House Ways & Means Committee, February 25, 2026 (part 1)

Transcript

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1. 0:14:08

   Okay, la-

2. 0:14:13

   Ladies and gentlemen, we got some, we got some sh- sign-up sheets up here up on the front.

3. 0:14:22

   We'll be looking at three bills today. We'll start in about two minutes.

4. 0:15:46

   Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna call the Ad Valorem Subcommittee to order this morning. Appreciate everybody being here. Thanks, committee members, for being here. Um, this is second hearing on all three of these bills that you have on your agenda. We're gonna start this morning with, um, Representative Scott, HB1035. I'll ask people in the audience, too, if you do sign up, we're not trying to cut you short, but we did have a long hearing the other day on this bill, a lot of testimony, so I'll ask you to keep it to just a minimum, um, a minute if you could, because we're going into another meeting right after this one, another subcommittee meeting.

5. 0:16:24

   So thank you, Ms. Scott, and, uh, floor is yours.

6. 0:16:32

   Good morning, and thank you, um, Mr. Speaker. And, um-

7. 0:16:36

   Madam Speaker.

8. 0:16:36

   Not s- Chairman.

9. 0:16:45

   Pull that... Okay. M- Mr. Chair.

10. 0:16:53

    Okay. Okay, um, I come today to present House Bill 1035, LC62-0241, the Georgia Home Ownership Protection Act of 2026. Um, this bill address a fundamental question: Should a Georgia family lose their primary residence over a water bill, an HOA assessment, or a service fee?

11. 0:17:26

    Under current law, unpaid tax service charges, including HOA assessments, condo fees, water bills, storm water fees, and other similar obligations can ultimately be bundled into enforcement mechanism that lead to foreclosure or tax sale exposure. House Bill 1035 draws a clear and principal line. If it is not a tax and it is not a mortgage, it should not cost a family their home.

12. 0:18:04

    Let me be clear about what this bill does not do. It does not eliminate debt. It does not interfere with ad valorem tax collection. It does not impair mortgage foreclosure rights. It does not protect investment properties. What it simply does is simple. It says that non-tax service charges must be collected through civil judgment, not through forced sale of an owner-occupied dwelling.

13. 0:18:43

    Foreclosure is the most extreme civil remedy in our legal system. It strips title, it transfer equity, and it permanently destabilizes family. That remedy should be reserved for secured obligations, taxes, and mortgages, not service fees. Members, when a homeowner file- falls behind on a $1,200 assessment, that debt can escalate quickly.

14. 0:19:15

    Late fees are added, interest occur- occurs, attorney fees are imposed. A small obligation become thousands of dollars, and in some cases, that process end with a false- forced sale of a home worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. That is not proportional, that is not balanced, and that is not what most Georgians believe should happen to their neighbor.

15. 0:19:47

    This bill protects the sanctity of home ownership. It protects seniors living on fixed incomes. It protects veterans. It protects first-generation homeowners. It protects working families experiencing temporary hardship, and at the same time, it preserves enforcement. HOAs may still pursue civil judgments. Utilities may still collect unpaid bills.

16. 0:20:20

    Taxes remain fully enforceable. Mortgage lenders remain fully protected. Debt remains owed. But foreclosure is removed as a tool f- tool for unsecured service charges on home- owner-occupied homes. This bill strengthens property rights. It is enforces, reinforces proportiona- re- enforcement.

17. 0:20:50

    It stabilizes neighborhoods, and it prevents avoidable displacement. Members, we often speak about protecting home ownership in Georgia. Today, we have the opportunity to do exactly that. HB1035 is not anti-HOA. It is not anti-local government. And I come to you t- this morning to say that Home ownership is something that we all dream of, and we should not be losing our homes because of assessment fees, water, trash bills, et cetera.

18. 0:21:33

    That, those fees should be, um, go to, to the court for civil judgments, not for taking a person home. Thank you.

19. 0:21:45

    All right. Thank you, Representative Scott. We've got a question here. Chairman Williamson.

20. 0:21:49

    Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Representative Scott, for bringing this bill. Uh, is it not true that all homeowners associations are not the same? In fact, some of them are s- are, um, so poorly run that one person can consolidate power and be petty and, and, um, it's a lot of arbitrary, uh, decisions and fines and liens. Is it not true that, uh, your, your bill would protect any lien? So if it's provable that they, the money is owed, the monies can ultimately be paid.

21. 0:22:19

    So it liens the house, but to your point, it doesn't go to a foreclosure. They lose their home over a dispute about any, any given fine or assessment that a homeowners association board might levy. Yes. Is that correct? Yes, it is. Thank you. It's a great bill. I'd love to, uh, make a motion at the appropriate time, Mr. Chairman.

22. 0:22:36

    All right, Chairman Williamson. Anybody else have any comments? I know we didn't have anybody sign up, so at this time, uh, Mr. Chairman?

23. 0:22:44

    Move to pass.

24. 0:22:44

    Got a motion to pass, got a second. Any further discussion by members of the committee? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye.

25. 0:22:52

    Aye.

26. 0:22:53

    All those opposed same sign. Congratulations, Representative Scott.

27. 0:22:57

    Thank you.

28. 0:22:57

    You're on your way. Thank you. All right, ladies and gentlemen, let's go to HB1336. Uh, Chairman Crowe, you can do that from right there at your seat if you want to. Let's see. What number? 26?

29. 0:23:11

    Yes.

30. 0:23:11

    All right.

31. 0:23:13

    Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. This is, uh, House Bill, it is House Bill 1336. I gotta get the right one out of here. It's a problem when you got too many bills going on at one time. And what this would do is this would, um, increase funding for our municipal and general aviation airports. Um, it would simply require that any airport, uh, and the airport is defined as in, uh, OCGA 32-9-8, which excludes any airports with scheduled commercial air carrier service.

32. 0:23:48

    What it would require is that if, uh, any jurisdiction that receives revenue from ad valorem, uh, tax on aircraft, that 50% of that money go back into, uh, maintenance and operations at a, uh, general aviation airport in their jurisdiction if there is one.

33. 0:24:10

    All right. Thank you, Representative Crowe. Any members of the committee have any comments? Um, I think we have Mr. Corbett wants to make a comment. If you would, just come up there to the podium. Thank you.

34. 0:24:22

    Very briefly, Mr. Chairman. Uh, thank you and, uh, to the members of the committee as well. Good morning. My name's Nathan Corbett with ACCG. Always a pleasure to be here. Uh, very briefly, ACCG still opposes House Bill 1336. Revenues from ad valorem taxes on airplanes are currently unrestricted, and we oppose any new restrictions, um, on how counties spend their revenues right now. Thank you very much.

35. 0:24:44

    All right. Anybody on the committee have any questions for Mr. Corbett?

36. 0:24:50

    Thank you.

37. 0:24:50

    All right. Hearing none, what is the, um, will of the committee? Oh, we got a motion.

38. 0:24:57

    Second.

39. 0:24:58

    We got a second. Any further discussion by the committee members? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor say aye.

40. 0:25:05

    Aye.

41. 0:25:05

    All those opposed same sign. And it does pass, Mr. Crowe. Thank you very much.

42. 0:25:12

    Thank you.

43. 0:25:12

    Okay, ladies and gentlemen, HR 250. Mr. Dale Washburn.

44. 0:25:22

    You want me to text him?

45. 0:25:24

    He's on the other filing.

46. 0:25:36

    Yep. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna move on. Um, we got another subcommittee coming up here in a couple minutes, so, uh, appreciate y'all, the committee members, and this Ad Valorem Committee, subcommittee is adjourned.

47. 0:27:27

    Representative Bonner. We can hear your bill.

48. 0:27:36

    HR 400.

49. 0:27:40

    All right.

50. 0:27:48

    Well, good morning. This is my first presentation to Ways and Means. My gosh. I'm nervous. Well, well, thank you for the opportunity. Um, uh, I have, I'll be presenting, uh, House Resolution 400 today. I'm working off of LC443094. Um, I was not the primary sponsor of this legislation. Uh, this was one of our colleagues, Representative Heffner, who, uh, resigned earlier in the year prior to session.

51. 0:28:21

    So, uh, Chairman Blackmon asked me to present today, so I will do, certainly do my best. But, uh, HR 400 does something that I, I think is very, uh, meaningful and very impactful for a group of Georgians. Um, the, it's really pretty straightforward. It simply provides a 100% homestead exemption for our disabled veterans on their primary residence. Uh, currently there are about nine states that offer this, uh, full exemption. Georgia does offer a partial exemption, um, up to, up to a little over 120,000.

52. 0:28:58

    This simply moves that to 100%, uh, exemption on that homestead for our disabled veterans, and these are, uh- Veterans that are, uh, kind of, that is adjudicated through the VA and through our own Department of Veteran Services to certify that they fall under that category. Um, so it's, I think it's, uh, certainly fitting and I think it's certainly in line with what, uh, both this committee and the legislature as a whole is moving towards with some property tax relief. A lot of times these folks that are 100% disabled are on a fixed income, and obviously the property tax issue is something that would continue to strain that monthly budget.

53. 0:29:38

    So with that, uh, Mr. Chairman, that's the bill. I'll be happy to answer any questions.

54. 0:29:43

    Representative Williams.

55. 0:29:46

    Um, no group of, um, Georgia citizens is, um, is more important than our veteran community, especially our disabled veteran community, uh, those that stood in the way of, uh, harm for the defense of our freedom. Just out of curiosity, do, what's the estimated population of our disabled veterans that this would affect?

56. 0:30:10

    I'll, I'll have to get that for you. The, you know, you're looking at 100% disability, so it is, it is a relatively small population within the state that would qualify. Um, I'll get that exact number based on the VA.

57. 0:30:24

    I, I'm just cur-

58. 0:30:24

    But I mean, I, you're not, you're not talking about tens of thousands.

59. 0:30:27

    Right. I'm just curious.

60. 0:30:28

    You're, you're talking... Yeah, you're probably talking, you know, maybe a couple of thousand, um, you know, as many as five, I would say.

61. 0:30:36

    I mean, probably, I mean, that, we need to do this, but it's, it's sad that we have that many, uh, that, that have sacrificed for our country. So good measure. Thank you for bringing it.

62. 0:30:48

    Other members? Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first hearing. However, if there's somebody who believes we need to move this along, I will entertain a motion that we suspend the rules.

63. 0:30:59

    Second.

64. 0:30:59

    There's a motion to suspend the rules and a second. All those in favor say aye.

65. 0:31:02

    Aye.

66. 0:31:03

    All those opposed. Rules are suspended, and we're now in a posture to, um, take a motion on the bill.

67. 0:31:10

    Question.

68. 0:31:10

    Oh, we have a question. Oh.

69. 0:31:12

    Second.

70. 0:31:14

    Okay. We have a motion? No? Somebody? Anybody?

71. 0:31:19

    Motion.

72. 0:31:19

    We have a motion and a second that we pass HR 400, uh, onto the full committee. Uh, all those in favor will say aye.

73. 0:31:29

    Aye.

74. 0:31:29

    All those opposed. And mo- the motion passes. Uh, Representative Bonner, it moves on to the committee.

75. 0:31:36

    Thank you so much. I appreciate your work.

76. 0:31:39

    Good bill.

77. 0:31:40

    Wasn't that bad, was it?

78. 0:31:43

    It's almost like being in my committee.

79. 0:31:51

    Chairman Martin.

80. 0:31:55

    Yes.

81. 0:31:59

    Um, House Bill 1240. Um, as I mentioned in the first hearing, in, in my mind this is, uh, um, in the reading of the, uh, Redevelopment Powers Act, this is a clarification, um, that 10% in, is currently all the tax base that can go in a, um, can be put in a TAD. So if you're, you're creating a TAD, you're, you're, uh, doing a redevelopment plan, you're bonding, um, if, you can put property in there as long as it doesn't exceed 10% of the tax, uh, base of a taxing jurisdiction. Um, in, in some of the, um, the, the discussions that happened around the, the Northern Crescent and, um, and then since the first hearing, you know, in, in the City of Atlanta there seems to be some question as to, you know, if they want to do a redo and, and new, new plans and new bonds, um, they, they didn't think the 10% applies.

82. 0:32:47

    Um, and they're, they're up to, uh, with the recreation of those, they would be up to 17 or 18%, and the state law says 10. And so what we're doing here, it's very simple. I mean, and if you had simple on your bingo card today, you, you've heard it several times already this morning. But, uh, we're just clarifying that the, the creation or the renewal, you know, if, if somebody wants to call it a renewal, uh, of a TAD needs to stay under that 10% limit. There was, there was people that, that made that, uh, law when it was created, and we're just setting that, uh, you know, um, out in front, uh, that that was what wa- was meant.

83. 0:33:20

    Um, that more than 10% in, in a TAD taking the grow- 'cause if you know what a TAD does, it takes the growth in that area and dedicates it to a certain purpose. And, um, d- doing that for more than 10% of a tax base could be detrimental to the rest of the city. That's what we're trying to do, just make that clear. I, I, to, to be fair, I have had conversations. Uh, uh, the City of Atlanta believes that isn't, you know, impacting the mayor's plans. Um, and we're having conversations with them. We don't wish to hurt the City of Atlanta, but I do wish to enforce the, uh, the will of the legislature as they pass the law, the Redevelopment Powers Act.

84. 0:33:58

    So we're, we're continuing to have k- discussions with them, but my, uh, hope would be that we can move this forward and, and clarify this. I think it would help people, um, so that there's not issues during bond validation. Wouldn't it be bad if you got through the whole process and then in the validation process somebody brought up a, a situation where the, the law wasn't, uh, absolutely clear? So that's what we're trying to do.

85. 0:34:20

    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

86. 0:34:21

    Stand for any questions.

87. 0:34:22

    Uh, q- questions of committee? This is the second hearing, however, um, I'm gonna take the prerogative of the chair. We had somebody that came here who'd like to speak, and unless there's objection, I'm gonna ask Eloisa to step up to the mic.

88. 0:34:40

    Yeah. That was my father's fault, Clementich. Thank you. Good morning, and I just want to th- start off by saying thank you for allowing us to speak, and just also for the conversation. We really appreciate that. So my name is Dr. Eloisa Clementich. I'm President and CEO at Invest Atlanta. And I just wanted to... I passed out a presentation. I'm not gonna go over it in detail, but if you have any questions at the end, I'm happy to answer them. I'll just do a very short overview. TADs are one of a few economic development tools that allow us at the local level to invest with precision in neighborhoods that have faced historic under- under-investment, guided by redevelop- redevelopment plans shaped through community engagement.

89. 0:35:22

    They are not theoretical. They are proven.

90. 0:35:25

    Since 2014, TADs have supported the creation of more than 46,000 jobs and nearly 18,000 housing units, of which 6,200 are affordable at families at 60% AMI or a family that earns eight, $48,000 a year. These investments matter because they stabilize families. In fact, families living in TAD-supported affordable housing experience 39% lower mobility rate in schools than the average zone average, giving children consistency they needed to excel in school.

91. 0:36:03

    TADs are also critical neighborhood services. They support grocery stores, food deserts, senior care, emergency shelters, and they revitalize commercial corridors. Investments that strengthen public safety by improving the social and economic conditions that can keep our communities healthy. And importantly for this committee, TADs deliver strong fiscal returns. Within the halo area, which is a one-mile radius around our TADs, the BeltLine TAD, for example, generates $10 million in new revenue for just APS as a result of our investments.

92. 0:36:42

    Across all our TADs, for every $1 of public investment, we leverage 12 additional dollars. That's a tremendous rate of return. But the most important point is this: the need is growing. It is not shrinking. Many neighborhoods within TADs continue to experience vacancy rates triple the citywide average, and more than 8,000 affordable house, homes are at risk of being lost due to the end of affordability.

93. 0:37:14

    Without TADs, communities that are almost vulnerable, even susceptible to displacement, disinvestment, dis- destabilization. As federal resources decline, it is vital that cities retain the ability to use every tool available, including TADs, to preserve affordable housing, to increase private investment, and support our families. Members of the committee, TADs are not just about redevelopment. They're about protecting communities, supporting our schools, leveraging taxpayer dollars responsibly, and ensuring Georgia and the city of Atlanta continues to grow.

94. 0:37:53

    The need for TADs is clear, and the benefits are proven, and communities we all represent deserve the tool. Thank you.

95. 0:38:03

    Thank you, ma'am. Um, members of committee, questions for the presenter? And just as a side note, a couple years ago, I did a TAD for the opposite reason. We had some very expensive infrastructure down in the fastest-growing county in the state, and we wanna protect those folks outside of the area of the TAD so that they didn't have the massive increase in tax that would come along with that, so it helps lots of folks. So we are in a position for a motion. Is there a motion on the floor?

96. 0:38:37

    Yes, sir.

97. 0:38:38

    Do pass.

98. 0:38:38

    We have a motion to pass. Is there a second?

99. 0:38:41

    Second.

100. 0:38:41

     We have a second. All those in favor of passing the bill will say aye.

101. 0:38:45

     Aye.

102. 0:38:45

     All those opposed. Bill passes on. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for coming.

103. 0:38:50

     Thank you.

104. 0:38:50

     Ladies and gentlemen, we adjourn this committee.