Military service members, both active duty and retired, along with their families will benefit from four bills Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law on April 18.
The bills will exempt military retirement income from state taxes, expedite professional licenses for military spouses, provide free notary public services and allow taxpayers to donate all, or a portion of their tax refund to scholarships for disabled veterans.
Executive Director Tom Clark of the CSRA Alliance for Fort Gordon said they had been advocating on behalf of the bills.
“Fort Gordon has over 31,000 civilian and military employees. And then off post they have over 60,000 retired military and retired family members,” he said. “So, exempting state income tax from them, the people who defended freedom and the American way of life, gives them another incentive to stay in our state, because two thirds of states overall already exempt the entire military retirement tax.”
MORE: Apartment Association of Greater Augusta hosts trade show and job fair as single event
Clark said they looked at it as a workforce incentive, a way to keep retirees who may seek other employment, in this area. Their military retirement pay would be tax free, but they would still pay state income tax at a new employer.
That retention is particularly impactful as cybersecurity and ancillary businesses continue to grow and need employees.
“Fort Gordon grew 9,000 employees in the last eight years. If you were a company like Textron or John Deere tractors, and you incorporated 9,000 new employees and their families into a region, you would be on the cover of an economic development of the year magazine. We believe that contractors will follow that growth,” he said.
During the bill signing ceremony, Kemp took note of the state’s large community of active-duty and retired military and their families.
“Georgia is blessed to have a large number of current and former military members live in our state. In fact, Georgia has the fifth largest military population in the country, with almost 700,000 former servicemembers and over 101,000 military retirees currently residing here,” he said.
MORE: Updated, more-restrictive liquor store law passes first hurdle
Military spouses will benefit from HB884. It deals with spouses who have professional licenses issued by another state for which the training, experience and testing are substantially similar in qualifications and scope to the requirements for a license in Georgia. The bill calls for the spouse to receive an expedited license within 90 days.
“What a huge win for our military spouses and people who follow their service members around the world,” Clark said. “Why keep them from generating income for their families? It’s already difficult enough that military spouses restart their career every four to five years, because they are following their family member. They are putting their careers on hold, and then must compete in a new market. This particular bill puts a timeline to that that says, ‘you will recognize this license.’”
Kemp said the new laws will help secure Georgia’s history of valuing active-duty and retired military and their families.
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a general assignment reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com
