(The Center Square) — Georgia’s net tax collections in December decreased by 5% from a year ago.
Collections surpassed $3 billion, down $159.1 million from December 2022, when net tax collections exceeded $3.2 billion. However, so far this fiscal year, the state’s net tax revenue has increased by 1.6% or $253 million, totaling roughly $16.1 billion.
Georgia officials said collecting the state’s motor fuel excise tax primarily drove the increase. While December motor fuel tax collections increased by $11.9 million over a year ago, without motor fuel tax collections, revenues for the last six months of 2023 decreased by 2.5% from 2022.
Meanwhile, a Georgia public policy group, citing the latest edition of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s “Who Pays?,” a “distributional analysis” of tax systems nationwide, said recent changes to the Peach State’s tax code make it “more regressive.”
“As Georgia shifts to a flat income tax in 2024 and considers accelerating planned cuts to the income tax rate, lawmakers must take into account the fact that these changes make Georgia’s tax code more regressive and deliver vastly outsized benefits to those already at the top of the economic ladder,” Georgia Budget and Policy Institute Senior Fiscal Analyst Danny Kanso said in a statement. “Lawmakers must prioritize better targeted forms of relief that simultaneously accomplish other policy goals, such as enacting a state child tax credit or earned income tax credit, to boost take-home pay for working families.”
Separately, Georgia Democrats criticized Gov. Brian Kemp following a report that he declined to accept an estimated $138 million in funding for the United States Department of Agriculture’s Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer program.
“It’s inexcusable that Governor Kemp had an opportunity to prevent Georgia kids in low-income families from going hungry, and he simply said no,” Democratic Party of Georgia Spokesperson Ellie Schwartz said in a statement. “With millions in federal funding on the table and a multi-billion state budget surplus, how can Kemp justify opting out of reducing child hunger in Georgia?”
Spokespeople for Kemp did not respond to a request for comment.