The sponsor of a Georgia Senate bill that would exempt college athletes from state income tax for compensation they make through NIL deals said he’s “basically calling it the Kirby Smart bill.”
Brandon Beach, a Republican who represents Senate District 21 that includes north Fulton County and Cherokee County, said Georgia football and other state programs are at a recruiting disadvantage because players have to pay a 5.39% income tax on deals for their name, image and likeness.
Georgia Senate Bill 71 was put in the finance committee Tuesday, Beach said, as it works its way through the legislative process.
“Listen, recruiting is a very, very competitive sport,” Beach told the Athens Banner-Herald on Tuesday. “When you’re recruiting these five-star athletes, they all have agents and we’re competing with Tennessee, Texas and Florida who have no state income tax. Eventually, we’ll get there and we won’t have a state income tax. I hope that happens, but until then we’ve got to get Kirby and these football coaches and basketball coaches, these coaches a tool in their toolbox to be able to compete.”
Beach said he’s actually not talked to Smart, the two-time national championship winning UGA football coach, about the bill, but said the idea came after a dinner he had with former Alabama coach Nick Saban and others at a home on Lake Burton, where Saban has a lake house.
He said Saban told him Missouri passed an NIL law after losing recruits to schools like Texas and Texas A&M that didn’t pay state income tax.
Missouri’s NIL bill, approved in 2023, allows in-state athletes to make money from endorsement deals in high school if they sign with public universities in that state.
Beach mentioned that Texas and Tennessee made the College Football Playoff this year and those schools don’t have state income taxes.
“When you’re talking about a $750,000 to a $1 million contract, these young kids and the agents say, ‘Hey, if you go to Texas, you’ll make another $40,000 by not paying state income tax’ or whatever the amount is. That can sway the difference in an athlete going somewhere else.”
Beach is a Republican as are the four other co-sponsors: Frank Ginn (21st District which includes Clarke, Barrow, Jackson, and Madison counties), Greg Dolezal (27th), Ben Watson (1st) and Carden Summers (13th).
“I think we’ll get major support,” he said.
He said someone asked him why a player like former Georgia quarterback Carson Beck, who drove a Lamborghini last year and has made millions in NIL deals, needs a tax break.
“We want to keep our athletes here and be competitive and win national championships and compete with states that don’t have an income tax, we’ve got to help them out,” he said.
Beach said athletes from Georgia won’t get this exemption if they go play in another state or transfer to a school in another state.
UGA athletics said it would not comment on the bill.
Beach said he hasn’t spoken to athletic director Josh Brooks or UGA president Jere Morehead about it, but he may call Brooks.
“College athletics generates millions of dollars for our university and local businesses and really the state economy,” Beach said. “Bill 71 will just help sustain that growth by putting a winning program on the field and putting the best athletes on the field and help these coaches in the recruiting battles.”
