On January 30, 2025, two Georgia State Senate committees met to discuss bills to potentially advance.
The Education and Youth committee voted on SB 1; for more detail on this committee meeting, click HERE. The Finance committee voted on SB 24, SB 45, and SB 52. Select the associated links to read each bill in full.
Education and Youth
SB 1
This bill aims to exclude anyone assigned male at birth (AMAB) from participating in women’s sports in K-12 public and private schools as well as colleges. The bill mandates teams to be organized by male, female, and co-ed and requires sex-specific restrooms, changing rooms, and sleeping quarters. No male will be allowed to participate in any interscholastic competition on any team that is designated female; the same rule applies to females unless their school does not have a female team for that sport.
This rule has already been in place for several years, but the bill expands the age ranges. Whether birth certificates will be required when signing up for a sport or only when requested is unclear.
The bill passed committee with an amendment to prohibit physical exams.
Finance
SB 24
This bill deals with Historic Property tax assessment; it passed in the Georgia Senate last year but failed in the House of Representatives.
Under current Georgia law, qualifying commercial property can choose to opt-into an 8-year assessment freeze that is essentially a tax deferment. This bill proposes providing local commissions the option to increase that freeze by up to 12 years, which would result in a property’s tax-assessed value to remain frozen for as long as 20 years. This extension is intended to assist in the redevelopment of commercially viable environments, such as the creation of inner city, student, and workforce housing from abandoned structures.
The bill passed committee.
SB 45
Associated with SR 56, this bill aims to increase the maximum acreage qualified for assessment and taxation as a bona fide conservation-use property. Under the current law, a single individual can own up to 2,000 acres of farmland before they must pay a regular tax rate designated for land that is not used for conservation. This bill proposes increasing this limit to 4,000 acres to keep up with modern farmland usage.
The bill was deferred for fiscal assessment.
SB 52
The Timberlands Recovery, Exemption, and Earnings Stability (TREES) Act is designed to help the counties that FEMA declared disaster counties after Hurricane Helene struck in 2024. It suspends the severance tax on timber for the last quarter of 2024 and for all of 2025 while these counties try to harvest storm-damaged wood. It also creates a state grant program to which the counties can apply and be compensated based on the average revenue they earned from the timber tax in the last three years. This is not a long-term policy change but rather a temporary response to a natural disaster.
The effects of the hurricane will be felt in these rural communities for up to 10 years because the trees they would have cut in 3 years for $25 per ton are being harvested now for $2 per ton. This legislation is designed to help these communities survive through this disaster.
The bill will continue waiting for a fiscal assessment.
