Grocery tax hike bill appears to be dead

ATLANTA - A bill to reinstate the 4 percent sales tax on groceries appears to be dead for this year's legislative session.

House Speaker Pro Tem Mark Burkhalter said Tuesday the proposal to buoy Georgia's sagging revenues under a plan that would reimburse residents through a tax credit had generated attention.

Many Georgians had objected to it.

Burkhalter, a Republican from Johns Creek, says lawmakers have no intention of eliminating an exemption and thus raising taxes.

State Rep. Chuck Sims, a Republican from Ambrose, has unsuccessfully sponsored proposals for several years that would restore the sales tax on groceries for the first time since the late 1990s.

The latest version that passed a key committee last week is a significant change from Sims' initial proposal to restore the grocery sales tax over a two-year period.