SR56: SR56 Bona Fide Conservation Use Property; maximum acreage to qualify for assessment and taxation; increase -CA

Georgia's constitution currently caps a statewide homeowner's incentive adjustment, a benefit that reduces a homeowner's property tax bill, at up to $18,000 of assessed home value or the actual tax owed, whichever is lower. This resolution proposes a constitutional amendment that removes that cap and instead lets the General Assembly set the adjustment amount by ordinary law. It also newly allows the legislature to authorize local governments and local school systems to create their own local grant and adjustment programs and to spend local tax money on them. A second section adds a new constitutional provision letting the General Assembly authorize local school systems to impose a 1 percent local option sales tax, for up to five years at a time, to offset reductions in homestead property tax relief. The tax could be renewed through the same process used to first impose it, but only after the prior tax expires. If approved by the General Assembly, the proposed amendment would go to Georgia voters for ratification or rejection.

• Removes the constitutional cap that currently limits the homeowner's incentive adjustment to a benefit equal to an $18,000 homestead exemption or the actual tax owed.
• Lets the General Assembly set the size of the homeowner tax relief adjustment through ordinary state law instead of a fixed constitutional dollar amount.
• Authorizes the General Assembly to let local governments and local school systems create their own local grant programs funded by local tax dollars, on top of the state program.
• Adds a new constitutional provision allowing local school systems to impose a 1 percent sales and use tax for up to five years to offset reduced homestead property tax revenue.
• Allows that local school sales tax to be renewed for additional periods once the prior tax expires, following the same approval process as the original tax.
• Sends the combined proposed changes to Georgia voters as a single yes-or-no ballot question.

Georgia homeowners who receive homestead tax relief, local school systems and local governments that would gain new authority to run tax relief grant programs, and Georgia voters, who would decide the constitutional amendment in a statewide referendum.

If ratified, the legislature would gain more flexibility to expand homeowner tax relief without needing another constitutional change, and local school systems could ask voters to approve a temporary sales tax specifically to cushion homeowners from losing that relief, shifting some of the tax burden from property to sales taxes.

• Section 1 revises Article VII, Section IIA, Paragraph I of the Georgia Constitution to remove the fixed $18,000 cap on the homeowner's incentive adjustment and let general law set the amount instead.
• Section 1 also authorizes the General Assembly to let local governments and local school systems establish their own local homeowner tax relief grant programs funded by local tax funds.
• Section 2 adds a new Paragraph V to Article VIII, Section VI, authorizing a local school system sales and use tax of 1 percent for up to five years to fund property tax relief.
• Section 2 requires that a renewed local school sales tax follow the same approval procedure as the original tax and cannot begin until the current tax expires.
• Section 3 sets the ballot language voters would see and specifies that ratification would make the amendment part of the Georgia Constitution.

1. 2026-03-31House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)
2. 2025-02-21House Second Readers (House)
3. 2025-02-20House First Readers (House)
4. 2025-02-19Senate Passed/Adopted (Senate)
5. 2025-02-19Senate Third Read (Senate)
6. 2025-02-19Senate Engrossed (Senate)
7. 2025-02-18Senate Read Second Time (Senate)
8. 2025-02-13Senate Committee Favorably Reported (Senate)

• Sam Watson (R, SD-011)Primary sponsor
• Billy Hickman (R, SD-004)
• Russ Goodman (R, SD-008)
• Lee Anderson (R, SD-024)
• John Kennedy (R, SD-018)
• Shaw Blackmon (R, HD-146)

1. PassedSenate voteFebruary 19, 2025

   31 yea, 21 nay (1 not voting, 3 absent)

   Motion To Engross: Sb 45, Sb 59, Sb 89, And Sr 56: Senate Vote #63

2. PassedSenate voteFebruary 19, 2025

   51 yea, 1 nay (0 not voting, 4 absent)

   Adoption Of Constitutional Amendment: Senate Vote #64

• property tax relief
• homestead exemption
• local option sales tax
• constitutional amendment
• school funding