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Request a DemoElection focus group (pt. 2): Democracy faces challenges, but confidence remains strong
This story is Part II of a two-parter highlighting what Georgians have to say about the state of our democracy. Subscribe at STATEAFFAIRS.COM to read all of our election coverage.
The Jan. 6, 2021 siege on the U.S. Capitol may have been a political litmus test for our country moving forward but it’s not the defining moment for American democracy, according to State Affairs’ latest conversation with its 10-member election focus group.
Many of the Georgians we talked to are more concerned about partisan rancor in public dialogue, and with the cloud of uncertainty that hangs over the fairness and accuracy of Georgia’s election processes, past and present.
Some believe that SB 202, the election reform bill passed by the Georgia legislature in 2021, provided some needed safeguards, while making voting access easier. “There are poll watchers and poll workers on both sides,” says Ellis Davis, 19, a student at Valdosta State University. “If someone doesn’t have a valid ID they’ll be discovered and turned away.”
Conservative James Flanagan, 39, is proud to see Georgia voters “breaking some early voting records all across the state.
“ And I think that’s great and it puts to bed the myth that recent laws are unfairly restricting folks,” he said.
Others see signs of voter suppression. “Seems like they’re making it harder to vote, and doing it kind of underhandedly,” says Marion Butler, 76, a Democrat who’s volunteering to help her disabled and elderly neighbors in Randolph County get to early voting venues that are now fewer and farther between.
With the midterms less than two weeks away, we asked the group to weigh in not only on their concerns about the election process, but their overall concerns about U.S. democracy and preserving its principles.
Here’s what five of the group members had to say. The rest of the group’s comments were published Wednesday .
James Flanagan, 39, Conservative, veteran and veterans’ advocate, married with two children, lives in Peachtree Corners.
Do you have concerns about democracy? What does preserving democracy mean to you?
So I do have concerns. I think as Americans if we really want a strong, functioning republic we need to toughen up as citizens. It’s unfortunate that so many people are afraid to get outside of their news and political bubble. I think that leads to a big threat to this country. It’s really tough to have critical policy debates if we can’t even agree on facts, let alone other people’s perspectives.
Every day on social media we have an echo chamber. Folks on the left only listen to folks on the left. Folks on the right only listen to folks on the right. That creates a situation where a lot of half-truths or complete falsehoods are amplified. When we don’t have a common set of facts or understand each other’s perspective it’s a challenge to come together at any point. I’ve always encouraged folks to try to listen to and read other points of view. If you’re a Democrat, listen to Fox News. If you’re a Republican, watch MSNBC. Just to break out of that bubble. And I think we need more of that.
How confident are you in the election process?
I really believe in our elections here in Georgia. I was really proud and impressed to see that Georgia is breaking some early voting records all across the state. And I think that’s great and it puts to bed the myth that recent laws are unfairly restricting folks. It’s clear more people are participating across the board, and we need more participation as a whole. So I’m very proud of where we are as a state. The only other part of it I think about is a lot of our election workers, poll workers, get unfairly attacked. They do a lot of hard work leading up to elections and on election day that really makes our republic happen. We need to give kudos to those folks who make that happen, who often do that work without a ton of compensation or credit.
Marion Butler, 76, retired in 2008 from a 34-year career as a developmental disabilities caretaker; lives in Cuthbert; single, widowed, lifelong Democrat.
Do you have concerns about democracy? What does preserving democracy mean to you?
When I think about democracy, I’m thinking about all of us having equal rights. And equal responsibilities. And it doesn’t always have to be political. To me, there has to be a way to get people to get up and do for themselves.
But I will say democracy is under some threats. The places where we can vote, the polling places, have been reduced. They’re trying to take away our voting rights. Randolph County used to have all these places you could go and vote; now there are less and we have to drive farther. That is especially challenging for some people who depend on others for rides. And then when you get there, sometimes they challenge you, and tell you that you can’t vote there. That didn’t use to happen so often. Seems like they’re making it harder to vote, and doing it kind of underhandedly.
How confident are you in the election process?
I feel kind of okay about the election process, I guess because I’m involved in it with my church as a volunteer and letting people know what their rights are. We’re going door-to-door and letting people know what the ballot looks like, the choices they have, how to figure out where you’re supposed to vote, if it’s early or on November 8. We’re trying to make sure every household in Randolph County is contacted. We’re making plans to provide transportation to disabled folks and people who don’t drive. And so far, that’s going pretty well.
Ellis Davis, 19, political science major at Valdosta State College; Republican; hometown St. Mary’s, in coastal Georgia.
Do you have concerns about democracy? What does preserving democracy mean to you?
My biggest concern is people not being confident in the election and believing conspiracy theories and falsehoods that are being shared. That makes people not go to the polls and vote, and their voices are not being heard and their rights are not being exercised. I believe that’s what lost us the two Senate seats with the two runoffs in 2020. [U.S. Dist. 14 Rep.] Marjorie Taylor-Greene is partially to blame for that. People voted in the general election, and then after the conspiracies started flying everywhere, a lot of Republicans didn’t vote in the runoff. hat is a huge concern when it comes to democracy.
Also, people not conceding elections – that falls on both Republicans and Democrats. President Trump and the Republicans did that after the 2020 election, and Stacey Abrams and some of the Democrats in 2018 did the same, never giving a proper concession. They never really admitted that they lost. I think [Governor Brian] Kemp and [Secretary of State Brad] Raffensberger are more with the common man and do what the law says and what their consciences say to do. Marjorie Taylor–Greene says her husband has proof of voter fraud. Well then, show us if you have that proof, so it can be investigated by the secretary of state. And [former U.S.] Senator [David] Perdue says, ‘We have someone who has evidence of voter fraud.’ And then they give out little to no evidence of it. I don’t believe they have any proof. That kind of talk does not preserve our democracy.
How confident are you in the election process?
In Georgia I’m absolutely confident. In my hometown in Camden County, we have Democratic and Republican poll watchers, and a lot of oversight, and it’s all open to the public. I have faith in Brad Raffensberger to oversee the election fairly. With how he and Kemp handled 2020, I believe they did the right thing. Certain people asked them to do illegal things and take certain measures to ensure an outcome, and they didn’t cave to the pressure, and they stood firm and confident. So I’m confident in Georgia. There are poll watchers and poll workers on both sides. If someone doesn’t have a valid ID they’ll be discovered and turned away. We had two people that Brad Raffensberger said committed voter fraud last time, in a state with millions of people voting–that’s pretty good. The Georgia Votes program is awesome, where you can vote by absentee ballot or early vote. I’m very pleased with election bill SB 202. It gave a lot more opportunities to early vote. Democrats criticize our process but we have a lot more early voting days than other states.
Art Gallegos, 48, Republican, community organizer with Latinos Conservative Organization; married, 5 children, lives in Gainesville, second generation Mexican-American.
Do you have concerns about democracy? What does preserving democracy mean to you?
Democracy is a huge foundation of our nation. It means we have the freedom to elect people as government officials, to govern the nation, and that the authority and power is always with the people, and those officials work for the people. That’s what makes us different from other nations.
We see threats to democracy now with this administration, how radical they’ve gotten. When JFK was in office, the Democratic Party stood by fundamental beliefs. Now we see that socialist views have infiltrated the Democratic Party. For example, we never used to hear that education was going to be free. Sure, kindergarten through 12th grade education is provided, but education at the university level? We have this mentality now that we’ll waive that cost, and we’re going to have free this, free that – where people commit to doing certain things in their lives, and then want to pass that cost on to someone else. So now we have student loans and all these other programs paid for by taxpayers. Meanwhile, there’s a lot of need in the homeless community, especially with local veterans that need help with health care, housing, recovery and addiction. And this administration is giving so much free stuff to people, including people who are not citizens, who are not coming into this country the right way. And for me, I take it personally; it’s like a father supporting the neighbor’s family and not taking care of his own household. It’s a great deed to do so the world can see we’re a melting pot and we help everyone; we’re the big guy in the world, but at the same time there’s rules and laws. And it’s upsetting and if we don’t watch that, our democracy is going to fade away, little by little. So people need to speak out against it and also go out and vote.
How confident are you in the election process?
I want to believe that we have the freedom to vote for who we want to vote for, and that our vote is going to count. But so many things have happened that I have some reservations, and I wonder, will elections be rigged? Or will elections be truthful and run smoothly? There is that doubt in certain states run by a party that is not implementing the guidelines.
In Georgia, I believe that because of everything that happened in the past two years, and some flaws in voting in different cities and counties, it brings doubt that our elections will be accurate. When we see bad things happening with the machines, or voter fraud, it’s a concern. But as citizens, we have to trust God, trust ourselves and trust officials in government that they’ll implement better safeguards to the election process this time. I think many people have lost faith in government, and in elected officials, and we need to regain that, because the opposite of faith is hopelessness, and that’s not the nation that God intended us to be or that I want to leave behind to my kids.
Casey Villarreal, 38, Conservative, mother of three children, lives in Cartersville.
Do you have concerns about democracy? What does preserving democracy mean to you?
I do have some concerns. It seems our nation in general has a pretty high tension level, and that things are always right on the surface of boiling over. It used to be that we could agree to disagree and have debates. We’ve lost that ability to respectfully disagree. People get so offended.
The way to preserve democracy is that we all need to be informed and get out there voting. You can’t just complain. Get educated on what is affecting you and your family. People are not only so easily offended these days, but they’re also lazy, and some people don’t even show up at the polls. It’s such an amazing right that we have, and we all need to take it more seriously. You’re casting your vote to effect change at the state or national level. If we aren’t heard in that, in a bipartisan way, we’re not putting the people in place to best represent us.
How confident are you in the election process?
I do think we’ve had some issues with our elections, with mail-in ballots, and making sure who’s going in to cast a vote is actually that person. Just here in Georgia, it really came into play with Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp in 2018. There were a ton of issues of possible voting fraud. People saying mail-in ballots weren’t done correctly, identities not matched correctly in certain precincts, and that does give me some cause for concern. I really hope that the votes will be accurately counted this time.
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Catch-up with our E-Team:
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Democratic incumbents vie for redrawn House district seat
ATLANTA — Democratic incumbents running in south DeKalb County’s newly drawn District 90 are in a political predicament: Longtime comrades, they now find themselves pitted against each other.
Reps. Saira Draper and Becky Evans met Wednesday on the debate stage at St. John’s Lutheran Church to make the case for why voters should choose them for the newly drawn district in the upcoming May primary.
Mike St. Louis, chair of the Druid Hills Civic Association and moderator of the hourlong debate, lamented the“gratuitous” pairing of two Democratic incumbents in the same district drawn by Republicans who controlled the special legislative session on redistricting last year. The process was an effort to comply with a judge’s order to add more majority-Black districts.
House District 90, which Draper represents, will still include the part of Atlanta that is in DeKalb County, as well as six new precincts in southwest DeKalb that were in District 89, where Evans serves. Each was elected in districts that were and remain majority-Black, solid-blue districts.
No Republican or independent candidates qualified for the 2024 election for the new District 90.
Draper and Evans began and ended Wednesday’s debate acknowledging their respect for each other, and their chagrin over their political predicament, while trying to draw distinctions on their legislative records and strengths.
“This was not something that either of us asked for. It’s not something that either of us wanted,” Draper said. “And to me, it really underscores the fact that we have to get the majority in Georgia.”
Draper, a civil rights attorney serving in the House since 2023, said what makes her “the best person for the job … really boils down to democracy and diversity.” She described herself as an elections and voting rights expert who helped to “flip Georgia blue for the first time in 30 years” during the 2020 presidential election and the 2022 midterms, when she said she “led the voting rights efforts” in Georgia for President Joe Biden and U.S. Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, for whom she oversaw campaign staff and thousands of volunteers.
Draper said she’s now fighting to bring Democratic majorities back to the state House and Senate, which she estimated will likely take four to six years.
In the meantime, she said she has worked to push through what legislation she can in the Republican-controlled House and cited as a small victory House Bill 1207, a bill she crafted that requires advanced proofing of ballots by candidates and election supervisors. Draper sought out five Republicans as co-signers to gain majority support for the bill, which passed in both chambers and awaits Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature.
Noting that “diversity is a central tenet to the Democratic Party,” Draper said, “as a woman of color and as an immigrant, I bring perspectives to the table that are underrepresented at the Capitol.”
Draper immigrated to the U.S. when she was 6 years old from England, where her Spanish mother and Pakistani father met. “That makes me Spakistani,” she said, eliciting laughter from the audience. “But it also makes me the only member of the Georgia General Assembly who is a member of the Hispanic caucus and the Asian American Pacific [Islander] caucus.”
Evans, a community organizer and political operative who has served in the House since 2019, emphasized her six years of experience building relationships with fellow legislators and delivering on measures to support education, the environment, gun safety and housing.
“And I’m 100% pro-choice, 100% pro-LGBTQ and 100% pro-health care expansion,” Evans said, adding she is proud of her work developing legislation to promote literacy among school children over the past two years, including writing a bill last year to create the Georgia Council on Literacy and another bill to ensure that children are screened for dyslexia and other reading challenges and that teachers are trained in evidence-based reading and writing instruction.
When her bills didn’t pass from the House to the Senate by the Crossover Day deadline in 2023, Evans said she persuaded Republican lawmakers in the Senate to adopt her legislation, which then passed. She now serves on the 30-member literacy council, which she said is working “to make sure that all of our children will have the broadest possible futures and that they can all learn how to read.”
Evans also said she was “proud to deliver this session $7.4 million in [federal] gun violence prevention awareness funds that will go out to community groups” and to support the passage of a bipartisan Senate bill that will give “[sales] tax breaks [on gun safety devices] where people are using their guns responsibly.” She said she also advocated for adding new funding for school security grants to the education budget, which was approved.
The candidates took similar positions on many issues, both decrying the private school voucher bill they said would drain funds from public schools, and the need for the state to better fund impoverished school districts. They described their individual efforts to curtail gun violence and promote voting rights, as well as detailed their years of experience in ground-level get-out-the-vote efforts in DeKalb County and metro Atlanta. Draper and Evans also expressed measured support of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, which they said is needed to train police and first responders.
Among the 40 or so people in the audience, Lora Wuennenberg, 68, a Kirkwood resident and program manager at the humanitarian nonprofit CARE, said she emerged from the debate torn between the two candidates. Noting they have similar positions on the major issues she cares about, including public education, she said Draper, her current representative, impressed her as an “an activist who can mobilize people and is willing to stand up and stand out on some of the issues that may not be getting enough attention.”
“Becky seemed more of a practical, behind-the-scenes organizer, someone who understands the bureaucracy of government and has a lot of established contacts,” Wuennenberg said, noting Evans has worked across the aisle and “found entry points” to get legislation passed. “In the Republican-controlled House, maybe she can be more effective than Saira.”
Wuennenberg said over the next few weeks she’ll follow the candidates and look to see “how Saira thinks she can mobilize support for the bread-and-butter issues that have an impact on people’s lives” in the next legislative session.
Arica Schuett, 36, a Ph.D. candidate in political science at Emory who lives in Druid Hills, said she also needs to spend more time studying the candidates.
She said Draper’s focus “on mobilizing voters and removing barriers to election participation resonated” with her, while Evans’ “experience and her ability to to work with constituencies that include Republicans is important. So getting a better understanding of how each candidate would manage their position in a really Republican Legislature is what’s important to me.”
Schuett said she plans to dive deeper into their proposed legislation and voting records. “I kind of want to look a little bit more at what they’ve done, right?”
The primary election will take place May 21.
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Barbershop talks and hip-hop summits: Georgia Black legislators’ group has big plans to build coalitions, boost voter rolls
The nation’s largest gathering of Black lawmakers is slated to meet in Atlanta this summer to discuss ways to boost voter participation nationwide ahead of the upcoming fall elections.
The Aug. 2-4 conference theme is “Testing 1, 2, 3.” The meeting will be the precursor to a series of events the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus plans to hold heading into the November presidential election.
“Because we’re the largest Black caucus in the nation, we’re reaching out to all of the caucuses from across the nation,” Rep. Carl Gilliard, D-Savannah, chairman of the 74-member Georgia caucus, told State Affairs. “This is the first time that I think we’re doing a total reach-out to all of the Black caucuses. We share a lot of similarities. Whether it’s voter suppression in Georgia, the same laws are going to be tried in Tennessee and the same laws are going to be tried in Florida. We share a lot of commonalities.”
Next week, for instance, the Georgia caucus is scheduled to issue a statement supporting efforts to pass a hate crimes bill in South Carolina. The bill passed in the House but stalled in the Senate, Gilliard noted.
Over 700 Black legislators represent about 60 million Americans, according to the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. In addition to the Georgia caucus, Black caucuses exist in nearly three dozen states.
Shortly after the August convention, the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus will embark on a 14-city tour throughout Georgia to focus on “getting out the vote.”
“We’re not going to tell them who to vote for,” Gilliard said of voters. “But what is happening right now is no one is talking to the people. And if the election were held today, we all would be in trouble because no one is talking or meeting the people where they’re at.”
The tour is a continuation of various actions the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus has taken this year to align with other organizations of people of color on common causes.
In March, the caucus joined forces with the Asian American Pacific Islander and Hispanic caucuses for a tri-caucus town hall. It was the first time the three groups have aligned. The Black caucus also has “reached out to partner with the Hindus of North America population and the diaspora,” Gilliard said.
“What we’re trying to do is form a coalition to get to as many diverse groups of people as we can,” he said.
Gilliard said the lack of individual and collective involvement in communities he’s seeing concerns him. It’s a far cry from four years ago.
In 2020, the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed Black man murdered while jogging in Glynn County, and Breonna Taylor, a Black woman killed by Louisville, Kentucky police serving a no-knock warrant for drug suspicion, led to more than 450 protests nationwide and on three continents.
That same year, former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams led an effort to increase the voter rolls for the 2020 presidential election. Fair Fight and the New Georgia Projects, two groups Abrams founded, registered more than 800,000 new voters.
That level of community and political engagement has since subsided, Gilliard said.
“People don’t know what’s going on,” Gilliard said. “No one is really talking to the people. You’ve got a presidential election. I’m talking about on both [political] sides. There are rallies and different events being held, but nobody has gone to the barbershop. No one has gone to the community centers or the neighborhoods. We’re going to be empowering those communities by going and taking those townhall meetings right where they’re at, not in a big municipality but in community centers and neighborhoods.”
The caucus also plans to hold a hip-hop summit to reach young people, many of whom are skeptical of both political parties.
“They’re forming their own opinions,” Gilliard said. “They’re saying, ‘Forget about Trump. We need to hear something different.’ That’s just their perception. That’s why I’m really quietly championing the young candidates behind the scenes who are running right now because we need young leaders.
“We have to get as many people together, but we also have to get them ready to work.”
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Special prosecutor to decide if Lt. Gov. Jones should face criminal charges in 2020 election-meddling case
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones will face scrutiny over whether he should be criminally charged for alleged meddling in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
The Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia said Thursday it has assigned Executive Director Pete Skandalakis as the special prosecutor to handle the case because Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is barred from investigating Jones. The council is a nonpartisan state advocacy agency for district attorneys.
In July 2022, Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney blocked Willis from investigating Jones because her actions were an “actual and untenable” conflict of interest. At the time, Willis had hosted a campaign fundraiser for Jones’ Democratic rival, Charlie Bailey, and donated to his campaign when both men were running for lieutenant governor. Willis is currently involved in an election interference case she brought against former President Donald Trump and 18 others.
McBurney’s ruling left it up to the council to decide whether Jones should be criminally charged.
“I’m happy to see this process move forward and look forward to the opportunity to get this charade behind me,” Jones said in a statement issued Thursday. “Fani Willis has made a mockery of this legal process, as she tends to do. I look forward to a quick resolution and moving forward with the business of the state of Georgia.”
The council cited state bar rules in its news release and said there would be no further comments.
Skandalakis’ appointment marks another step in the ongoing political odyssey for Jones and other lawmakers over charges that they served as “false” electors to help Trump overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Jones is one of 16 alleged “false” electors in Georgia who gathered at the state capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, to cast ballots for Trump and then sent their false certification of his victory to the National Archives and the governor’s office.
Jones has denied any wrongdoing, saying he and other electors were acting on the advice of lawyers to preserve Trump’s chances in Georgia in case the former president won a court challenge that was pending at the time. Jones was a state senator during the 2020 election.
Trump’s campaign enlisted an alternate slate of electors in 2020 in a number of swing states where Trump was defeated, as part of an effort to circumvent the outcome of the voting, The New York Times reported Thursday.
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Georgia taxpayers get a tax credit for helping young adults leaving foster care
The Gist
Georgia lawmakers in 2022 laid the groundwork to help young adults leaving the foster care system get a good start in life while giving taxpayers another tax relief option.
At that time, the Georgia General Assembly passed House Bill 424, also known as the Fostering Success Act. This law created the Qualified Foster Child Donation Credit program. It’s a tax credit plan that allows taxpayers to redirect their state income tax dollars to qualified organizations providing support services to young adults transitioning out of foster care.
Capped at $20 million a year, the money is used to help young adults ages 18 to 25 once they leave foster care.
What’s Happening
The tax credit took effect in 2023. The number of qualified organizations participating in the program has nearly doubled to 39 this year from 20 last year.
A bill to increase the cap on the tax credit to $30 million a year failed during this year’s legislative session because the House and Senate couldn’t agree on whether to expand the annual cap. It remains at $20 million a year.
As of March 28, $153,000 of the $20 million fund has been approved for the 2024 tax year. Roughly $19.8 million remains.
“With this being the second year of the tax credit, this tax credit opportunity is still relatively new and unknown,” Heidi Carr, executive director of Fostering Success Act Inc., told State Affairs. “It takes a while to get the awareness around it up.”
Carr’s group is one of the qualified organizations participating in the tax credit program. The nonprofit is not connected to the government program.
Georgia taxpayers get a dollar credit for every dollar they donate to a qualified organization, up to a certain amount. Here’s how it works:
- An individual or business applies through the Georgia Department of Revenue to qualify for the tax credit. The taxpayer specifies how much to donate and which organization will get the donation.
- Once approved, the taxpayer makes a payment directly to the organization.
- When the organization receives the payment, it sends the taxpayer the documents required when filing their state tax return so they can get their tax credit. The organization also notifies the state of the transaction.
Why It Matters
Each year, more than 700 young adults leave the foster care system in Georgia. They are some of the most underserved and overlooked people in the foster care system. Many never return to their biological families or get adopted. Once they leave the system, they often have little to no guidance as they enter college or the workforce.
The fostering success funds will help those young people with education, housing, counseling, medical care and transportation services.
Money generated from the tax credit has enabled Connections Homes to help 20 young people so far this year, Founder and Chief Executive Officer Pam Parish told State Affairs.
The Alpharetta-based nonprofit’s main goal is matching young people who have left or are leaving foster care with mentoring families. However, the $20,000 received through the tax credit program allows the organization to do much more, Parish said.
In one instance, they helped a young mother of two in her early 20s who is attending college and dealing with cancer. The organization paid the former foster care youth’s rent and car note and was able to “do the things that we could worry about and let her worry about getting better and staying in school,” Parish said.
Without the money generated through the Fostering Success Act’s tax credit program, such help would have been a “funding struggle,” Parish added.
“Our main program is our mentorship, which is immensely helpful to our kids,” she said. “But really to get into these practical needs and [having] funding available to do that is really helpful for our organization but most importantly for these kids.”
The organization has helped some 350 foster youth in its 10-year existence, Parish said. She and her husband have eight daughters, seven of them adopted. Five became part of the family after the age of 18 due to various circumstances, including surviving trafficking, homelessness and aging out of foster care, she said.
Similarly, Wellroot Family Services has been able to help foster youth pursuing college degrees.
“The Fostering Success Tax Credit bolsters the housing and wraparound services we provide for those youth pursuing postsecondary education and has enabled us to provide scholarships to former foster youth,” Wellroot CEO Allison Ashe said. “Because of the tax credit and the generosity of donors, we were able to provide additional funds to some of the youth pursuing college degrees to use for books and other academic supplies.”
What’s Next?
It’s not too late to participate in the 2024 tax credit program. To qualify, taxpayers must get the state’s approval and make their payments within 60 days of being approved or by Dec. 31, whichever comes first.
Between January 1 and June 30, the following yearly contribution limits are based on the taxpayer’s filing status:
- Single individual or head of household: Up to $2,500
- Married filing jointly: Up to $5,000
- Individual owner of an S corporation, member of an LLC or partner in a partnership: Up to $5,000
- C corporation, trust, or pass-through entity electing to pay tax at entity level: Up to 10% of Georgia income tax liability
Learn more about the Fostering Success Tax Credit here. As with any tax matter, consult your tax adviser. You can find a list of certified foster child support organizations on the Department of Revenue website.
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