Sen. Ben Watson

Columnist

The Georgia General Assembly convened for the 2026 legislative session this past Monday, marking the final year of the 2025-26 biennium. The General Assembly has completed its first five days of the limited 40-legislative day session.

As we begin this new year, the Senate is focused on the essential work of governing and addressing the immediate needs of our communities, with tax relief serving as the central theme for the session ahead.

The General Assembly’s primary obligation is to pass a balanced budget. The state constitution requires that we cannot operate with a budget that is not balanced.

This week, Governor Brian Kemp released his amended budget for Fiscal Year 2025/26, which emphasizes historic infrastructure investments and continued tax relief for Georgia families. The adjustments to the $37.7 billion budget include significant funding for education and public safety, including salary enhancements for teachers, health service workers, caseworkers and correctional officers.

As chairman of the Senate Health and Human Services committee, I was ecstatic that the governor highlighted his priority to expand access to healthcare in rural Georgia - an issue of critical importance to patients, doctors, nurses and healthcare workers across the state. This will bring Georgia in line with the benefits of the “Big Beautiful Bill” and Rural Healthcare Transformation legislation that Congress passed in 2025. I’m also working on improving medical care access through the expansion of Graduate Medical Education by increasing residency spots. We started this locally with St Joseph’s/Candler Health System in the greater Savannah-area by helping start residency programs that will start in 2027.

The Senate is continuing its commitment to returning hard-earned money to the citizens of Georgia. Key legislative priorities for this session include building progress from previous years to further reduce the state income tax rates for individuals and corporations. For the tax year beginning January 1, 2026, the tax rate is scheduled to decrease from 5.19 to 4.99 percent beginning January 1, 2026, effectively accelerating tax cuts originally approved in 2022.

Legislative leaders are exploring a landmark proposal to phase out the state income tax entirely by 2032, provided the state continues to meet specific revenue targets, while the House leadership has unveiled a plan to enable the elimination of the homestead property tax statewide to ensure homeowners are not priced out of their homes by rising valuations. Our effort here is to eliminate our state income tax, though we must do this responsibly. We also are looking hard at making home ownership more affordable by reducing property taxes. More on this as the session moves forward.

The Senate reached a final decision on Senate Bill 204, a measure that directly impacts the City of Savannah’s effort to curb gun carrying laws in the city. The City of Savannah had passed a local ordinance to require gun owners to lock their firearms in their car when left in a vehicle. However, the ordinance was widely considered to be unconstitutional and was determined as such by the Attorney General. The ordinance also made the owner liable and put in jail for six months rather than the actual thief. The Senate passed legislation to ensure uniformity of local laws and essentially abolished this ordinance, protecting law abiding Georgians in the process.

I will keep you updated on legislation affecting our community as we progress through the session.

Thank you for your continued interest in the work of our General Assembly. As your public servant, feel free to visit me at the Capitol or to reach out to me by phone or email. I am in 325A, Coverdell Legislative Office Building. My office phone number is (404) 656-7880, and my email is ben.watson@senate. ga.gov.

I look forward to continuing to serve you.