Rules Committee advances companion bill detailing sales‑tax pennies, school reserve changes and data‑center excise

The House Rules Committee on March 3 advanced a rule substitute to House Bill 1116 that lays out how property‑tax relief would operate in practice, Chairman Blackman said.

Chairman Blackman described the measure as a companion to the resolution, again taking the taxable value for homesteads from 40% to 10% over a 10‑year period and detailing mechanics for up to three local sales‑tax pennies (lhost, slhost, mhost) that can be used to backfill lost property‑tax revenue. "You utilize the lost and floss provisions, to move into that homestead arena," he said, and described the school penny (s l host) and an option for cities to divide from counties to create an additional penny.

The bill also moves the school reserve from 15% to 25% and authorizes a two‑year study of the school funding formula; it enables local homestead exemptions to be counted in school digests and creates an excise tax on high‑speed data‑center revenue equal to the sales tax the state would otherwise receive when the current exemption expires.

Representative Park asked whether the structure simply shifts property taxes onto sales taxes and whether the proposal increases the tax cap. Chairman Blackman responded that the plan repurposes pennies rather than necessarily creating new taxes and said the change operates within a 5¢ component and "excludes MARTA," indicating the existing cap is not increased by the approach.

The committee moved, seconded and approved the rule substitute to House Bill 1116 by voice vote; the transcript records an objection during subsequent calendar action but does not provide roll‑call tallies.