HB 919: Conservation and natural resources; outdoor stewardship; eliminate reductions in appropriations

Georgia currently funds the Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund, which pays for land conservation, with 40 percent of sales and use tax revenue collected from sporting goods stores each year. Under current law (O.C.G.A. § 12-6A-5), if that tax revenue drops by at least 1 percent from one year to the next, the General Assembly's required contribution to the fund gets cut by 20 percent, and if the decline continues, the cut grows to 50 percent, with those reduced funding levels sticking around until sales tax revenue recovers. House Bill 919 deletes those reduction rules entirely. It rewrites Code Section 12-6A-5 so the General Assembly must appropriate 40 percent of the sporting goods sales tax revenue to the trust fund every year, regardless of whether sporting goods sales tax collections rise or fall. The bill keeps the existing rule that the money cannot lapse into the general fund and must supplement, not replace, department funding.

• Removes the provision that cuts the trust fund's appropriation by 20 percent when sporting goods sales tax revenue falls at least 1 percent year over year.
• Removes the follow-up provision that increases the cut to 50 percent if the revenue decline continues into a second year.
• Eliminates the rule that kept a reduced funding level in place until sales tax revenue recovered to a prior benchmark year.
• Keeps the base rule requiring 40 percent of sporting goods store sales and use tax revenue to go to the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund every year.
• Keeps existing protections that the funds cannot lapse to the general fund and must supplement rather than replace state conservation department resources.

The change affects the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and land conservation programs that rely on the Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund, as well as land trusts and conservation groups that receive grants from it. It also affects state budget writers in the General Assembly who set the annual appropriation.

Without the automatic reduction rules, the conservation fund would keep receiving its full 40 percent share of sporting goods sales tax revenue even in years when that tax revenue declines, giving conservation funding more year-to-year stability regardless of sporting goods sales trends.

• Section 1 revises O.C.G.A. § 12-6A-5(a) by deleting the cross-reference to reduction subsections, so the 40 percent appropriation to the trust fund applies without exception.
• Section 1 strikes former subsection (c), which had triggered a 20 percent, then 50 percent, cut to the appropriation following declines in sporting goods sales tax revenue.
• Section 1 strikes former subsection (d), which had kept a reduced appropriation level in place until sales tax revenue recovered to a prior baseline year.
• Section 1 retains subsection (b), which bars the fund's money from lapsing to the general fund and requires it to supplement, not supplant, department resources.
• Section 2 repeals any 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)

• land conservation
• state budget
• outdoor stewardship fund
• sales tax revenue
• natural resources