(The Center Square) – Three Georgia counties said “no” to a new five-year, 1-cent sales tax for property tax relief.
House Bill 581 created the new floating local option sales tax, commonly referred to as FLOST. The bill limits increases in property tax assessments to the rate of inflation. It was approved by 60% of Georgia voters in November 2024.
The bill also gave counties an option to “opt-out” of the requirement by holding three public hearings.
About 315 cities, counties and local school boards opted out of the tax exemption, according to the Tax Foundation.
Entities that did not opt out could ask voters to approve the penny sales tax, which could only be used for property tax relief. The money raised would be split between entities in the county that impose an ad valorem property tax.
An analysis of election returns from the Georgia Secretary of State’s office shows that 38 counties asked voters to approve the sales tax on Tuesday’s ballot.
Voters in Floyd, Paulding and White counties rejected it.
The sales tax was approved by the other 35 counties, some by wide margins. Voters in Colquitt County, located in the southern portion of the state, approved the tax 81%-19%, according to results from the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.
It is the first time that counties could use a sales tax to offset property taxes. Georgia governments have long been able to pass special-purpose, local-option sales taxes to offset the costs of a variety of capital and other projects. The General Assembly passed a bill in the mid-1990s that allowed a special-purpose, local-option sales tax for education projects.
The General Assembly also created a regional and local special-purpose local option sales tax that can be used for transportation projects.
