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February 13, 2026
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Weekly Wrap-Up: Senate Dems Fight Republican Tax Scam Set to Crush Families, Seniors, Small Businesses
Senate Dems introduced legislation to repeal sales taxes on multiple household goods
Additional bills empower local charter schools, expand Medicaid coverage for life-saving surgeries, expand ICE accountability, protect Georgians from predatory insurance activities
Atlanta, Ga. — During the fifth week of the 2026 legislative session, Senate Democrats condemned Senate Republicans for hastily introducing and passing legislation to destroy the state budget.
The bills, aiming to repeal the state income tax, were rammed through the Georgia Senate without a price tag explaining its financial impact on the state or any public testimony.
Dr. Robert Buschman, the state economist appointed by Governor Brian Kemp, previously slammed eliminating the income tax as an “unrealistic talking point spouted by unserious people.” He said it would require more than doubling the state sales tax to “avert fiscal disaster.” In 2018, Governor Kemp himself told a room full of Atlanta Young Republicans that this wasn’t realistic.
Bills Introduced by the Georgia Senate Democratic Caucus
Senate Bill 475 to ensure local charter schools receive the same fair share of local education sales tax funding as other public schools in their district. This bill is led by Senator RaShaun Kemp (D-Atlanta).
Senate Bill 479 to require schools to allow at least one excused absence per year for students to attend or take part in a civic or political event. This bill is led by Senator RaShaun Kemp (D-Atlanta).
Senate Bill 481 to require Medicaid to cover heart and lung transplants when doctors determine they are medically necessary. This bill is led by Caucus Chair Elena Parent (D-Atlanta).
Senate Bill 483 to require covered immigration officers to wear body cameras during public immigration enforcement functions. This bill is led by Caucus Chair Elena Parent (D-Atlanta).
Senate Bill 490 (Georgia Student Mental Health Days Act) to allow students to take up to three excused mental health days per school year and require schools to share mental health resource information with families. This bill is led by Senator Kenya Wicks (D-Fayette).
Senate Bill 493 (Promise Scholarship Student Success and Transparency Act) to add stronger oversight and performance standards for private schools that accept Promise Scholarship students, including annual reviews and consequences if standards aren’t met. This bill is led by Senator RaShaun Kemp (D-Atlanta).
Senate Bill 495 (Age-Appropriate Design Code Act) to prohibit social media and technology companies from collecting, selling, sharing, or retaining any personal data of a consumer that is not necessary to provide an online service or product. It would also prohibit anyone, including parents or guardians, from monitoring the online activity of a consumer or track the location of a consumer without providing a signal to the consumer that they are being tracked. This bill is led by Senator Sally Harrell (D-Atlanta).
Senate Bill 502 (The Affordability Act) to remove the sales tax from essential household goods, such as including baby supplies, healthcare and first aid items, school supplies, job training materials, energy-efficiency products, and gun safety equipment. This bill is led by Minority Leader Harold Jones II (D-Augusta).
Senate Bill 504 to place certain lobbying restrictions on the Commissioner of Insurance within five years after leaving office. This bill is led by Senator Nabilah Parkes (D-Duluth).
Senate Bill 505 (Georgia Prior Approval for Consumer Insurance Rates Act) to require that private passenger motor vehicle and residential property insurance premium rates must be approved by the Commissioner prior to use. This bill is led by Senator Nabilah Parkes (D-Duluth).
Senate Bill 506 to prohibit auto insurers from setting prices based on where a driver lives. This bill is led by Senator Nabilah Parkes (D-Duluth).
Senate Bill 507 to prohibit the use of credit information and credit scores in underwriting, rating risks, adverse actions, or certain other actions by insurance companies. This bill is led by Senator Nabilah Parkes (D-Duluth).
Senate Bill 508 (Community Housing Options Increase Efficiency, or CHOICE, Act) to reward local governments that adopt pro-housing and efficiency policies by giving them priority access to certain state grants and loans. This bill is led by Caucus Chair Elena Parent (D-Atlanta).
Media Coverage of the Georgia Senate Democratic Caucus
Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones II, D-Augusta, said he supports eliminating state income taxes for families making less than $100,000, but said many Georgians would pay the price if other taxes have to be raised to make up for loss of government funding.
He said some of the tax breaks that would be reduced, such as the affordable housing credit, would harm residents more than lower income taxes would help.
“The problem with the bill is very simple: It’s going to create tax hikes. It’s going to create job loss,” Jones said. “This bill decimates the middle class. It really has severe consequences.”
Atlanta Journal Constitution: Senate passes big cut in Georgia income tax
Democrats said the bill would decimate the state’s largest source of income with no specific plan to replace the lost revenue after the first year. They noted Senate Republicans introduced and approved the bill in a few days without first getting an analysis of its fiscal impact from the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget.
Sen. Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain, said the long-term result of the income tax cut will be an increase in the state sales tax.
“Today, perhaps, for the first fiscal year, your $3 billion (in tax breaks) will work,” Jackson said. “But the second fiscal year we know your proposal costs at least $6 billion. And when we go to fill that in, it will be by taxing the things that my constituents need every day.”
Late last week, senators introduced two bills to advance the first part of a plan to eventually eliminate the state personal income tax by 2032, as recommended by a special Senate committee appointed by Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones last summer.
State Sen. Derek Mallow, D-Savannah, and state Sen. David Lucas, D-Macon, said engrossing these bills does not allow Democrats to have a role in shaping the bill.
“There should’ve been a much larger, more robust debate to allow for public comment and testimony on legislation that will impact every single Georgian from all 159 counties. And now that we have moved them to engrossment, the minority caucus is yet again excluded from participating or negotiating on how these bills will impact our state,” Mallow said.
Democratic state Sen. Randal Mangham lamented the inability to amend proposals in SB 476 that repeal tax credits benefiting businesses.
Minority Whip Kim Jackson also asked [Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones], the president of the Senate, to rule on whether debate on SB 476 could continue because there was no fiscal note.
Bills that would have a significant impact on state revenue receive a fiscal note from the Office of Planning and Budget and the Department of Audits and Accounts that estimates changes in revenue.
“If this plan could withstand public scrutiny, it would not have been rushed through committee without real debate, without a fiscal note, or any bipartisan input,” [State Senator Nikki Merritt] said.
WABE: State lawmaker cites no bipartisan support for bills targeting actions of ICE agents in Georgia
According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement webpage that tracks “detained alien deaths,” 29 people have died in federal custody since President Trump returned to the White House. According to The Guardian, which counts 32 deaths, 2025 was the agency’s deadliest year in more than two decades.
Amid the current legislative session, Rev. Kim Jackson, a Georgia State Senator, is sponsoring three bills that address the actions of ICE agents to prevent any constitutional rights violations locally.
Senate Bill 389 would require agents to wear visible identification and forbid face coverings and masks. SB 391 would prohibit arrests without a judicial warrant. SB 397 would allow people to sue ICE.
“There is currently no bipartisan support for any of these bills,” State Senator Jackson said. “I assumed that might be possible when I first introduced them, but I want to be clear that my job as a legislator is to introduce the bills that my people ask for.”
Jackson says seeing the actions in Minnesota has left her distraught, and she believes the nation is at a crisis point. At the same time, she’s heartened by seeing neighbors help neighbors and witnessing the push back on the Trump Administration’s aggressive mass deportation efforts.
Georgia Recorder: Senate Republicans sign off on cuts to Georgia’s income tax rate while ending some corporate perks
Democrats, who spoke at length Thursday, said the proposal would destabilize the state’s budget and would require lawmakers to eventually address a deficit they said it would create.
Sen. Elena Parent, a Democrat from Atlanta, said that the Senate Republicans’ proposal is “complete magical thinking” that will inevitably lead to the state raising its sales tax.
“For the families that are struggling to pay rent, child care, utility bills, buy their groceries, it’s worse than a slap in the face. It is a flat-out scam,” Parent said. “You cannot blow a hole in our state budget bigger than a sinkhole swallowing Stone Mountain and pretend that the money doesn’t have to come from somewhere.”
Georgia Recorder: Georgia Senate passes surprise ban on puberty blockers for minors
Senate Democrats pushed back against the last-minute changes, criticizing Republicans for what they saw as a pivot from a recent focus on pocketbook issues to polarizing red-meat proposals in an election year.
“Culture war bills are the easy things to do, to pick on vulnerable populations and try to distract your voters and the voters of Georgia from the failure of the Republican agenda in this country and in this state to deliver a good quality of life for Georgians,” said Sen. Elena Parent, an Atlanta Democrat.
Sen. RaShaun Kemp, an Atlanta Democrat and one of two openly gay lawmakers in the chamber, also condemned the bill.
“Legislative fear does not reduce the cost of Georgians’ everyday lives,” Kemp said. “Legislative fear just continues to divide us.”
Democrats, including in the special committee that voted to recommend these measures, have pushed back on reductions to income tax, saying they jeopardize funds for public services and mostly benefit wealthier Georgians.
“I think the government can do a better job of creating infrastructure to deliver services that families all across the state need than an individual can with their tax cuts,” Democratic state Sen. Nan Orrock said Monday.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Senate GOP revives anti-trans bills as election year heats up
For months, Republican leaders in the state Legislature have stressed they would focus on making life more affordable for Georgians. And then came Tuesday.
The Senate was discussing House Bill 54, a measure that was supposed to let registered nurses and physician assistants order home health care services for patients. But Senate Republicans changed the bill so that it would also restrict transgender adults and children from accessing gender-affirming care.
“Fifteen days,” state Sen. Sally Harrell said on Day 16 of the 40-day legislative session. “Fifteen days is a record when we didn’t mention transgender people once in this chamber. And I can tell you, it’s been great.”
Harrell, a Democrat from Atlanta with two transgender children, has been at the forefront of the debate since Republican senators first began targeting transgender people in legislation.
“The last five years, all this debate has been so incredibly stressful for me and my family,” Harrell said. “We’ve worked on this transgender issue for five years. Isn’t that enough?”
Georgia State Senator Donzella James is hosting a community assistance event called Operation Winter Warmth this weekend in South Fulton to support residents affected by cold weather.
HOA Day was organized by Representatives Viola Davis, Kim Schofield and Sandra Scott and Senator Donzella James. The event continued with a call to action for all lawmakers to prioritize and protect Georgia homeowners.
Atlanta Voice: Bills introduced to curb predatory HOA practices in Georgia
State Representative Donzella James (D-35) [...] spoke in support of three Senate bills that will provide protections to home and condo owners who pay Homeowner Association (HOA), Condo Owner Association (COA), and Property Owners Association (POA) fees.
Senate Bills 106, 107, and 106 will provide those protections if they are passed, according to James, who says they are needed in order to help homeowners keep their properties.
“We have to address the problem of predatory HOAs. They don’t have integrity, many of them,” James said. “We are going to pass these bills this year; if not, we are going to appeal to the governor.”
Capitol Beat: Georgia Senate Republicans approve lower income taxes as their answer to affordability
The Republican-led state Senate adopted an historic income tax cut plan Thursday that Democrats decried as an election year ploy that would undermine the state budget.
There was no official estimate of the cost of Senate Bill 476 [...] The absence of an official analysis of the impact to the more than $40 billion budget led Democrats to assert the plan would cost $9 billion while Republicans touted it as a boon for working people.
Democrats said the wealthy would benefit more [...] They said it would result in budget shortfalls in the long run, forcing budget cuts and sales tax increases that would drive up prices for groceries, child care and other expenses that are making life difficult for many Georgians.
Sen. Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain, called the bill “a scam.” Sen. Derek Mallow, D-Savannah, said it was “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
Sen. Nikki Merritt, D-Grayson, said it would “devastate” the economy. “It’s not a plan for working families,” she said. “It’s a plan working families will pay for.”
That led Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs, also running for lieutenant governor, to say SB 476 was a “senseless tax cut that Brian Kemp’s going to veto on sight … this is election year stuff.”
Americans wagered a record $1.7 billion on the Super Bowl as more states legalize sports betting, but Georgia and South Carolina remain among the shrinking minority of states that don’t allow sports betting.
Democratic State Senator Derek Mallow has experience gambling with his brother in Illinois. He talked about the economic benefits of sports gambling.
“We’ve been discussing and debating this since I’ve been in the house, now I’m in the senate for four years. We can absolutely get it done, it’s currently unregulated and people are doing it, guess what? We’re missing out on tax revenue in this state where we could use it to fund education, we could fund addiction programs,” said Sen. Derek Mallow, D-Chatham County.
The Georgia Senate passed a sweeping Republican-backed measure Thursday that would eliminate state income taxes for two-thirds of Georgians, sending the bill to the House following a day of heated floor debate.
Democrats warned the plan would "blow a hole" in the state budget, potentially triggering future tax hikes and job losses.
Critics of the bill argued that the removal of those credits would dismantle essential incentives for the state's infrastructure and workforce.
"This bill wipes out nearly every tax credit that keeps Georgia's economy running," [Sen. Nikki Merritt] argued during the debate. "Affordable housing credits gutted. Rural hospital credits gutted. Child care credits gone. Veterans and law enforcement credits gone."
Sen. Nikki Merritt, D-Grayson, echoed those concerns, suggesting the long-term costs would fall on the very people the bill claims to help.
"It will devastate our economy. It's not a plan for working families. It's a plan working families will pay for," Merritt said.
Sen. Josh McLaurin: “ICE is not just in Minnesota [...] ICE has been operating in Georgia. We have received many concerns from our constituents about the extent of ICE’s operations both now and plans to bring new detainees to Social Circle.”
Sen. Josh McLaurin: “This is not some abstract conversation for the people of Georgia. This is a real policy crisis happening now.”
Georgia Senate Democrats are available for comment.
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