SR55: SR55 Bona Fide Conservation Use Property; maximum acreage to qualify for assessment and taxation; increase -CA

Georgia's constitution currently lets owners of agricultural and timber land get a special property tax assessment, called bona fide conservation use, based on current use and productivity rather than market value, but only up to 2,000 acres per owner. This resolution proposes amending Article VII, Section I, Paragraph III of the constitution to triple that cap to 6,000 acres. The resolution does not change the underlying rules, such as the requirement that a landowner sign a ten-year covenant to keep the property in conservation use or face recapture of the tax savings and possible penalties. Because it is a constitutional amendment, it cannot take effect on its own. It must go before Georgia voters on a statewide ballot, where they will be asked to vote yes or no on raising the acreage cap.

• Raises the maximum acreage eligible for bona fide conservation use property tax assessment from 2,000 acres to 6,000 acres per single owner.
• Leaves in place the existing requirement that landowners sign a covenant to keep property in conservation use to receive the tax benefit.
• Leaves in place the existing ten-year recapture penalty for breaking the conservation use covenant.
• Sends the proposed constitutional change to Georgia voters for ratification or rejection on a statewide ballot, with specific ballot language written into the resolution.

Owners of large tracts of agricultural and timber land in Georgia who use the bona fide conservation use assessment, county tax assessors and boards of equalization who administer the program, and Georgia voters who would decide the measure on the ballot.

If ratified, owners of large farms and timberland could shelter up to 6,000 acres, rather than 2,000, from full market-value property taxation as long as they keep the land in conservation use, which affects how much property tax revenue counties collect from the largest landholdings.

• Section 1 revises Article VII, Section I, Paragraph III(e)(1) of the Georgia Constitution, changing the acreage cap for bona fide conservation use property from 2,000 to 6,000 acres.
• Section 1 leaves unchanged the five-acre cap for bona fide residential transitional property.
• Section 1 preserves the requirement that property owners enter a covenant to continue conservation use, with recapture of tax savings for breaches within ten years.
• Section 2 sets the ballot question voters will see and specifies that ratification would add the amendment to the state constitution.

1. 2025-01-29Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
2. 2025-01-28Senate Hopper (Senate)

• Carden Summers (R, SD-013)Primary sponsor
• Matt Brass (R, SD-006)
• Russ Goodman (R, SD-008)
• Sam Watson (R, SD-011)
• Lee Anderson (R, SD-024)
• Ricky Williams (R, SD-025)
• Bo Hatchett (R, SD-050)
• Frank Ginn (R, SD-047)
• Blake Tillery (R, SD-019)
• Jason Anavitarte (R, SD-031)
• Randy Robertson (R, SD-029)
• Ben Watson (R, SD-001)
• John Albers (R, SD-056)
• Max Burns (R, SD-023)
• John Kennedy (R, SD-018)
• Drew Echols (R, SD-049)
• Shawn Still (R, SD-048)
• Billy Hickman (R, SD-004)
• Timothy Bearden (R, SD-030)
• Steve Gooch (R, SD-051)

• property taxes
• conservation use land
• constitutional amendment
• farmland taxation
• ballot measure