HR882: HR882 Local school systems; levy and collect a sales and use tax for maintenance and operation expenses; provide - CA

Currently, Georgia's constitution lets local school systems levy a special 1 percent sales tax mainly for capital projects like building construction or paying off related debt. This resolution proposes a constitutional amendment that would let school boards, with voter approval in a local referendum, also levy a sales and use tax of up to 1 percent specifically to cover maintenance and operation expenses, meaning the routine costs of running schools such as salaries and utilities. If voters approved a school system's new sales tax, the school board would have to recalculate its property tax rate (called the millage rate) and reduce it by an amount equal to what the sales tax brings in the prior year, effectively swapping some property tax revenue for sales tax revenue. A school system could levy both the existing capital-projects sales tax and this new maintenance-and-operations sales tax at the same time. Because this is a constitutional amendment, it must go before Georgia voters statewide for ratification before taking effect, with the exact ballot question spelled out in the resolution.

• Proposes a constitutional amendment letting local school boards levy a sales and use tax of up to 1 percent for school maintenance and operation costs, subject to a local voter referendum.
• Requires school systems that adopt the new sales tax to lower their property tax millage rate by an amount equal to the sales tax proceeds collected the prior year.
• Allows a school system to collect both this new operations sales tax and the existing capital-projects sales tax at the same time.
• Sets the new tax's duration at no more than five years per authorization, matching the existing capital-projects sales tax rules.
• Places the proposed amendment on the ballot for statewide voter ratification, with specific ballot language written into the resolution.

Local school boards and school districts across Georgia, county and independent school systems, taxpayers who pay property taxes and sales taxes, and Georgia voters, who would decide both whether to approve individual school systems' referenda and whether to ratify the constitutional amendment itself statewide.

If approved, this could shift how schools pay for everyday operating costs, relying more on sales tax revenue and less on property taxes for participating districts. Property owners could see reduced property tax bills, while everyone paying sales tax locally, including visitors and renters, would help fund school operations.

• Section 1 amends Article VIII, Section VI, Paragraph IV of the Georgia Constitution to add subparagraph (c.1), authorizing a new sales and use tax of up to 1 percent for school maintenance and operation costs.
• New subparagraph (c.2) requires school boards to calculate and reduce their millage rate by an amount equal to the prior year's proceeds from the new operations sales tax.
• The new tax follows the same referendum and administrative procedures as the existing capital-outlay sales tax under O.C.G.A. Title 48, Chapter 8, Article 3, and cannot exceed five years per authorization.
• Subparagraph (c.2)(2) explicitly allows a school system to levy both the existing capital-projects tax and the new maintenance-and-operations tax simultaneously.
• Section 2 sets the exact ballot question voters will see, asking whether to authorize the new sales tax with a corresponding property tax rollback.

1. 2025-04-04House Second Readers (House)
2. 2025-04-02House First Readers (House)
3. 2025-03-31House Hopper (House)

• James Hatchett (R, HD-155)Primary sponsor
• Chris Erwin (R, HD-032)

• school funding
• sales tax
• property taxes
• education
• constitutional amendment