[February 12, 2024] | Week five is in the books in Atlanta. Have to say it was a busy one. Went to the visitation and funeral of one of my close friends in the legislature, Richard Smith from Columbus. Lovely service.
There were a dozen folks from our district at the Capitol this week; it was surely nice to see these folks from home. I had the honor of recognizing Children's Health Care of Atlanta for the lifesaving care they give to children with heart issues at birth. Amazing care! We celebrated one of our local families who has received the care, the Judkins family.
We passed the amended budget this week. What that is, is the bill to correct the spending we passed a year ago for present needs of our state. This bill will go on to the Senate for them to put their ideas to it. We are a long way off from getting this done. We started on the 2025 budget this week, too, with hearings from the agencies and dept. heads, listening to their needs. If you are curious what is in the amended budget, let me know, and I will send you the summary.
In addition to voting on the amended budget this week, the House also gave unanimous passage to a legislative package aimed at providing Georgians and their families with much-needed tax relief. On Thursday, the House took up House Bills 1015, 1019 and 1021.
First, HB 1015 would lower the individual income tax rate effective on January 1, 2024, from 5.49 % to 5.39 %, which would return another $1 billion to Georgia taxpayers. Next, HB 1019 would increase the statewide homestead exemption from $2,000 to $4,000, provided the owner resides in the home as their primary residence. Lastly, HB 1021 would increase the child tax deduction from $3,000 to $4,000 for Georgia tax credit. With rising childcare costs, this legislation would allow for an extra $1,000 deduction per child, which could help alleviate some of those costs for parents. Each of these measures would help foster Georgia's economic success story by returning more dollars back into the pockets of our taxpayers.
Some bills are sad/unfortunate to pass. We unanimously passed House Bill 1035, that would allow for the sale and supply of opioid reversing agents, like Narcan, in vending machines. This is due to the Biden administration's failure at the border, giving Mexican cartels the opportunity to bring drugs over the border like fentanyl, at will. This will protect those who dispense, supply, and administer these opioid-overdose reversal drugs from liability when they act in good faith. Dang shame we have to have these counteractive drugs on hand everywhere now.
House Bill 945 was passed and is one many of you would be interested in, due to the insurance issues at the hospital of your choice. This would require state health plan insurers to continue coverage when a hospital that is in-network becomes out-of-network with the insurer before the end of the plan year. We had a big issue with this in the area last year and the year before.
My Capitol office number is 404-656-7153. My email is rick.jasperse@house.ga.gov.
As always, thank you for allowing me to serve as your State Representative.