North Carolina, are also considering similar bills.
The committee approved a bill 8-3 that would give an 11-day sales tax holiday for firearms, ammunition, gun safes and related accessories.
Sen. Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, proposed the bill last year, but it was not passed.
Some questioned why Anavitarte wanted a sales tax holiday on firearm-related items and not other products, such as baby care items.
Anavitarte said the bill is about weapons used by sportsmen.
“This doesn’t proactively promote, you know, people to go carry weapons,” Anavitarte said. “The bigger picture picture, being stewards of the outdoors is why I care about it.”
Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta, said the same argument about doing it for those who love the outdoors could be made for removing taxes on fishing or mountain climbing equipment.
“It’s an insubstantial argument, if you’ll pardon my language, that makes this stand out other than if you want to send some sort of atta-boy to people that have very strong reactions when we do anything about gun safety around here,” Orrock said.
“If it gets you to ‘yes’ to vote for this bill then we do want to add fishing items or anything like that,” Anavitarte replied.
The committee agreed to sunset the sales tax holiday after five years.
The bill would return $1.3 million on the “low end” and $3 million on the “high end” to the taxpayers, Anavitarte said.
