EDITORIAL: Don’t overlook constitutional amendment proposals on the ballot

Published 5:30 pm Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Amid all the focus on the key races in November’s midterm election, there are other important issues to be decided as Georgian’s weigh in on the five constitutional amendments included on this year’s ballot.

In an effort to inform local voters, here’s a closer look at the proposed amendments and what they mean for Georgians. 

Amendment 1: “Without increasing the current state sales tax rate, shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to create the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund…” 

If approved, this amendment would allow sales tax on sporting goods and services to be used to create the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund to protect water quality, wildlife habitat, and parks. 

The General Assembly has determined that this would be an appropriate use of this portion of the sales taxes collected on sporting goods and services, but it requires a constitutional amendment to authorize this special designation of tax receipts.

Amendment 2: “Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to create a state-wide business court, authorize superior court business court divisions, and allow for the appointment process for statewide business court judges…”

If approved, this amendment would create a statewide business court in an effort to lower costs, enhance efficiency, and promote predictable judicial outcomes.

Currently, all appellate and trial court judges in Georgia are elected. This amendment, would allow the governor to appoint judges for a “statewide business court” with statewide jurisdiction, who would serve without having to stand for election.

Under existing law, Superior and State Courts already have these types of divisions — for areas such as drug court, domestic violence issues and others. This amendment would allow for appellate and trial courts to have similar-type divisions to deal with business-related cases. 

Amendment 3: “Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to revise provisions related to the subclassification for tax purposes of and the prescribed methodology for establishing the value of forest land conservation use property and related assistance grants, to provide that assistance grants related to forest land conservation use property may be increased by general law for a five-year period and that up to 5 percent of assistance grants may be deducted and retained by the state revenue commissioner to provide for certain state administrative costs, and to provide for the subclassification of qualified timberland property for ad valorem taxation purposes?”

If approved, this amendment would establish tax subclassification, or tax break, by reducing the ad valorem tax on 200-acre or more tracts of land that are placed under a covenant for conservation use. The aim is to incentivize forestry conservation through tax breaks. It would also allow the General Assembly to establish tax break grants for local government 

Amendment 4: “Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to provide certain rights to victims against whom a crime has allegedly been perpetrated and allow victims to assert such rights?” 

This proposed amendment has perhaps gained the most attention. We’ve likely all seen the ads regarding Amendment 4, also known as Marsy’s Law. If approved, this amendment would allow victims of felony crimes to be allowed notice of court proceedings, arrests, bail release updates and escape, and give them the right to be heard by the court regarding release, pleas  of sentencing of their offenders. 

Amendment 5: “Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to authorize a referendum for a sales and use tax for education by a county school district or an independent school district or districts within the county having a majority of the students enrolled within the county and to provide that the proceeds are distributed on a per student basis among all the school systems unless an agreement is reached among such school systems for a different distribution?”

This amendment focuses on Georgia counties with more than one school district. If approved, it would allow a school district, or a combination of school districts, that have the majority of the students enrolled within the county, to call for a SPLOST referendum to be voted on by all county residents to impose sales and use taxes for educational purposes. The proceeds from the sales tax collected would be distributed between all the school districts.