Capitol Beat Session Wrap
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Schools could lose most if property tax legislation becomes law
by Ty Tagami | Apr 6, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Homeowners will get relief from their fast-rising property tax bills and may even see tax cuts if Gov. Brian Kemp signs Senate Bill 33 into law.
But many other constituencies stand to lose, including one that cannot vote: children in public schools.
Local governments and schools collect the money they need to pay for operations using a simple formula: property values established by county assessors multiplied by tax rates set by each city council, county commission or school board.
SB 33 would arrest half of that formula by limiting increases in taxable home values to the rate of inflation.
Cities, counties and schools could simply bump the other variable in the formula, bringing in more revenue by raising the tax rate, also known as the millage rate.
That might not be politically popular, but it would keep the lights on.
There is a catch for schools, though: nearly all of Georgia’s 180 school districts are limited to a maximum rate of 20 mills under the state constitution.
So, the most that they can collect is $20 per $1,000 of assessed value.
Some districts would begin to see cost increases outpacing revenue increases in just a few years, said Justin Pauly, spokesman for the Georgia School Boards Association.
“It’s definitely going to squeeze things,” he said.
School districts are powerless to contain two big drivers of rising costs, he said. Teachers get two benefits that the locals must pay into at rates set by the state: a pension and health insurance.
Health insurance costs have risen 20% to 30% in the past half decade, said John Zauner, executive director of the Georgia School Superintendents Association.
If Kemp signs SB 33 into law, Zauner expects pockets of school districts around the state to begin laying off teachers in a few years.
Personnel costs account for 90% of a typical school budget, Zauner said. “How do you save money when 90% of your budget is personnel cost? You go to the personnel to reduce your costs.”
That, in turn, would mean more students per teacher, affecting teaching quality, he said.
SB 33 arrests costs for owner-occupied homes, so rural and primarily residential areas that lack industry would get hit first.
Also, most school systems are already near the maximum tax rate, with the state average at 15 mills.
At least five school districts already had tax rates set between 19 and 20 mills by 2024, including Clayton, Fayette and Gwinnett counties in metro Atlanta, according to Zauner’s count. Two others were Dublin City and Wilkinson County, both near Macon.
A handful of others had already reached or exceeded the 20-mill cap, but they are exempt owing to peculiarities in the constitution, Zauner said. Many of those are also in metro Atlanta, including the systems for DeKalb and Rockdale counties and for the cities of Atlanta and Decatur. Muscogee County, where Columbus is the county seat, is in that group, as well.
Many constituencies besides students would lose if SB 33 were to become law. The taxable value of properties that are not owner-occupied would be allowed to continue outpacing inflation, so apartments, factories, restaurants, stores and offices would see no benefit.
Also, SB 33 would allow a new penny sales tax to further offset the property tax burden for homeowners in counties that approve such a tax by referendum.
So, the burden of paying for parks, police, roads — and schools — could shift further from homeowners, while the overall economy carried the cost.
Georgia Republicans push through last-minute income and property tax cuts
by Ty Tagami | Apr 3, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Georgia House and Senate Republicans with competing agendas managed to push through income and property tax cuts as the curtain closed on the 2026 Georgia legislative session after midnight Friday.
The Senate did not get its elimination of income taxes. The House did not get its elimination of property taxes.
But both taxes would become smaller if Gov. Brian Kemp signs the two bills into law.
Owing to the late hour, Senate Republicans had to repurpose a hemp farming bill to send a property tax cut to the House.
The measure would basically shift money from homeowners’ right pocket to their left: the property taxes on their homes could be reduced by the income from a new penny sales tax.
It also would suppress the increase in valuations of owner-occupied homes, limiting the rise of those “homesteaded” properties for tax purposes to the rate of inflation.
Commercial properties — and renters — would not benefit from either provision.
The state House had had a similar idea, but it ran afoul of the state Constitution. A two-thirds vote was required for adoption, and Democrats opposed it, denying passage of House Bill 1116 in early March.
So the Senate came up with a legal workaround that would allow local legislative delegations to call for such changes, making it politically easier to get the necessary two-thirds vote for each of Georgia’s 159 counties. The new sales tax would then go to voters in a referendum.
The income from that sales tax revenue would bypass government and go straight to homeowners.
“We think there are about 110 counties and all the cities within those 110 counties that could pretty much eliminate their homestead property taxes for county and city with that one-time sales tax,” said Clint Mueller, deputy director of ACCG, the association for Georgia’s county commissioners.
Local governments would see revenue growth constrained by the inflation cap on home values. But when a property changes hands, or when there is new construction, the value would reset to the current market.
So fast-growing jurisdictions and those with a higher proportion of their tax base comprising properties that are not occupied by homeowners would be less affected.
Cities and counties could also raise their property tax rates. So could school districts, although, unlike cities and counties, nearly all of them are limited by law to a maximum rate of 20 mills, Mueller said. (A mill equals a dollar for every thousand dollars of assessed value.)
Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, presented Senate Bill 33, formerly the hemp bill and now containing a mutation of HB 1116, on the Senate floor less than half an hour before midnight Thursday.
It passed despite firm opposition from Democrats, the minority party.
In the House, as the clock ticked toward 1 a.m., Rep. Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, who’d been leading the charge on the House’s primary agenda of property tax reduction, acknowledged that the cut would pass by hitchhiking, allowing senators to take the credit.
He recounted a line from a favorite Marvel movie, involving the character Dr. Strange: “it’s not about you,” Blackmon said. “And we’re going to do what’s best for the taxpayer.”
Rep. Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, presented an amended version of House Bill 1116 on crossover day on Friday, March 6, 2026, at the Georgia State Capitol Building. The bill at that point was a pared back version of the one that had sought to eliminate homeowner property taxes in Georgia. The Senate chose to send back its own proposal for property tax cuts in Senate Bill 33 on Thursday, and the House approved it early Friday, as the legislative session ticked to an end. (Ashtin Barker/Capitol Beat)
House Republicans sent the bill to Kemp, overriding opposition from Democrats, also in the minority in that chamber.
Later, House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, expressed mixed emotions about the outcome.
“The bill that came back to us was not strong enough,” he said. “There were several different initiatives we had in our property tax bill that would have been more meaningful for our property taxpayers.” But it was still a “robust” tax cut, he said, vowing to push further next year.
If Kemp signs House Bill 463 into law, Georgians will also pay less for income taxes.
The measure approved by lawmakers would drop the rate to 4.99% from the current 5.19%. It would continue falling over eight years to 3.99% if state revenues remain strong. Income tax deductions would rise, as well, over eight years, from the current $12,000 for single filers, to $18,000. The amounts would double for married couples. Dependent deductions also would rise by $1,000 over eight years from the current $4,000.
And the state income tax on overtime pay and cash tips would be waived on the first $1,750.
HB 463 would offset the cuts by eliminating a handful of tax breaks for items like electrical vehicle chargers and the manufacture of cigarettes for export.
Democrats complained that Georgia’s top earners would get the most back, and Blackmon responded that they put the most in.
He called it “real, meaningful tax relief.”
But Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs, said the tax credits being eliminated to pay for the income tax cut would not come close to making up for the lost revenue.
“It’s a completely fiscally irresponsible bill,” he said, adding that the tax exemption for overtime pay and tips was “a handful of peanuts that we’re throwing back” at Georgians.
Sen. Harold Jones, II, D-Augusta, the Senate minority leader, called the income tax legislation, which passed the Senate around 10 p.m., a “cynical attempt at electoral politics,” in a year when affordability had become a central talking point.
Tillery, who, like McLaurin, is a candidate for lieutenant governor, admitted the income tax cut was not as big as what Senate Republicans had wanted. They had previously pushed a measure to eliminate state income taxes altogether.
“But it moves the ball forward,” he said.
Failure of Georgia elections bill could lead to quick switch to hand-marked ballots
by Mark Niesse | Apr 3, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Georgia lawmakers set up the possibility of a swift conversion to hand-marked paper ballots this year when they failed to pass a bill early Friday morning that would have gradually replaced the state’s touchscreen voting system.
The Senate’s refusal to vote on the bipartisan elections bill leaves Georgia with computer-generated ballots that will soon be illegal, just months before the midterm elections.
The legislation, Senate Bill 214, would have delayed a state law passed two years ago that set a July 1, 2026, deadline to stop using the kind of ballots produced by Georgia’s touchscreen voting machines, which print computer QR codes on ballots to count votes.
Opponents of the current voting system say humans can’t read QR codes — which contain voters’ choices — to verify that their ballots are accurate.
Without a new law, the July 1 deadline to eliminate QR codes remains in effect.
Instead of those QR-coded ballots, voters would need to use Georgia’s backup voting system: pre-printed ballots with ovals that voters fill in with a pen. Existing ballot scanning machines can read hand-marked ballots.
Rep. Victor Anderson, R-Cornelia, speaks about Senate Bill 214 on the House floor during the final day of the 2026 Legislative Session, on Thursday, April 2, at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta. This bill would have switched Georgia to hand-marked paper ballots by 2028. (Ashtin Barker/Capitol Beat)
County election directors have warned that an election-year transition to a new voting method, without a plan or funding, could lead to voter confusion and disruptions in polling places.
It’s unclear how they will handle the hurdles of pre-printing millions of ballots, training election workers, and educating voters if QR codes are banned two months from now.
“I think we’ve got a problem,” said Sen. Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain. “By not acting, we’ve actually chosen chaos.”
The House voted 132-39 hours earlier SB 214, which would have moved the deadline to eliminate QR codes to 2028.
But Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who presides over the Senate, let the House’s competing solution die without a vote as the legislative session ended early Friday morning. The Senate passed a bill last week to require hand-marked paper ballots in this year’s elections, but the House didn’t consider it.
Senate Majority Leader Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, said he didn’t know what would happen next.
House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, said needed to talk with Gov. Brian Kemp about what, if anything, lawmakers should do next.
Burns said the House bill was a “reasonable plan” to update Georgia’s voting technology gradually rather than immediately during a high-stakes election year.
“You can’t change horses in the middle of the stream,” Burns said. “Part of what we want to do is what’s tried and true, working with our locals with a good plan that we knew could work.”
Kemp could call a special session to bring legislators back to the Capitol to resolve the issue.
“There’s still some options. We’ve got to look. We’ve got to investigate. I’m hopeful we’ll get there,” said Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania. “Give us 24 to 48 hours to get a nap, and then we can talk about it.”
Under the bill approved by the House, Georgia would have bought a new election system that would count ballots without using QR codes before the 2028 presidential election year, recording votes directly from bubbled-in ovals or the text printed on ballots.
House Governmental Affairs Chair Victor Anderson, R-Cornelia, said county election officials need time to buy and test a new voting system before it’s rolled out to Georgia’s 8 million registered voters.
Georgia’s election equipment, purchased from Dominion Voting Systems for over $100 million in 2019, came under fire from Republicans after President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. Election security experts have also criticized it, saying the technology is vulnerable to tampering.
County election directors from across Georgia supported the bill that passed the House, SB 214, over the Senate’s proposals that would have forced a rapid switch to hand-marked paper ballots before the November midterm elections.
They said such a quick transition would disrupt elections because there wouldn’t have been much time for training, testing, and implementation.
Without a new law, election directors will have to begin preparing for that possibility.
General Assembly passes budget that spends on early literacy and pensions
by Ty Tagami | Apr 3, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — The youngest and oldest people in Georgia to whom the state owes a financial responsibility got something extra in the 2027 fiscal year budget that lawmakers sent to Gov. Brian Kemp Thursday night.
State retirees could get a bump in their pensions after the state House and Senate agreed to add at least $65 million in state money to their pension fund.
And children in grades kindergarten through third grade could learn how to read with the help of literacy experts hired with $70 million in state funds.
That is more money than the House had initially budgeted as a downpayment on hiring more than 1,300 literacy coaches.
The compromise budget also puts the money into a recurring fund whereas the Senate had proposed a one-time grant.
Grants must be renewed annually, so the House wanted the money engraved in the school funding formula.
The compromise puts the money into the Quality Basic Education funding formula, so it will be there year after year.
“I think QBE is usually a more consistent formula for our schools,” said Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. That should give schools more confidence in hiring employees, an ongoing expense, he said.
“I think there’s a lot more acceptance by the local school systems that it will be consistent whereas our non-QBE grants sometimes are one of the first to go in recessionary times,” he said.
Rep. Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, called it “a conservative and fiscally sound budget.” And he said it would help state pensioners who “put in years of hard work only to see inflation decimate” their income, with the first cost of living increase in recent history of over 2%.
The approvals by the House and Senate to House Bill 974 sends the $38.5 billion budget to Kemp who has line-item veto authority.
Georgia lawmakers approve access to contraceptives without a prescription
by Mark Niesse | Apr 2, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Birth control medications will be provided at pharmacies across Georgia without needing a prescription, according to a bill that won final approval from the General Assembly on Thursday.
Lawmakers said the bill makes contraceptives more available to women, especially in the 82 of Georgia’s 159 counties without an obstetrician.
“We talk a lot about prevention and improving outcomes for women’s health, and this is a way to do this without a mandate,” said Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, R-Marietta.
The legislation, House Bill 1138, authorizes licensed pharmacists to dispense a three-month supply of birth control medication the first time a patient obtains the drug, and up to a 12-month supply afterward. Pharmacists aren’t required to dispense birth control if they choose not to.
Georgia bans abortions once a doctor can detect fetal cardiac activity, which typically occurs around six weeks after conception and before many women know they’re pregnant.
The Senate voted 49-1 to pass HB 1138, and the House voted 158-11. The measure now advances to Gov. Brian Kemp for his approval or veto.