Committee advances bill capping municipal revenue from fines and forfeitures; amendment to raise cap fails

Representative Gullett presented House Bill 140, described in committee as the "local taxation by citation" act, saying the bill would cap at 10% the share of a city's revenue that can be funded by fines, both criminal and civil, and redirect any excess to the state. "What this bill does is it takes the revenue generated from fines, both criminal and civil, that cities, municipalities, collect, and it caps at 10%. And so once the city has gone over or collected more than 10%, then that money, would then go to the state," Gullett said. The sponsor set an effective date of Jan. 1, 2026.

Gullett told the committee the measure targets municipalities that fund a large portion of government operations with citations, citing one municipality where "59.09% of their government funding comes through citations" and telling members GMA had testified that about 37 cities would be affected. Committee members asked detailed questions about fiscal impacts and enforcement. Representative Adesanya and others expressed concern about smaller, predominantly Black municipalities that reported high shares of revenue from fines; Adesanya asked where those cities would find alternative funding. Gullett and other supporters said cities could lower budgets, raise property or sales taxes, or pursue other revenue sources and that the aim was to remove a perverse incentive to fund government through citations.

Representative Oliver offered an amendment to raise the cap from 10% to 20%. The committee took a vote on that amendment by hand count; the transcript reports a hand-raise count of 7 in favor and then records the motion as failed. The committee then returned to the original measure and approved the bill by voice vote; the transcript records "The ayes have it. The bill passes." The chair instructed the sponsor to bring a rules form for signature.

Committee members and law enforcement–experienced representatives discussed public-safety tradeoffs and whether local enforcement performs the bulk of traffic enforcement in Georgia because the state patrol is under-resourced. The sponsor and several members emphasized the bill does not stop officers from writing tickets; it limits the degree to which municipal budgets can rely on citation revenue.

The committee advanced the bill to Rules. The transcript does not include a roll-call tally for the final passage in the excerpt provided.