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HB 12GEORGIASession 2025_26State Billdead

Did Not Advance

Georgia House Bill 12 reduces local school system millage rate requirements for state equalization grants

Original title: Education; grants; revise definition of qualified local school system

Last action · April 4, 2025: House Withdrawn, RecommittedSponsors: Chas Cannon and 5 others

Bill progressHistory & official text ↓

Introduced

Committee

Floor Vote

Passed

Law

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What This Bill Proposed

Georgia House Bill 12 lowers the minimum required for local school systems to qualify for state from 14 mills to 10 mills, beginning July 1, 2025. It also imposes a 25 percent reduction on equalization grant awards for districts that fail to meet this 10-mill threshold, and mandates annual reporting by the Department of Education.

Why it matters

Local school districts altering their property tax s could face a mandatory 25 percent cut in state education funding if they drop below the new 10-mill requirement, altering local budget planning and state aid distribution.

Background

Equalization grants in Georgia are state funds designed to supplement local property tax efforts in school systems with lower property tax bases per student. context
House Bill 12 was introduced in the 2025 legislative session and assigned to the House Education Committee. context

Who It Would Have Affected

Groups the bill's text would have affected, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.

Directly affected

local school systems

Must meet the new 10-mill requirement to avoid a 25 percent reduction in state equalization grant awards.

Directly affected

Department of Education

Must prepare and submit an annual report on equalization grants and calculate midterm adjustments for non-compliant school systems.

Key Facts

The minimum required millage rate or effective millage rate for a qualified local school system is reduced from 14 mills to 10 mills beginning July 1, 2025.
Local school systems whose millage rate or equivalent millage rate falls below the 10-mill minimum requirement face a midterm adjustment reducing their total equalization grant to 75 percent of the initial amount.
The Department of Education must prepare an annual report detailing each local school system's initial equalization grant, midterm adjustments, and ten-year grant totals.
The annual report must identify any school system that received an equalization grant during the previous fiscal year while maintaining a millage rate under 10 mills.

Show all 5 facts

By September 1 each year, the Department of Education must submit the report to specified legislative committee chairpersons and budget directors.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens if a school system lowers its millage rate below the minimum requirement?

A is made to reduce its total equalization grant amount to 75 percent of the initial grant.

Who receives the Department of Education's annual equalization grant report?

The report is provided to the chairpersons of the House Committee on Appropriations, Senate Appropriations Committee, House Committee on Education, Senate Education and Youth Committee, and the directors of the Office of Planning and Budget, Senate Budget and Evaluation Office, and House Budget and Research Office by September 1 each year.

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Where This Stands

This bill did not become law - Died at adjournment · in House committee.

Procedural history

5 actions

Apr 4, 2025House
House Withdrawn, Recommitted
Feb 28, 2025HouseCommittee
House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute
Jan 15, 2025House
House Second Readers
Jan 14, 2025HouseIntroduced
House First Readers
Jan 13, 2025HouseIntroduced
House Hopper

Version history & redline

2 versions on file

Comparing LC 49 2019/a → LC 49 9002S/hs

removed addedOfficial text

25 LC 49 2019 9002S The House Bill 12 By: Representatives Cannon of the 172nd , Erwin of the 32nd , Leverett of the 123rd , Corbett of the 174th , Kelley of Committee on Education offers the 16th , and others following substitute to HB 12: A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT To amend Code Section 20-2-165 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to equalization grants, annual […] 14 mills to 10 mills; to provide for a 25 percent reduction of equalization grant awards for local school systems whose millage rate or effective equivalent millage rate does not meet the minimum requirement; to require annual reporting by the Department of Education; to repeal a definition; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA: SECTION 1. Code Section 20-2-165 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to equalization grants, annual calculations, and allocation, is amended by repealing paragraph (5.1) of subsection (a), revising paragraph (9) of subsection (a), (a) and adding two new subsections to read as follows: "(9) 'Qualified local school system' is defined as any local school system: (A) Having an […] having a millage rate or an equivalent millage of at least 14 mills July 1, 2025, and thereafter, having a millage rate or an effective equivalent millage rate of at least 10 mills." "(d.1) If, after a local school system's equalization grant has been calculated for the ensuing fiscal year as provided for in subsection (b) of this Code section, such local school system decreases the actual or effective equivalent millage rate levied against its digest for maintenance and operation to an amount below the minimum amount required in subparagraph (a)(9)(C) of this Code […] shall also identify each local school system that received an equalization grant during the previous fiscal year while having a millage rate or an effective equivalent millage rate of less than 10 mills for the period of time upon which the calculation of such equalization grant was based. Each year, […]

Redline computed from the official version text (record lane).View this version →

Lobbying Activity

No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.

Full breakdown

Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.

Discoveries

1 pattern noticed across the record

Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.

policy shift98% confidence

Lowering of Millage Thresholds

The legislation reverses a multi-year scheduled escalation of millage rates up to 14 mills, dropping the requirement directly to 10 mills starting in 2025.

Department of Education

Connected Entities

Department of Education, Senate Budget and Evaluation Office, Senate Education and Youth Committee and 5 more

OrganizationDepartment of Education“Required to prepare an annual report on equalization grants and submit it by Sep”Map →

OrganizationSenate Budget and Evaluation Office“Recipient of the Department of Education annual report.”Map →

OrganizationSenate Education and Youth Committee“Recipient of the Department of Education annual report.”Map →

OrganizationHouse Budget and Research Office“Recipient of the Department of Education annual report.”Map →

OrganizationOffice of Planning and Budget“Recipient of the Department of Education annual report.”Map →

OrganizationHouse Committee on Education“Recipient of the Department of Education annual report.”Map →

OrganizationHouse Committee on Appropriations“Recipient of the Department of Education annual report.”Map →

OrganizationSenate Appropriations Committee“Recipient of the Department of Education annual report.”Map →

Sources

Open source document

www.legis.ga.gov

Analysis Score

0–100

Significance20
Lowered because this bill did not pass (its text scored 60)
Controversy35
Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
Entertainment5
Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
Buzz25
Current news / social attention level

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