HB919: HB919 Conservation and natural resources; outdoor stewardship; eliminate reductions in appropriations

Georgia's Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund gets money each year from a share of the sales and use tax collected by sporting goods stores. Under current law (O.C.G.A. § 12-6A-5), the General Assembly is supposed to send 40 percent of that tax revenue to the fund, but if sporting goods sales tax collections drop by at least 1 percent from the prior year, the fund's appropriation is automatically cut by 20 percent, and if the drop happens again the following year, the cut grows to 50 percent. Those reduced funding levels can continue for multiple years until sales tax revenue recovers. This bill rewrites that Code section to delete the reduction rules entirely. It keeps the basic setup: the fund stays a separate account in the state treasury, still gets 40 percent of the relevant sales tax revenue, does not lapse into the general fund, and must supplement rather than replace state conservation spending. The bill has no stated special effective date, so it would take effect under Georgia's standard rules once signed.

• Removes the provision that cut the trust fund's appropriation by 20 percent when sporting goods sales tax revenue fell at least 1 percent year over year.
• Removes the follow-up provision that increased the cut to 50 percent if the sales tax decline continued into a second year.
• Removes the rule that kept a reduced funding percentage in place in later years until sales tax revenue recovered to its earlier level.
• Keeps the baseline rule that 40 percent of sales tax revenue from sporting goods stores goes to the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund every year, regardless of revenue changes.
• Retains the existing rule that the fund's money cannot lapse into the general fund and must supplement, not replace, state conservation spending.

The Department of Natural Resources and the land conservation programs funded through the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund, sporting goods retailers whose sales tax collections feed the fund, and the General Assembly, which sets the fund's appropriation each budget cycle.

Conservation groups and land trusts that rely on the trust fund would no longer see its funding automatically shrink during a downturn in sporting goods sales tax collections. The fund would keep receiving a steady 40 percent share of that tax revenue even in years when sales decline.

• Section 1 revises O.C.G.A. § 12-6A-5(a) so the 40 percent appropriation rule for the trust fund no longer has an exception carved out for reduction years.
• Section 1 deletes former subsection (c), which had cut the following year's appropriation by 20 percent (then 50 percent for a second consecutive decline) after a sales tax drop of 1 percent or more.
• Section 1 deletes former subsection (d), which had kept a reduced funding percentage in place across multiple years until sales tax revenue recovered.
• Section 1 keeps subsection (b), which bars the fund's money from lapsing to the general fund and requires it to supplement rather than replace department resources.
• Section 2 repeals all conflicting laws, a standard closing provision.

1. 2026-01-12House Second Readers (House)
2. 2025-04-04House First Readers (House)
3. 2025-04-02House Hopper (House)

• Jesse Petrea (R, HD-166)Primary sponsor
• Charles Cannon (R, HD-172)

• outdoor stewardship fund
• land conservation
• sporting goods sales tax
• state budget appropriations
• Georgia Department of Natural Resources