State lawmakers began meeting at the Capitol on Tuesday in a rare special session to come up with money for south Georgia hurricane repairs. They may also vote, in the next few days, on whether to give commercial airlines that fly in and out of Georgia airports a state sales tax break on the jet fuel they buy in Georgia.
The amount of money that legislators and the Governor are considering for south Georgia, where farmers and communities are trying to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Michael, will barely begin to help, according to the House Speaker. But, he said Tuesday, that it is, at least, a beginning.
Speaker David Ralston and other legislative leaders said the state, on its own, just does not have the billions of dollars it will take to restore south Georgia.
Cotton crops destroyed in Hurricane Michael when the storm hit Georgia
Legislators are depending on the federal government to pay for most of the recovery.
As it is, the legislature will vote in the next few days on an emergency appropriation of about $270 million to begin paying for road clearing and overtime and other clean-up bills that are already due.
Ralston said Tuesday that the state will not be able to give any money directly to farmers, whose crops and properties were destroyed. That type of aid, he said, will come “down the road” from the feds.
“What we’re doing this session is a beginning, it’s not an ending,” Ralston said. “It’s a drop in the bucket, frankly. We need the federal government to partner with us … But we’re going to be very aggressive and do everything we possibly can to help the farming community in that part of the state.”
The legislature will also be debating whether to give Delta Air Lines and the other air carriers who fly in and out of Georgia airports a sales tax break on the jet fuel they buy at the airports.
It’s a tax break that is worth tens of millions of dollars a year.
Governor Nathan Deal approved the tax break temporarily this past July, by Executive Order.
The legislature will decide whether to ratify the governor’s order and make the sales tax break permanent, at least through the end of this fiscal year in June 2019.
Speaker Ralston said no one from the airlines has spoken with him about the tax break.
“I haven’t heard from Delta or any other carrier,” Ralston said. “I think that any time an entity asks for preferential treatment in our tax policy, they have the burden of proof to show that it is necessary” and will benefit Georgia’s economy.
“I have serious concerns and questions in my mind that they have done that,” Ralston said.
The legislature is expected to vote on the airline tax break, and on aid for south Georgia, by early next week.
