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House · Passed · 2025-2026 Regular Session

HB 1567: Quitman, City of; transfer of all legal rights, privileges, and assets to Brooks County; provide

Last action May 12, 2026 · Effective Date

House Bill 1567 sets up a path for Brooks County voters to decide whether to consolidate the City of Quitman with Brooks County, and creates a backup process to dissolve Quitman and transfer its assets and duties to the county if it keeps failing state audit requirements.

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

This bill lays out a multi-step process for the future of the City of Quitman in Brooks County. First, it calls for a special election in November 2026 asking voters in both Quitman and unincorporated Brooks County whether they want to explore consolidating the city and county into one unified government. If voters approve, a nine-member Quitman-Brooks County Charter and Unification Commission would be appointed to study the idea and draft a proposed charter, which would then go to voters in a second referendum no later than November 2027. If voters reject consolidation, or if the charter fails, the bill has a fallback: it repeals the 1962 Act that created Quitman's current charter and requires all of the city's legal rights, property, debts, contracts, and permits to transfer to Brooks County, effectively dissolving city government. That fallback would not take effect if the state auditor certifies Quitman has caught up on required financial audits by set 2027 deadlines. The cities of Barwick, Pavo, and Morven are excluded from any of this.

What the bill does

  • Requires Brooks County to hold a special election in November 2026 asking voters whether to explore consolidating the City of Quitman and Brooks County into one government.
  • Creates a nine-member Charter and Unification Commission to study consolidation and draft a proposed unified government charter if voters approve the concept.
  • Sets up a second referendum, by November 2027, for voters to approve or reject the drafted consolidation charter.
  • Repeals the 1962 Act that established Quitman's current city charter, but only if consolidation fails and the city has not met state audit compliance deadlines.
  • Transfers all of Quitman's property, contracts, debts, permits, and pending court cases to Brooks County if the city is dissolved under this fallback process.
  • Excludes the cities of Barwick, Pavo, and Morven from any provision of this Act.

Who it affects

Residents and voters of the City of Quitman and unincorporated Brooks County, the Quitman city government and Brooks County government, city employees and bondholders, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia, the Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia, and pending court cases in Quitman's municipal court.

Why it matters

Depending on how the votes and audits go, Quitman could either become part of a newly designed unified city-county government or cease to exist as a separate municipality, with Brooks County taking over its property, debts, services, contracts, and law enforcement duties within the former city limits.

Key provisions

  • Section 1-1 requires a November 2026 referendum asking Brooks County and Quitman voters whether to pursue consolidating their governments.
  • Sections 2-3 through 2-11 create and empower the Charter and Unification Commission to study consolidation, draft a charter, and hold public hearings, with a charter deadline of August 31, 2027.
  • Section 2-10 requires a second referendum, no later than November 2027, on any proposed unified government charter.
  • Section 3-1 repeals Quitman's 1962 charter Act in its entirety if the fallback provisions take effect.
  • Sections 3-4 through 3-7 create a special Quitman Services District, transfer city debts, contracts, permits, and assets to Brooks County, and require the county to levy taxes to cover Quitman's bonded debt.
  • Section 4-2 ties the fallback dissolution dates (May 31, 2027, June 30, 2027, or January 1, 2028) to whether the state auditor certifies Quitman has met its financial audit requirements.
  • Section 4-1 explicitly excludes the cities of Barwick, Pavo, and Morven from any changes made by this Act.

From the bill

“all legal rights, privileges, and assets of the City of Quitman and all records of such assets shall pass to Brooks County without the necessity or formality of a deed, bill of sale, or other instrument of transfer.”

This describes how Quitman's property and assets would automatically transfer to Brooks County if the city is dissolved.

Discussed in meetings (7)

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 25, 2026 (legislative day 37, AM)

    From 0:42:40 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the bill's status history (House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute)

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The clerk reported a committee recommendation to pass HB 1567 by substitute. When its caption was read, the clerk described a transfer of the city's legal rights, privileges and assets to Brooks County. The local coordination committee chair moved to remove the bill from the local calendar and return it to committee. The House agreed without objection, and the bill was excluded from the subsequent passage vote. No reason for returning it to committee was stated.

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

    From 1:43:55 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the 2026 House Journal, p. 3150

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The clerk described the substitute as providing a referendum on consolidating Quitman with Brooks County. It was the only bill on the supplemental local calendar, and no substantive debate occurred. The House passed it, 96-68.

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

    From 0:31:59 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the bill's status history (Senate Passed/Adopted By Substitute)

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The clerk reported a favorable committee substitute for HB 1567. Three senators filed an objection that removed it from the local consent calendar for separate consideration. The clerk described legislation transferring Quitman's duties, obligations and assets to Brooks County and establishing a district for outstanding debt. An amendment was also read describing a referendum on consolidating the city and county governments. The sponsor said repeated changes were intended to accommodate local government concerns, but did not explain those concerns. The Senate adopted the committee substitute and passed it 31-16. The transcript does not show a separate decision on the referendum amendment.

  4. House floor session, April 2, 2026 (legislative day 40, PM, part 1)

    From 1:49:14 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the bill's status history (House Agreed Senate Amend or Sub)

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The clerk described the Senate substitute to HB 1567 as providing a referendum on consolidating Quitman with Brooks County. A member requested a separate vote rather than including it in the local calendar. After an objection, that request failed, 75 to 97. The bill remained on the local calendar, and the House agreed to the Senate substitute as part of the combined vote, 110 to 63.

Status timeline

  1. 2026-05-12Effective Date
  2. 2026-05-12Act 681
  3. 2026-05-12House Date Signed by Governor (House)
  4. 2026-04-10House Sent to Governor (House)
  5. 2026-04-02House Agreed Senate Amend or Sub (House)
  6. 2026-03-31Senate Passed/Adopted By Substitute (Senate)
  7. 2026-03-31Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (Senate)
  8. 2026-03-27Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
Show full history (16 actions)
  1. 2026-03-25House Passed/Adopted By Substitute (House)
  2. 2026-03-25House Third Readers (House)
  3. 2026-03-25House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)
  4. 2026-03-25House Withdrawn, Recommitted (House)
  5. 2026-03-25House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)
  6. 2026-03-20House Second Readers (House)
  7. 2026-03-19House First Readers (House)
  8. 2026-03-18House Hopper (House)

Sponsors

  • John LaHood (R, HD-175)Primary sponsor
  • Chas Cannon (R, HD-172)
  • Darlene Taylor (R, HD-173)
  • Robert Dickey (R, HD-134)
  • Jaclyn Ford (R, HD-170)

Votes

  1. PassedHouse voteMarch 25, 2026

    96 yea, 68 nay (4 not voting, 8 excused)

    Supplemental Local Calendar: House Vote #760

  2. PassedSenate voteMarch 31, 2026

    31 yea, 16 nay (4 not voting, 3 excused)

    PASSAGE BY SUBSTITUTE: Senate Vote #874

  3. FailedHouse voteApril 2, 2026

    75 yea, 97 nay (1 not voting, 3 excused)

    Remove from Local Cal/Vote Separately: House Vote #845

Topics

  • city-county consolidation
  • local government
  • Brooks County
  • municipal dissolution
  • special elections

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Answers come from this document. Not legal advice.

Machine-readable https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb1567.md · https://georgiacommons.org/bills/index.md · MCP https://mcp.georgiacommons.org/mcp