ATLANTA – State lawmakers want to take another crack at expanding a tax credit program benefiting Georgia’s rural hospitals, but Democrats protested the move as a missed opportunity to send hospitals more significant aid through Medicaid expansion.

The General Assembly first created the program in 2016, and lawmakers have come back every year since trying to sweeten the tax credit to entice more giving to the program.

Last year, only $8.7 million in tax credits were claimed, according to information from the state Department of Revenue.

The program is faring a little better this year. About $3.7 million in tax credits had been claimed by early February.  That’s about $2.6 million more than the same time last year.

But it’s still a far cry from tapping all of the $60 million in state funds set aside for the program every year.  

“While we haven’t raised all the money that we want to raise up to date, every dollar we can get in our rural hospitals is important,” said Rep. Trey Kelley, R-Cedartown, who is the sponsor.   

Supporters say the current tax break limits the program’s impact and should be more generous. Donors receive back 90 cents on every dollar donated to a qualifying hospital, which is up from 70 cents.  

The House signed off on a plan this week to make it a dollar-for-dollar tax credit. The vote, 114 to 53, mostly fell along party lines. The bill now moves to the Senate.  

“This is the third bite at the apple we’ve had with the hospital tax credit,” House Minority Leader Bob Trammell. D-Luthersville, said during a debate this week.  

“And $10 million a year, while it’s not nothing, the rural hospital crisis that we face in our state is not a $10 million problem,” Trammell added.

Trammell, who has filed a bill that would expand Medicaid, argued that the state is foregoing billions in federal dollars and an opportunity to insure about 600,000 more Georgians. Gov. Nathan Deal has been opposed to expansion, citing the cost to the state.

Expanding Medicaid, Trammell argued, would be a far more significant economic boost for rural hospitals struggling to stay open.

“There is a debate that we continue to duck in this chamber about how to get every dollar that we can possibly get into rural hospitals – and that’s Medicaid expansion,” Trammell said

The Democrats’ opposition, though, drew condemnation from a rural lawmaker.

“That is the epitome of what our constituents get frustrated with,” Rep. Dominic LaRiccia, R-Douglas, said Thursday of Democrats withholding support of the measure because of lack of movement on what he said was a separate matter.