HR 882: Local school systems; levy and collect a sales and use tax for maintenance and operation expenses; provide - CA

Georgia's Constitution currently lets local school systems ask voters to approve a 1 percent sales tax, but only for capital projects like construction or paying off school construction debt. This resolution proposes a constitutional amendment that would add a second, separate sales tax option: one that school boards could levy, with voter approval in a referendum, specifically to cover maintenance and operation expenses, meaning the regular costs of running schools day to day. If voters approve this new sales tax, the school system would be required to lower its property tax rate (called the millage rate) by an amount equal to what the new sales tax brings in, so property owners would see a corresponding reduction. School systems could levy both the existing capital-outlay sales tax and this new operations sales tax at the same time. Because this is a constitutional amendment, it must first pass the General Assembly and then be submitted to Georgia voters statewide for ratification or rejection.

• Adds a new subparagraph to the Georgia Constitution allowing local school boards to ask voters to approve a sales and use tax of up to 1 percent for maintenance and operation expenses.
• Requires school systems that adopt this new sales tax to reduce their property tax millage rate by an amount equal to the sales tax proceeds collected.
• Allows a school system to levy both the existing capital-outlay sales tax and the new maintenance and operation sales tax at the same time.
• Extends existing rules about tax distribution, exemptions, and enforcement to cover both types of sales tax by changing references from 'the tax' to 'taxes' throughout the section.
• Sends the proposed constitutional amendment to a statewide referendum where Georgia voters would vote yes or no on ratifying it.

Local school boards and school districts across Georgia, county and independent school systems, property owners who pay school district millage rates, and Georgia voters, who would decide both any local referendum on the new tax and the statewide vote on the constitutional amendment itself.

If enacted and later approved locally, some school districts could shift part of their funding from property taxes to sales taxes, which are paid by anyone buying taxable goods in the area, not just property owners. The required millage rate reduction means the change would not simply add new revenue without an offsetting property tax cut.

• Section 1 revises Article VIII, Section VI, Paragraph IV of the Constitution to add new subparagraphs (c.1) and (c.2) creating the maintenance and operation sales tax option, capped at up to 1 percent for up to five years.
• Subparagraph (c.2)(1) requires each school system to calculate its millage rate and then reduce it by an amount equal to the prior year's proceeds from the new tax.
• Subparagraph (c.2)(2) allows a school system to levy both the existing capital projects sales tax (subparagraph (a)) and the new operations sales tax (subparagraph (c.1)) simultaneously.
• Various existing subparagraphs (e), (f), (g), (i), and (j) are updated from singular 'tax' to plural 'taxes' so existing rules on tax limits, food exemptions, proceeds distribution, and legislative authority apply to both taxes.
• Section 2 sets the statewide ballot language asking voters to approve or reject the constitutional amendment, describing it as authorizing the new sales tax with a matching property tax rollback.

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

• James Hatchett (R, HD-155)Patrocinador principal
• Chris Erwin (R, HD-032)

• school funding
• sales tax
• property taxes
• constitutional amendment
• local referendums