April 19, 2024
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp signed the largest tax cut in Georgia history Tuesday, legislation he said when fully implemented will save a family of four with an annual household income of $60,000 more than $600 a year.
The bill, which the Republican-controlled General Assembly passed early this month along party lines, will gradually reduce the state income tax rate from 5.49% to 4.99% over six years, starting with the 2024 tax year. The current tax rate is 5.75%.
Kemp and legislative Republican leaders pushed through the tax cut at an opportune time, when the state is sitting on a huge budget surplus coming out of the pandemic.
“Government should take in the least amount possible needed to serve the people properly,” Kemp said during a signing ceremony in Bonaire, the hometown of Georgia House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Shaw Blackmon, the tax cut bill’s chief sponsor. “Taxpayer dollars are the people’s money, not the government’s.”
Kemp said the income tax cut represents the long-term component of a tax reduction package lawmakers approved this year, including a one-time $1.1 billion tax refund, a temporary suspension of the state’s gasoline sales tax to put a dent in rising pump prices, and legislation he signed last week exempting military retirees from the state income tax.
“We can’t fix everything Washington has broken,” he said. “But we’re doing our part to lessen the pain on people’s wallets in Georgia.”
