Gov. Brian Kemp wants to lower the tax rate for 2024 — but experts say the current tax code is ‘rooted in anti-blackness’

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp wants the state Legislature to consider lowering the income tax rate in 2024, citing an enormous surplus in the state’s 2023 budget.

Before 2024, households were taxed under a graduated system in which higher earners paid higher tax rates, but changes to the tax code that were scheduled to go into effect this 12 months – signed by Governor Kemp in 2022 – can be postponed to the flat rate tax model. Under the recent policy, all Georgia residents are expected to pay a general tax rate of 5.49% in 2024, with that quantity expected to decrease by an extra 0.1% every year until it reaches 4.99% in 2029.

For many, this implies exponential growth; most households earning lower than $250,000 a 12 months currently pay lower than 5.49 percent in state income taxes; according to the 2020 U.S. Census, only the top 5 percent of Georgia households earn greater than $233,979. Previously, Georgia’s highest earners paid up to 5.75 percent, while those that brought home the least paid just 1 percent.

Citing a big state budget surplus again in 2023, Governor Kemp’s office wants the Legislature to consider accelerating the reduction to 5.39%. this 12 months – a level that was previously expected to be reached in 2025.

House Bill 1015, which accelerates interest rate cuts, is currently moving through the state Senate and passed the House by a 165-0 majority.

“Cutting taxes and returning more money to taxpayers continues to be a priority for the Georgia House of Representatives, and today’s passage of HB 1015, HB 1019 and HB 1021 will help return over a billion dollars to Georgia families, homeowners and taxpayers,” House Speaker Jon said in an announcement Burns, R-Newington. “These priorities will provide significant relief to taxpayers across the state, put more money back in their pockets, and continue to propel our economy as the best state in the nation to live, work, and raise a family – and I look forward to the Senate’s early retirement and Governor (Brian) Kemp’s signature.”

Income equality advocates say the plan deepens inequality and places an unfair share of the tax burden on those that need assistance most.

Hope Wollensack, executive director of the Georgia Resilience and Opportunity Fund, says the proposed tax cuts “are not proportional to the burden of costs and expenses that low-income households bear” and argues that “a much larger share of those savings should go to households “This should bring the greatest savings.”

Politics ‘rooted in anti-blackness’

Wollensack points out that these households are also more than likely to feel the long-term effects of a blanket tax cut; on condition that public education and health care are already severely underfunded in the state — and that the lowest-income residents are likely to have poorer schools and fewer access to quality health care — she says residents needs to be concerned about how the proposed cuts will affect state revenues .

“For the average person who works every day, what they probably care most about is what they can personally save,” she told Atlanta Black Star. “Our public policies determine who has access to certain resources… and that often determines who gets to the top.”

“We have a extremely ingrained belief that individuals in the top 1 to 10 percent (of income) deserve this. They’ve worked hard, they’ve pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, and so they deserve more advantages than those at the bottom who didn’t work as hard to get there,” Wollensack said, adding that this idea of meritocracy ignores the embedded structural mechanisms of racism that historically exist in tax code.

They are also “rooted in anti-Blackness that is as old as this country,” Wollensack said.

How can tax policy be racist?

How can tax policy be racist? When we trace the history of taxation back to the founding of this country and property taxation – and do not forget that in the South, enslaved people were considered property – it becomes just a little clearer.

“Tax policy is not race neutral,” says Alex Camardelle, a former senior analyst at the Georgia Budget Priorities Initiative who now serves as vice chairman of policy and research at the Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative. “The history of the tax code is rooted in white supremacy, given its long-standing ties to property ownership (including people as property). I don’t think we necessarily took that into account. “Whenever we think about changes to the tax code and their consequences for Black people, who constitute the lowest wealth households in the country, we must consider race.”

“I think that’s one of the reasons a flat tax isn’t ideal, because it doesn’t do enough to recover taxes on losses from the wealthy who also benefit from tax breaks and other loopholes that can be exploited on income,” he said. Black Star of Atlanta.

Both Wollensack and Camaradelle agree that the tax code is intentionally complex and designed to be misunderstood, but those with greater resources are in a greater position to hire professionals to help them discover and exploit potential loopholes. that reduce their tax liabilities.

A posh system of tax cuts and loopholes are “blunt instruments that can be used to deepen inequality,” Camaradelle said.

“Our tax code is incredibly complex, so once you take into account all the deductions and tax credits in the code, it can be difficult to follow,” Wollensack said. “For the average person who works every day, they probably care most about what they can personally save (but)… I think we need to start asking and demanding more.”

Moving in a greater direction

Georgia is certainly one of 20 states that doesn’t offer a state-level earned income tax credit, a tax credit offered to low- and moderate-income people to lower their taxable income and help them keep more of their earnings in their household.

Wollensack said that if government officials really wanted to help the most vulnerable population, they’d consider introducing a loan that will profit the 3.5 million Georgians who need the help the most.

She also advocates redirecting a few of the state’s excess revenue into direct money payments directly to families, which might disproportionately affect black families in the state.

Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms was amongst a bunch of mayors across the country who advocated for a guaranteed income program to just do that.

While it failed to gain statewide traction or the funding needed to sustain the program, the Georgia Resilience and Opportunity Fund is currently overseeing a pilot guaranteed income program that gives $850 to $1,000 a month to residents, a lot of whom are black women.

They found that food insecurity decreased by about 20 percent, families’ ability to pay medical bills increased by 14 percent, and college enrollment doubled. Mental health has also improved significantly, with many individuals seeing their savings double, which overall improves their position when it comes to managing their household needs.

“There could be many scenarios where the $16 billion (surplus) is actually concentrated on the bottom half of Georgians — not just people in poverty, but the middle class,” Wollensack says.

Camaradelle says it is important that tax policy is intentional about the way it generates revenue for the state and addresses inequalities which have existed for generations. The current policy, which subtracts $1 billion annually from state revenues, “will ultimately limit our revenue growth potential (and will have) a long-term impact on all publicly funded state resources,” e.g., he added, that education, health care and other investments in infrastructure are possible.

His ideal policy “recovers and addresses the undertaxation of ultra-high-net-worth individuals who do not pay their fair share.” He points to states like California and New York which have introduced property taxes to try to spread the burden more evenly.

“When we think about taxes and who benefits from them and who doesn’t, Black people…feel the burden of not raising taxes, and through other means as well,” Camaradelle said.