Georgia chamber, economic developers oppose adoption of House bill

ATLANTA — The Georgia Chamber of Commerce and the Georgia Economic Developers Association issued the following statement strongly opposing HB 1035:

On Thursday, the Georgia Senate Finance Committee voted to pass HB1035, which eliminates dozens of valuable tax incentives that would harm manufacturers who invested their own time and money to make PPE’s for our health care workers.

The bill cuts rural programs at a time when every economic model shows that rural Georgia is suffering more and will take longer to recover. It cuts historic preservation in our downtowns, telecommunication expansion in rural Georgia, takes away efforts to promote research and development of new technology, slows expansion of clean energy efforts, limits local health care service, cripples low-income housing construction and slows infrastructure projects.

We must remember that businesses in Georgia have just started to re-open after a government-mandated lockdown, and we are now suffering in a recession with record unemployment. Our economic development community needs every tool possible to lead this recovery.

The Georgia Chamber and the Georgia Economic Developers Association call on the Senators to address the budget like past Republican administrations without raising taxes and instead focus on stimulating the economy and helping get Georgians back to work. Let us not punish those already suffering.