Among the last-minute tax breaks lawmakers may wind up considering Thursday is one to help cut the tax bill of Mercedes-Benz executives and staffers.
Lawmakers said Gov. Nathan Deal requested a last-minute add-on to House Bill 202, which deals with property taxes, assessments and appeals. It would keep the 800 or so Mercedes-Benz headquarters employees from having to pay taxes on the cars they lease.
Instead, the executives and staffers would get special license plates, at a cost of $62. One lawmaker estimated the lost property tax revenue at about $1.5 million, although there was no official accounting as of late Wednesday, when it was first brought up by House and Senate negotiators on House Bill 202.
House Bill 202 is this year’s Christmas Tree, a term given to legislation that has new provisions and failed bills attached to it and usually gets approved in the waning hours of the session. The 2015 session ends Thursday.
“The current TATV (tax) regulation would hurt Mercedes, which has an employee leasing program,” said Deal’s chief of staff, Chris Riley. “The Governor is supporting a solution. However, he will veto a bill that comes to him resembling a festivus pole.”
Mercedes-Benz USA confirmed earlier this year that it would build a new headquarters in Sandy Springs.
The company said it plans a $93 million campus and will relocate or create 800 to 1,000 jobs. The incentive package - such as tax breaks - was valued at about $27,000 per job.
State officials said the average pay for headquarters employees is expected to be more than $78,000.
Sen. Bruce Thomspon, R-White, the lead Senate negotiator on House Bill 202, also is pushing hard to include a $350,000 sales tax break on construction materials for a private college in his district. Thompson didn’t name the school when the tax break was brought up during a meeting late Wednesday, but his official Senate bio says he is a trustee of Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland.
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