Georgia lawmakers vowed to restrain tax breaks. But the governor’s veto saved a data-center break

May 8, 2024

Associated Press: Georgia lawmakers vowed to restrain tax breaks. But the governor’s veto saved a data-center break

From the story:

An image of the top of the Georgia State Capitol
Source: Getty Images

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia lawmakers vowed they were going to rein in tax breaks for businesses this year.

Their efforts came to nothing.

Gov. Brian Kemp on Tuesday vetoed a two-year pause in a sales tax exemption the state gives for building and equipping computer data centers, after an intensive lobbying effort to preserve the tax break.

Kemp’s veto shows how hard it is to root out established tax breaks, said lawmakers and national experts.

“Any time you create a carve-out in your tax code, you then create a self-interested lobby around it,” said Greg LeRoy, the executive director of Good Jobs First, a liberal-leaning group long skeptical of economic development incentives.

Read the full Associated Press story.

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