House Ways & Means Committee, March 20, 2026 Video: https://vimeo.com/1175244076 (a timestamp t plays at https://vimeo.com/1175244076#t=s) Page: https://georgiacommons.org/meetings/2026-03-20/house-ways-and-means This is a machine transcript of the General Assembly's video, made by a speech-recognition model. It is not an official record and can mishear words, names, and numbers. Speakers are not identified. The video is the record: every timestamp links to the moment it plays. [0:11:04] Chas, you got your, got your ACCG representative here. ACCG. [0:11:11] Yeah, I'll, I'll stand up. [0:12:38] He will be your resident- [0:12:39] I tell you what, we're a little past the, the, the time here and, uh- [0:12:43] Yeah, we are. I mean, the- [0:12:45] I know everybody's time's pretty valuable. We are on a Friday. We'll go ahead and call the, uh, Ways and Means full committee meeting to order. And I will ask Chairman Martin what happened to our basketball team last night. [0:12:56] Well, you want me to respond on rep- [0:12:59] If you'd like. [0:13:00] I, I think that this goes down to, to say if you live by the three, you die by the three. I believe we shot 23% from beyond the line, and that didn't work out well for us. [0:13:09] Oh, it was, it was, yeah. Blew my bracket up. [0:13:12] And, and they are also crying up in Tar Heel country. [0:13:15] I saw that. It was, it was one of those nights. [0:13:17] How about PowerPoint? [0:13:19] I... Exactly. [0:13:20] I just- What was that mascot we lost to? I can't figure out what that thing was doing. The St. Louis University Billups or whatever they are. [0:13:31] Well, we'll, uh, we'll have to find another horse in this thing. Um- [0:13:36] Billups. [0:13:36] Would our vice chairman open us up in a word of prayer, please, sir? [0:13:39] It's a good problem. [0:13:41] I know I do. [0:13:43] Everybody bow your heads. Dear God, we thank you for this day, dear Lord. We thank you for the opportunity to gather here, Father, and do the work that you've trusted us to do, Father. We thank you for the 11 million Georgians, uh, that call our state home, Father. We thank you for the brave men and women who are serving our country overseas. God, we ask you to put a hedge of protection around them, Father, and protect them, uh, while they're serving us. Father, give us traveling mercy as we get to return home to our families today, God. We just ask you to watch over this meeting. Let everything that we do bring honor and glory to you. It's in your name we pray. [0:14:13] Amen. [0:14:15] Amen. Thank you. And as we get towards the end, uh, Chairman Huffstedler, if you don't mind, I just wanted to acknowledge some people that, uh, make our, our committee, um, make this, uh, this, the House go, so to speak. But I, I, I wanted to thank, um, Paul with Legislative Council for everything that, that he's done. And all, all of our leg council, uh, folks, Betsy and the entire team there, thank you. [0:14:45] Uh, want to thank this gentleman to my left here, um, David Hartman. Done an amazing job. He always does. He's, he- a lot is asked of him, and he, he, he bring, he brings it every day, uh, hard. And he's got a family to boot, a young family. Mary, I want to thank you for your work this session as our intern. She's done a, a, an excellent job. And then also, I know we got her halfway through. But... And then, uh, Evelyn, um, down in our office is, uh, just magical. [0:15:19] So she's, she's been wonderful, so I wanted to, to give her a shout-out as well. Um, and that's not to say, uh... How did you put it, Chairman Smith, this morning? Uh, w- [0:15:32] This is important, but not near as important as our families. [0:15:35] No, you, you mentioned the people on this committee. And I, I, uh- [0:15:38] We've got some great individuals. [0:15:39] We got some great folks on this committee. I just wanna thank each and every one of you for, for your efforts and, uh, participation and, uh- [0:15:47] And keeping, keeping speech [0:15:48] ... working so well together, yes, uh, across the board. [0:15:53] Thank you. [0:15:53] Across the board. Um, and Chairman Huffstedler, uh, we, we, we appreciate the work that you've done in Senate Finance for us this year and, uh, the relationship we have. And I, I wanna thank you for bringing, uh, Senate Bill 382. And, uh, we'll turn the floor over to you, sir. [0:16:10] Well, I don't, I don't wanna say too much on this, but we have been, uh, working on this together. I think we're, we're very close. Um, our, uh, two things different in this, I guess, from what we're looking at over there would be the lost. Um, we wanna make sure that people are whole if it's eliminated, and I think you guys are looking at some creative ways to do that. And then our 566 is still in what we've got in, on your bill over there, 1116. Um, it is eligible in rules. And if it gets out, then I think I'll get permission from my higher-ups to remove it on that side over there. [0:16:46] They just wanna make sure, that's the property tax appraisal bill, of course, um, that it gets out. But with that, um, I don't really have, uh, too much to add this morning. I appreciate everybody's work on this. And, uh, we had, I think, about 14 House Ways and Means bills we passed out this week. We've had three meetings so far and have, have some more coming up, so we're keeping work at it. As everybody knows the process with revenue bills starting in the House, y'all have got about 29 days. And with our rules of getting on the rules calendar, that leaves me about seven or eight days to get this stuff out. [0:17:19] So it's always a, a sprint during this time for my committee. But, um, we worked hard. We've had meetings very late at night. We haven't had any 6:00 AM meetings, but, uh- And I'll, I'll try to make sure we avoid that. [0:17:31] We appreciate that. Y- y'all have. You've, you've worked often and, and late. Um, so thank you. I know that 382, the underlying bill, would, uh, mandate the floating homestead exemption that, uh, Georgians all across the state voted for, uh, a couple of years ago. And, uh, we've added, I think, uh, our language from 1116 is, is largely has passed the House. We've made a few adjustments just to let the committee know. I know that we've have added the language for the schools and make sure that the, that's on page 25, that the, uh, exemptions, uh, would run, uh, a- as a, a, you know, a- as a part of the di- overall digest. [0:18:11] And I think that is a, a welcomed add, if, if, if, if that's fair to say. And then, um, in the latest version, we do have the LHOS that would, uh, match the lost distribution, um, for the rest of, the remainder of the term of lost distribution. And then FLOS could be enacted by resolution. So, uh, just some things that we're working on to, to the chairman's point. Um, are there any questions of the, the author or, or otherwise? [0:18:43] Seeing none, what is the, uh, will of the committee? [0:18:45] Move to pass. [0:18:46] Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? I do wanna acknowledge, uh, I think we have ACCG and GMA and, and the schools. And, uh, while we haven't necessarily seen perfectly eye to eye on every part of this, uh, we, I, I really wanna thank the input that they have given, and we've tried to be accommodating in so many different ways, uh, to, to, to the local governments while at the same time, uh, prioritizing tax relief for, for our homeowners and our taxpayers. And, uh, but appreciate the, the conversations and the input and, uh, you know, look forward to, to hopefully doing something good for the taxpayer. [0:19:24] Uh, I don't see any, uh, buttons light up. So all those in favor, please signify by stating aye. [0:19:29] Aye. [0:19:30] Those opposed like same. [0:19:31] Aye. [0:19:33] We have- [0:19:34] Two [0:19:34] ... two. Okay. All right, got it. Thank you very much. Uh, Mr. Chairman, thank you once again. [0:19:38] Thanks. [0:19:39] Appreciate, appreciate everything. [0:19:40] Thanks for your hard work. Thank you. [0:19:41] Yes, sir. Bill passes. [0:19:47] Anybody have any fur- anything further for the good of the order? Hearing none, all right. We're adjourned. Thank you again.