They have been amongst a dozen measures rejected by Kemp on Tuesday, the tip of a 40-day interval to signal or nix laws. Few of the vetoes got here as a shock, although most of the measures have been the main target of intense behind-the-scenes lobbying.
Simply as carefully watched was a measure that Kemp inked on the deadline. He signed Senate Bill 189, which establishes new guidelines for difficult voters’ eligibility and will enable extra third-party presidential candidates on Georgia’s poll.
He authorized the measure regardless of intense pushback from Democrats, voting rights advocates and elections officers, who warned it may require the state to shell out tens of tens of millions of {dollars} to comply with the measure’s requirement to take away QR codes from ballots.
One other fierce lobbying effort concerned Kemp’s resolution to veto House Bill 1192, which might have suspended gross sales tax breaks on new knowledge facilities that lawmakers say aren’t giving the state a lot monetary return whilst they gulp down big quantities of power.
Whereas supporters of the incentives acknowledge the sprawling knowledge facilities don’t create many roles, they appealed to the governor to not undercut an trade that has factored the credit into its enterprise mannequin.
Kemp’s veto famous that the tax breaks have been prolonged solely two years in the past by means of 2031, and that suspending them would undermine “investments made by high-technology knowledge heart operators, clients and different stakeholders” that would hamper the state’s financial system.
Nonetheless, it was certainly one of few payments lawmakers authorized to trim company tax breaks after spending final 12 months investigating the effectiveness of such state largesse in creating jobs and offering taxpayers with a very good return on their funding. Most efforts have been shut down throughout the session by lobbying efforts bankrolled by the beneficiaries of such tax breaks.
Kemp additionally rejected Senate Bill 368, which might have prohibited international marketing campaign contributions. The governor famous the apply is already banned by federal legislation, and he stated different registrations necessities on international nationals included within the measure have been “unintended” by the invoice’s sponsor.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger made a case for the laws in an op-ed Monday that referred to as it the “spine of essentially the most essential election safety enhancements that would happen earlier than this main election.”
Kemp’s veto of Home Invoice 2019 famous that elevating the statewide property homestead exemption on taxes from $2,000 to $4,000 required voters to approve the change in a referendum on November’s poll.
Nonetheless, throughout some late-session maneuvering, the Senate handed a $4,000 homestead exemption within the invoice however set the exemption within the proposed referendum at $10,000, Kemp stated. As a result of the 2 didn’t match, Kemp vetoed the invoice.
The HOPE-related measure that Kemp killed would have allowed college students who’re searching for each a bachelor’s diploma and their first skilled diploma to make use of HOPE to assist pay for these graduate credit.
Beneath present legislation, the lottery-funded merit-based tuition scholarship expires after college students have reached 127 semester hours or 190 quarter hours, or earned a four-year diploma.
State Rep. Scott Holcomb, the invoice’s sponsor, stated he’s holding out hope the same model will move in 2025.
“I’m dissatisfied as a result of it will have helped our state’s prime college students,” stated Holcomb, a Democrat from Atlanta. “However I’ll maintain the dialog going and see if we will make it work subsequent 12 months.”
The vetoed laws joins a pile of measures that Kemp has rejected since he took workplace in 2019, together with 14 bills that went in the dustbin in 2023. He additionally aggressively used his energy to “disregard” expenditures final 12 months, placing on maintain greater than $200 million in spending within the state funds.
