Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the House Bill 581 topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Coweta County superintendent lays out stakes, timeline for HB 581 opt‑in/opt‑out ahead of March 1 deadline
Summary
Superintendent Dr. Evan Horton told the Coweta County School Board Dec. 10 that House Bill 581 — the recent homestead exemption referendum — requires procedural notices and hearings and could permanently change local control of school tax policy; he said opting out preserves local flexibility while opting in could cap future millage decisions and risk multimillion‑dollar revenue losses.
At the Coweta County Board of Education’s Dec. 10 meeting in Newnan, Superintendent Dr. Evan Horton gave a detailed briefing on House Bill 581 and the local procedures and fiscal consequences tied to deciding whether to "opt in" to the statewide homestead exemption or "opt out" and retain local control.
Horton told the board the law prevents any board action before Jan. 1, 2025 and requires that a decision to opt out must meet a March 1 filing deadline. "You must pass a resolution, and you must complete the required public hearings by this date," Horton said, noting that the process includes at least three public hearings (one between 6 and 7 p.m.), publication of a 30‑square‑inch notice in the Newnan Times‑Herald and simultaneous press releases on the district website. "There is no vote tonight," he said, and "the earliest you could take action on this would be at your regular February board meeting."
Why it matters: Horton framed the choice as a trade‑off between local control and a statewide funding formula. He said opting out preserves the district’s flexibility over millage rates and the ability to respond to local crises; opting in would move the district to a statewide assessment method and cap millage authority at 20 mills. Horton presented district modeling that, under a hypothetical index, could have meant an estimated loss "of up to $17,400,000 for us this year." He also explained the law treats the exemption as a local exemption (information the superintendent said the Georgia School Superintendents Association relayed from the legislature), which affects how the district’s local fair share is calculated.
Horton listed additional constraints and consequences for school systems: school districts are excluded from the bill’s proposed local option sales tax for property tax relief; the state’s quality basic education (QBE) formula is not adjusted annually for inflation; and school systems operate with statutory reserve caps that limit financial maneuvering. "A vote to opt out is a vote to retain the authority and flexibility to do what you've been doing," Horton said. "A vote to opt in is saying, we'll go with the statewide metric, and we'll opt in to state financing for the school system, forever."
Public comment: The board set aside 45 minutes for public comment earlier in the meeting. Parents and residents raised separate concerns that board members said they would consider alongside the HB 581 briefing.
- John Moody, a Northside Elementary parent, urged changes to elementary spelling instruction and said the current approach "leaves these children lost," arguing students benefit from seeing, hearing and writing words repeatedly. "For students to learn how to spell, they first need to see the word, hear the word, and write the word," he said.
- Alan Bridal and Maxwell Britton spoke against the board opting out of Amendment 1 (the homestead exemption), urging the board to "respect what the voters said" and arguing that opting out would undermine voter intent and remove tax relief. Britton also criticized perceived growth in central office salaries and urged transparency about spending, saying the district budget had grown substantially in recent years.
Board process and next steps: Horton mapped a tentative timeline and emphasized the legal steps the district must follow if it begins the opt‑out process, including the required notices and filing with the secretary of state by March 1. He encouraged board members to review the data and said staff will return with more detail; he offered to take questions in the coming weeks and at the February meeting when formal action could be taken.
Votes at a glance: The board approved routine items earlier in the meeting by unanimous votes (7–0): agenda approval; Nov. 12, 2024 minutes; the 2025 regular meeting dates and locations (central office, 6:30 p.m.); appointment of Buzz Glover as the district’s 2025 GSBA legislative liaison; submission of two locally developed CTAE audio technology pathway applications to the Georgia Department of Education; and the addition of three new high‑school ELA courses beginning in 2025–26. The board later voted 7–0 to enter executive session to discuss personnel, real estate and potential litigation.
What remains open: Horton said the district does not yet know which inflation index the state will use for the exemption and acknowledged ongoing questions about how the state calculated the list of schools designated under Senate Bill 233 (the "Promise Act"). Several public commenters raised fiscal and instructional concerns that board members said they will weigh in the coming weeks. The board did not take any final action on HB 581 at the Dec. 10 meeting.
