Georgia House Speaker wants to boost tax credits for homeowners, parents

ATLANTA — Georgia’s House Speaker wants to boost tax credits for homeowners and parents across the state even as he wants Georgia to be able to hold more money in reserve for a rainy day.

Republicans say this year, they’re committed to tax relief. Democrats think it’s just election-year pandering.

Locust Grove Republican Lauren Daniel and her son Zane -- the official baby of the House -- listened as House Speaker Jon Burns announced more proposed tax deductions on Wednesday.

Burns wants to increase the child tax deduction from $3,000 to $4,000 per child. He wants to double the Homestead Exemption from $2,000 to $4,000.

And he wants to lift the cap on how much money the state can put into the rainy-day reserve. It’s capped now at 15% of the surplus.

“I think it’s a positive thing for the families of the state,” Daniel said.

Burns is putting Daniel in charge of the child tax credit legislation.

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She’s a mother of four, and baby Zane is on the floor of the House with her every day.

“We are hit with rising costs at the grocery store. We’re hit with rising costs of childcare. We’re hit with rising costs to afford our mortgages, so this is something that helps,” Daniel told Channel 2′s Richard Elliot.

House Minority Leader James Beverly still thinks that money could be better used expanding Medicaid, something Democrats have fought for, for years.

“It is election year pandering,” Beverly told Elliot. “It’s great to give money back, but let’s start investing generationally into the infrastructure of our families, and I think they’re going to fall short of doing that.

Burns believes these proposals will help Georgians deal with the economy.

“Taken together as a whole, these bills will provide significant tax relief to taxpayers across all our state, put more money back into their pockets, and continue to boost our economy which is pretty important,” Burns said.

The speaker said the House will also work on the governor’s plan to accelerate those income tax cuts during this session.

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