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House · Passed · 2025-2026 Regular Session

HB 1526: Early County; repeal a former local constitutional amendment

Last action May 12, 2026 · Effective Date

House Bill 1526 would repeal an old Early County law that gave new or expanded manufacturing plants a five-year break on local property taxes, while letting current exemptions run out on schedule.

Read the full bill text

These buttons carry the bill's own text, not the summaries below. Copy for LLM, View as markdown, and Send to AI use the Markdown version: the text as filed, then the summaries under a heading that names them as ours. View raw is the text alone.

The summaries below were written by an AI model (claude-sonnet-5) from the text of the bill and are not part of it. Quote the text, not the summary. The stored text is the Enrolled version, the latest the General Assembly's website lists.

In plain language

Since 1962, a local constitutional amendment let anyone who built, equipped, or expanded a manufacturing or processing plant in Early County skip local property taxes (ad valorem taxes, meaning taxes based on a property's value) for five years. Even though voters no longer vote on it as a constitutional amendment, it has stayed on the books as statutory law under a provision of the Georgia Constitution. This bill repeals that old tax break entirely. Anyone already receiving the exemption when the bill takes effect keeps it until their original five-year period runs out, but no new property in Early County can qualify for the exemption going forward. The bill also repeals any other laws that conflict with it.

What the bill does

  • Repeals the 1962 local law that gave a five-year property tax exemption to new or expanded manufacturing plants in Early County.
  • Ends the ability of any new manufacturing or processing plant in Early County to claim this property tax exemption going forward.
  • Preserves the exemption for any property already receiving it, letting those breaks run out over their remaining unexpired term.
  • Repeals any other Georgia laws that conflict with this change.

Who it affects

Manufacturing and processing businesses in Early County that might have built or expanded a plant, county tax officials who administer the exemption, and any property owners currently receiving the tax break, whose existing exemptions are unaffected until they expire.

Why it matters

Early County will no longer offer this decades-old tax incentive to new manufacturing plants, meaning future businesses that build or expand there will pay full local property taxes from the start, while property owners already benefiting keep their exemption until it naturally ends.

Key provisions

  • Section 1 repeals the former 1962 local constitutional amendment (Ga. L. 1962, p. 808) that gave a five-year property tax exemption for manufacturing plants in Early County.
  • Section 1 includes a grandfather clause: property already receiving the exemption on the bill's effective date keeps it for the rest of its original five-year term.
  • Section 2 repeals any other laws or parts of laws that conflict with this Act.

From the bill

“which former local constitutional amendment was continued in effect as statutory law pursuant to Article VII, Section II, Paragraph IV of the Constitution of Georgia and which provided a five year exemption from local ad valorem property taxes”

Describes the old tax break the bill is repealing and its legal basis.

“any property receiving such exemption on the effective date of this Act shall continue to receive such exemption for the remainder of the unexpired five year period”

Grandfather clause letting existing exemptions run their course despite the repeal.

Discussed in meetings (9)

The House and Senate meetings that took this bill up, from their machine transcripts. Each account was written by Georgia Commons with AI and is not part of the record; the video is what was said.

  1. House floor session, March 20, 2026 (legislative day 35)

    From 0:49:08 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the 2026 House Journal, p. 2901

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The clerk reported a favorable committee recommendation for HB 1526 and later listed it as an Early County bill on the uncontested local calendar. No separate presentation or debate occurred. The House passed the calendar as a group, 153 to 0.

  2. Senate floor session, March 25, 2026 (legislative day 37)

    From 2:34:40 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the bill's status history (Senate Withdrawn & Recommitted)

    Summary by Georgia Commons: A senator requested moving HB 1526 from State and Local Government Operations to State and Local Government Operations General. The clerk described repealing an Early County five-year property tax exemption for manufacturing or processing facilities while preserving previously granted exemptions for their remaining terms. The Senate approved the reassignment without objection.

  3. Senate State and Local Governmental Operations Committee, March 26, 2026

    From 0:53:09 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The chair described HB 1526 as concerning local property taxes and noted that the House sponsor was absent. Members offered no substantive questions or discussion. The committee approved the bill by voice vote.

  4. Senate Rules Committee, March 30, 2026

    From 0:29:33 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The chair designated HB 1526 for the floor calendar as part of a group of local measures that, according to the chair, had gone through the general-bill process because a Senate seat was vacant. No substantive presentation followed. The committee unanimously approved the final calendar containing it.

  5. Senate floor session, March 31, 2026 (legislative day 39, part 1)

    From 5:53:01 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the bill's status history (Senate Third Read)

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The clerk described HB 1526 as repealing an Early County five-year property tax exemption for manufacturing or processing plants, while preserving exemptions already granted for their remaining terms. The presenter instead described removing a five-year wait for a homestead exemption. The discrepancy was not clarified. No questions or opposing speeches followed, and the Senate passed the bill 47-0.

Status timeline

  1. 2026-05-12Effective Date
  2. 2026-05-12Act 669
  3. 2026-05-12House Date Signed by Governor (House)
  4. 2026-04-07House Sent to Governor (House)
  5. 2026-03-31Senate Passed/Adopted (Senate)
  6. 2026-03-31Senate Third Read (Senate)
  7. 2026-03-27Senate Read Second Time (Senate)
  8. 2026-03-27Senate Committee Favorably Reported (Senate)
Show full history (16 actions)
  1. 2026-03-25Senate Withdrawn & Recommitted (Senate)
  2. 2026-03-23Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
  3. 2026-03-20House Passed/Adopted (House)
  4. 2026-03-20House Third Readers (House)
  5. 2026-03-20House Committee Favorably Reported (House)
  6. 2026-03-12House Second Readers (House)
  7. 2026-03-10House First Readers (House)
  8. 2026-03-09House Hopper (House)

Sponsors

  • Gerald Greene (R, HD-154)Primary sponsor
  • Clint Dixon (R, SD-45)

Votes

  1. PassedHouse voteMarch 20, 2026

    153 yea, 0 nay (14 not voting, 9 excused)

    Local Calendar: House Vote #734

  2. PassedSenate voteMarch 31, 2026

    47 yea, 0 nay (0 not voting, 7 excused)

    PASSAGE: Senate Vote #886

Topics

  • property taxes
  • Early County
  • manufacturing incentives
  • local tax exemptions

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Answers come from this document. Not legal advice.

Machine-readable https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb1526.md · https://georgiacommons.org/bills/index.md · MCP https://mcp.georgiacommons.org/mcp