Today is Crossover Day at the General Assembly. Crossover Day is the last day for a bill to progress out of its originating chamber. There a several important bills under consideration that may impact your county. Please review the bills below and contact your legislators today!

House Bill 625 – This legislation requires a base minimum salary for coroners in all Georgia counties, likely increasing your county coroner’s annual pay. While minimum salaries, will be set in law, the bill no longer requires that coroners receive death investigation fees. Additionally, coroners shall be provided the same county employment benefits as other constitutional officers if they, or their predecessor, spent at least 2,080 hours working on their coroner duties and the county had at least 75 coroner cases in the preceding calendar year. Lastly, the death investigation fee for deputy coroners will increase from $175 to $250, per case, and all deputy coroners will receive a $100 per diem for each day that they do not work a case for up to 90 days (or $9,000) per year. All of this becomes effective on July 1, 2024.  

New Minimum Coroner Base Pay Required by Statute, Statewide  

House Bill 1052 – This legislation would allow a qualified family-owned farm, under $2,000 acres, to rent or lease their land to a farming LLC or Corporation without breaching their CUVA covenant.

House Bill 1031 – This legislation removes the tax estimate from the assessment notice. This legislation also makes it easier to comply with the Sales Ratio Study without having to project future values and makes it less likely that the county will be subject to lower utility tax collections and penalties for being out of compliance.

House Bill 1126 – This legislation would prohibit the use of any new automated speed detection devices in a school zone and prohibit existing devices when the contract with the service provider expires.

Senate Bill 403 – This legislation removes the tax estimate from the assessment notice.

Senate Bill 499 (With proposed floor amendments) – This legislation will hopefully improve the process for negotiating SDS agreements with your cities. It does not address any policy issues that may arise in SDS negotiations.