Senate and House Economic Development Committees to Introduce Housing Tax Incentive

ATLANTA – (January 16, 2009) Co-chairmen State Sen. Chip Pearson (R-Dawsonville) and Rep. Ron Stephens (R-Savannah) convened the first Joint Economic Development Committee meeting of the 2009 session on Wednesday at the Coverdell Legislative Office Building in Atlanta. The committee focused on the housing industry and announced their plans to introduce a housing tax incentive plan.

“The overall agenda of the Senate and House Economic Development Committees this year will focus on doing everything we can at the state level to recover the housing industry, and to recover Georgia first,” said Sen. Pearson. “After our meeting in December with housing industry representatives, it became clear that we need a stimulus plan to jumpstart the housing market and the economy as a whole. We will aggressively pursue this measure to ensure it moves quickly through the legislative process so that we can provide immediate relief to homebuyers.”

Chairmen Pearson and Stephens then assigned respective members to three subcommittees that will focus on the housing tax credit legislation, property tax reduction, and regulatory reform. These subcommittees will begin holding joint hearings later this month.

Representatives of the building and housing industry delivered a recap of the initial meeting on the housing market in December, and the committee also heard from the Georgia Economic Development Association on their legislative agenda for 2009 that includes programs within the OneGeorgia Authority, Quick Start workforce training and local development authorities.

Sen. Chip Pearson represents the 51st Senate District, which includes Dawson, Fannin, Gilmer, Lumpkin, Pickens and Union counties, and portions of Forsyth and White counties. He may be reached at 404.656.9921 or via e-mail at chip.pearson@senate.ga.gov.

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release:
January 16, 2009
For Information Contact:
Raegan Weber, Director
Kallarin Richards, Senior Communications Specialist
kallarin.richards@senate.ga.gov
404.656.0028