ATLANTA — A bill that allows certain school systems to “give money back to the taxpayers,” according to state Sen. Sam Watson, is on its way to the Georgia House of Representatives after passing the Georgia Senate.

Senate Bill 44, sponsored by Watson, if passed, lowers the required millage rate for boards of education to qualify for state equalization grants, from 14 mills to 10 mills.

“Back in 2015, the state set a baseline millage rate that a school system could not fall below if it wanted to remain eligible for state equalization grant funding,” House Rep. Chas Cannon stated in a February 2024 press release.

Jeremy Jones, chief financial officer for the Colquitt County School System, defined the State Equalization Grants. They are additional funds that are provided by the state to narrow the gap between systems in terms of property tax wealth per pupil. The reasoning behind them is to equalize educational opportunities across school districts.

“The school system has rolled back to that level and they can’t go any further below that,” Cannon told an audience at the Moultrie-Colquitt County Chamber of Commerce’s Eggs and Issues breakfast last August. “We tried to get that cap to go from 14 down to 10 but it was unsuccessful this year. We’re gonna try again next year and that should allow, not just our school system but school systems around the state to lower their millage rates to a level lower than 14 mills.”

Cannon also said that the impact of that cap was the school system passed on increases to residents. Even though the system might not need the money, but because that law’s in place, they can’t roll back the millage rate. So, he said, people were going to pay more property tax.

Earlier this year, Cannon said in an interview, since the property assessments have gone up all over the state last year, it has become an important issue. Lowering the school’s millage rate can accommodate for higher property values and help reduce property taxes, he said.

During the 2024 General Assembly, Cannon introduced a bill in the House that addressed decreasing the school millage rate cap. However, it didn’t make it through. Cannon said supporters ran out of time to get the bill through before the end of the session.

Both Cannon and Watson both sponsored bills to take up the legislation again and try to get it through this year’s session. SB 44 is the bill that is the closest to passing.

“It’s the same exact language. Just bringing it over here. It’s already passed out of the Senate. We had a lot of folks that wanted to do this last year, of course. But we ran out of time,” Watson said in subcommittee March 12, when asked if it was the same bill as the one that Cannon had sponsored.

During Tuesday afternoon’s House Education Committee meeting, Watson explained local governments are able to raise and lower their millage rate. However, he said, when it came to school systems, some school systems were unable to do that.

“As you know, the property tax digests have gone up in areas all over the state and, in many cases, we get some school systems that cannot go below the 14 mill rate due to state law,” he said.

He told the committee the bill was allowing those systems that want to go below 14 mills to do so. He said there would also be a penalty to make sure that they didn’t go below 10 mills.

“This allows them to lower the millage rate, give money back to the tax-payers and not get in trouble with the state and risk losing their Equalization,” he said. “One of my counties is at the 14 mill rate and they would love to go below that to give that money back to the taxpayers but they can’t.”

The Education Committee voted to approve the bill and send it to the House floor for consideration.

For more information, visit the House of Representatives’ website at https://www.legis.ga.gov/house and the Senate’s website at https://www.legis.ga.gov/senate.