After a long and interesting day, the 2024 legislative session of the General Assembly finally came to an end around 1:00 AM on Friday, March 29. Sine Die, the last day of the session, saw Georgia counties in good standing with bills of significant impact, including the passage of several ACCG Policy Agenda Items such as Property Tax Assessment & Appeal, reforms for Service Delivery Negotiations and Single County TSPLOST. Now that session has concluded, a brief overview of bills affecting counties that passed and failed is available for review.

Staff Contact: Deputy Director of Governmental Affairs Todd Edwards; tedwards@accg.org    

House Bill 404 - The Safe Home Act

This legislation provides additional protections for tenants renting a dwelling. ACCG Position: Neutral

House Bill 461 – Building Permit Fees

This bill prohibits local governments from calculating building inspection fees based on the cost of the project. ACCG Position: Neutral

House Bill 974 – Elections: Omnibus Bill I

House Bill 1073 – Zoning: Halfway Houses and Drug Rehabilitation Centers

This legislation does not require local governments to impose additional procedures for zoning decisions involving the location of halfway houses and drug rehabilitation centers. ACCG Position: Support

House Bill 1149 – Constitutional Officers Must Disclose Discretionary Funds

This bill requires county constitutional officers to annually report the financial condition and results of the operation of each of their discretionary funds to the county governing authority. ACCG Position: Support

House Bill 1203 - Housing: Dispossessory Proceedings 

This bill provides that if a sheriff, constable, or marshal is unable to evict (dispossessory proceedings) someone within 30 days from the landlord’s application, the landlord may utilize the services of one of these off-duty officials. ACCG Position: Neutral   

House Bill 1207 – Elections: Omnibus Bill II 

House Bill 1407 – Service Delivery Strategy (SDS) Law Revisions

This bill makes several procedural revisions to the process of negotiating a service delivery strategy. It is a product of the 2023 joint legislative SDS study committee in which both ACCG and the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) participated. ACCG Position: Support

Senate Bill 189 – Elections: Omnibus Bill III

Among its numerous provisions, this bill requires election superintendents to unseal and scan all ballot images and other materials, at a specified resolution, for anyone who requests them. ACCG Position: Neutral

Senate Bill 212 – Elections: End Probate Judges’ Election Responsibilities

This legislation removes probate judges’ election responsibilities, effective January 1, 2025, following the completion of the 2024 general election. ACCG Position: Neutral

House Bill 514 – Limit Zoning Moratoriums

This bill would have prohibited local governments from enacting zoning/permitting moratoriums for more than 180 days. ACCG Position: Neutral

House Bill 625 and Senate Bill 138 – Coroners’ Pay Raise

These bills would have mandated a base pay scale for all coroners in the state and would have increased death investigation fees for deputy coroners. ACCG Position: Neutral      

House Bill 905 – Zoning Procedures Law Revisions

This legislation would have not required administrative variances delegated to an officer to have a public hearing, thus avoiding various specialty notices. ACCG Position: Support 

House Bill 1044 – Increase Public Works Bid Threshold

This legislation would have increased the dollar amount (from $100,000 to $250,000) by which counties and cities must bid out public works projects. ACCG Position: Support   

House Bill 1253 – Special Rural Districts - Counties' Consolidated Services

This bill would have authorized rural counties to create “special rural districts” to jointly fund and administer public services. ACCG Position: Neutral

Staff Contact: Governmental Affairs Associate Dante Handel; dhandel@accg.org  

House Bill 581 and House Resolution 1022 – Statewide Floating Homestead Exemption

This bill creates a statewide floating homestead exemption with a local government opt-out. The base year value may increase by an inflationary index. All four statements in ACCG’s Property Tax Assessment and Appeal Reform Legislative Priority were included in this bill: removing the tax estimate, three-year lock, sales ratio study, and settlement conferences. This legislation also creates a new local sales tax option for property tax relief for local governments with floating homestead exemptions. HR 1022 is the companion constitutional amendment and requires passage in a statewide referendum. ACCG Position: Support.  

House Bill 808 – Increases Personal Property Exemption

This bill increases the personal property tax exemption from $7,500 to $20,000 if passed in a statewide referendum. ACCG Position: Neutral.

House Bill 1019 – Increases State Homestead Exemption

This bill increases the state homestead exemption from $2,000 to $4,000 if passed in a statewide referendum. ACCG Position: Neutral

House Bill 977 – Removes One Sales Tax Election Date in Odd Years

This bill removes the March election date in odd years for local sales tax referenda. ACCG Position: Oppose    

House Resolution 96  and Senate Resolution 82 – Constitutional Amendments to Assess Timber at 40% Value

These resolutions reduce the assessed value for the severance tax to 40% instead of 100%. ACCG Position: Neutral

Staff Contact: Governmental Affairs Associate Gabriel Carter; gcarter@accg.org

House Bill 451 – Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Legislation

This mandates cities, counties, and the state to provide PTSD insurance for first responders. ACCG Position: Oppose

House Bill 1105 – Immigration Bill

This bill enacts penalties for local governments with sanctuary policies or practices. The most important provision of this bill is that it does not penalize the county if the sheriff decides not to comply. ACCG Position: Neutral

Senate Bill 37 – Sheriffs’ Salary Supplement

This bill allows sheriffs to receive an additional salary supplement for the service of a court. Sheriffs will now receive a total of two salary supplements. ACCG Position: Neutral

In the FY 2025 budget, the General Assembly awarded a $2 per diem increase for state prisoners housed in county correctional institutions (CIs). ACCG Position: Support

House Bill 301 – Immigration Bill

This bill completely removes the sovereign immunity and governmental immunity from any local government with a sanctuary policy or practice in place. ACCG Position: Oppose

House Resolution 1042 and Senate Bill 479 – Judicial Compensation Legislation

This resolution and bill addressed the salary compensation structure for superior court judges’ and other state judges. ACCG Position: Neutral

Senate Bill 97 and Senate Bill 402 – Speed Detection Camera Legislation

These bills restricted the use of speed detection cameras in school zones. ACCG Position: Oppose

Staff Contact: Associate Director of Governmental Affairs Martha Revelo; mrevelo@accg.org

House Bill 516 Georgia Department of Transportation Housekeeping Bill

This bill includes language that changes the date when the Department of Agriculture will begin regulating and taxing the use of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations to January 1, 2026. ACCG Position: Support 

House Bill 617 – Freight Logistics Implementation Plan

This bill creates the Georgia Freight 2050 Program which will be administered by the Georgia Department of Transportation to enhance the state's investment in the statewide transportation freight network. ACCG Position: Support

House Bill 946 – Single-County TSPLOST

An ACCG Legislative Priority, this bill modifies the Single-County TSPLOST threshold, shifting from requiring 100% of qualified cities to sign the intergovernmental agreement to cities representing more than 50% of the municipal population to levy the 1% tax. ACCG Position: Support

Staff Contact: Associate Director of Governmental Affairs Martha Revelo; mrevelo@accg.org

House Bill 206 – Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE)

This legislation authorizes the creation of a financing mechanism called Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE). This concept allows a local development authority to finance energy efficiency, water conservation, renewable energy, and resilience improvements on private commercial property. ACCG Position: Neutral

House Bill 1223 – Georgia Soil Amendment Act of 1976

This legislation amends the Georgia Soil Amendment Act of 1976, which includes a provision prohibiting the distribution of soil amendments on a site that is subject to a consent order. ACCG Position: Support

House Bill 1146 – Private Water Permit Bill 

Private Water Permits Without County Approval – Allows private water systems to apply directly to EPD for a permit without consent of the county if the county cannot provide the requested service within 18 months. ACCG Position: Oppose

House Resolution 1498 – Study Committee on Private Water Systems

This resolution creates a study committee that analyzes the operations of private water systems around the state. ACCG Position: Support

House Resolution 1554 - Study Committee on Navigable Streams

This legislation creates a study committee to carefully evaluate all aspects of navigable streams in the state and the complex issues surrounding their ownership, private and public rights of use, and other related matters. ACCG Position: Support

Staff Contact: Governmental Affairs Associate Gabriel Carter; gcarter@accg.org

Senate Bill 293 – District Health Directors

This bill codifies the structure of how district health directors are appointed. ACCG position: Neutral

Senate Bill 395 – Opioid Reversal Agent in Government Buildings

This bill requires state and local governments to provide opioid antagonist in the official government meeting space or buildings with an automated external defibrillator. ACCG position: Neutral

Watch the replay of the Virtual Legislative Update here. As a reminder, join the ACCG Governmental Affairs team every Friday at 9:00 a.m. during the legislative session. This is a recurring event, so county officials can access the meeting each week through this link.

Don't forget about the various communications tools that will help keep you informed and engaged. Click here to read all about them!

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