ATLANTA — Sales tax exemptions for community food banks, volunteer health clinics and back-to-school shoppers likely will expire without action from the Georgia General Assembly today, the last day of the 2010 legislative session.
Nine of the more than 100 sales tax exemptions that dot Georgia’s tax code are set to sunset this year unless the state Legislature votes to renew them.
Of those, only two are still alive in the legislative process, according to the House Ways and Means Office, which oversees changes in the tax code.
The two: a tax exemption for contractors working for the U.S. government, such as aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin, and the exemption on fuel taxes for mass transit systems. The first was pasted into another tax bill, House Bill 1221, and the second is now part of House Bill 1393.
The others likely will be a victim of the state’s budget crisis, which has pushed the General Assembly to cut a few billion dollars from the state budget, raise various state fees and approve a new tax on hospital revenues.
The other seven exemptions set to expire are sales tax breaks for:
n Nonprofit health centers.
n Nonprofit volunteer health clinics that serve the poor.
n Swine-raising operations, which don’t pay sales taxes on liquefied petroleum gas and other fuel.
n Food banks.
n Gas/fuel/coal costs, above those that existed during 2008 session, used to manufacture property for resale.
n Qualified job training organizations.
n Back-to-school shoppers. This is the annual sales-tax-free holiday weekend.
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle indicated earlier this year that he might push to rescue the exemption for volunteer health clinics. But legislation to do so hadn’t surfaced as of Wednesday, and his office said it is “still looking for options.”
Interestingly, doing away with the food bank exemption means the state will tax its own contribution to those banks, which use state and federal dollars to buy food in bulk. For the Middle Georgia Community Food Bank in Macon, the change will mean about $41,000 in new costs, roughly equivalent to four tractor-trailer loads of green beans, director Ronald Raleigh told The Telegraph last month.
To contact writer Travis Fain, call 361-2702.
