Atlanta Business Chronicle - by Dave Williams Staff Writer Thursday, March 12, 2009
http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2009/03/09/daily80.html
The Georgia House Thursday overwhelmingly approved a state economic stimulus plan Republicans held up as a more responsible, business-friendly recovery strategy than its federal counterpart.
Voting 164-4, lawmakers passed a bill that would provide tax credits to businesses that hire unemployed Georgians. House members then unanimously approved a second measure to repeal the state’s tax on business inventories.
House Republican leaders introduced the package last month, citing the loss of more than 200,000 jobs in Georgia during the past year, which has driven up the state’s unemployment rate from just more than 5 percent to about 9 percent.
The first bill would offer a $2,400 tax credit for each unemployed worker a business hires before July 1, 2010, and keeps on the payroll for at least two years.
Giving businesses tax relief would do more to boost Georgia’s economy than the spending-heavy approach taken by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats, Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ranger, who introduced both bills, told his legislative colleagues.
“True economic recovery comes from the creation of new jobs, through the expansion of the private sector,” he said.
The tax credit bill also would exempt new businesses from paying a corporate registration fee to the state and repeal a provision requiring companies to remit a portion of the sales taxes they collect from customers in advance.
A provision abolishing the state’s corporate income tax was taken out of the bill by the House Ways and Means Committee.
The jobs package, which now moves to the Senate, is being backed by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the state chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business.
