O.C.G.A. § 48-8-103 — Submission to voters to determine imposition of tax

(a) Whenever the governing authority of any county whose geographical boundary is conterminous with that of the special district 916 48-8-103 wishes to submit to the electors of the special district the question of whether the sales and use tax authorized by Code Section 48-8-102 shall be imposed, any such governing authority shall notify the election superintendent of the county whose geographical boundary is conterminous with that of the special district by forwarding to the superintendent a copy of a resolution of the governing authority calling for a referendum election. Upon receipt of the resolution, it shall be the duty of the election superintendent to issue the call for an election for the purpose of submitting the question of the imposition of the sales and use tax to the voters of the special district for approval or rejection. The election superintendent shall issue the call and shall conduct the election on a date and in the manner authorized under Code Section 21-2-540. Such election shall only be conducted on the date of and in conjunction with a referendum provided for by local Act on the question of whether to impose a homestead exemption within such county and based on the amount of proceeds from the sales and use tax levied and collected pursuant to this part. The election superintendent shall cause the date and purpose of the election to be published once a week for two weeks immediately preceding the date of the election in the official organ of such county. The ballot shall have written or printed thereon the following statement which shall precede the ballot question speciﬁed in this subsection and the ballot question speciﬁed by the required local Act: “NOTICE TO ELECTORS: Unless BOTH the homestead exemption AND the retail homestead option sales and use tax are approved, then neither the exemption nor the sales and use tax shall become effective.” Such statement shall be followed by the following: “( ) YES ( ) NO Shall a retail homestead option sales and use tax of 1 percent be levied within the special district within County for the purposes of funding capital outlay projects and of funding services to replace revenue lost to an additional homestead exemption of up to 100 percent of the assessed value of homesteads from county taxes for county purposes?” Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, the statement, ballot question, and local Act ballot question referred to in this subsection shall precede any and all other ballot questions calling for the levy or imposition of any other sales and use tax which are to appear on the same ballot. (b) All persons desiring to vote in favor of levying the sales and use tax shall vote “Yes,” and those persons opposed to levying the tax shall vote “No.” If more than one-half of the votes cast are in favor of levying 917 48-8-104 the tax and approving the local Act providing such homestead exemption, then the tax shall be levied in accordance with this part; otherwise, the sales and use tax may not be levied, and the question of the imposition of the sales and use tax may not again be submitted to the voters of the special district until after 24 months immediately following the month in which the election was held. It shall be the duty of the election superintendent to hold and conduct such elections under the same rules and regulations as govern special elections. It shall be the superintendent’s further duty to canvass the returns, declare the result of the election, and certify the result to the Secretary of State and to the commissioner. The expense of the election shall be borne by the county whose geographical boundary is conterminous with that of the special district holding the election. (c) If the imposition of the sales and use tax provided in Code Section 48-8-102 is approved in a referendum election as provided by subsections (a) and (b) of this Code section, the governing authority of the county whose geographical boundary is conterminous with that of the special district shall adopt a resolution during the ﬁrst 30 days following the certiﬁcation of the result of the election imposing the sales and use tax authorized by Code Section 48-8-102 on behalf of the county whose geographical boundary is conterminous with that of the special district. The resolution shall be effective on the ﬁrst day of the next succeeding calendar quarter which begins more than 80 days after the adoption of the resolution. With respect to services which are billed on a regular monthly basis, however, the resolution shall become effective with the ﬁrst regular billing period coinciding with or following the otherwise effective date of the resolution. A certiﬁed copy of the resolution shall be forwarded to the commissioner so that it will be received within ﬁve days after its adoption. History. Code 1981, § 48-8-103, enacted by Ga. L. 1995, p. 655, § 1; Ga. L. 1997, p. 1, § 3; Ga. L. 2015, p. 217, § 2/HB 215; Ga. L. 2016, p. 864, § 48/HB 737. 48-8-104. Administration and collection of tax; disbursement of proceeds. (a) The sales and use tax levied pursuant to this part shall be exclusively administered and collected by the commissioner for the use and beneﬁt of each county whose geographical boundary is conterminous with that of a special district. Such administration and collection shall be accomplished in the same manner and subject to the same applicable provisions, procedures, and penalties provided in Article 1 of this chapter except that the sales and use tax provided in this part shall be applicable to sales of motor fuels as prepaid local tax as such term is deﬁned in Code Section 48-8-2; provided, however, that all moneys collected from each taxpayer by the commissioner shall be applied ﬁrst 918 48-8-104 to such taxpayer’s liability for taxes owed the state. Dealers shall be allowed a percentage of the amount of the sales and use tax due and accounted for and shall be reimbursed in the form of a deduction in submitting, reporting, and paying the amount due if such amount is not delinquent at the time of payment. The deduction shall be at the rate and subject to the requirements speciﬁed under subsections (b) through (f) of Code Section 48-8-50. (b) Each sales and use tax return remitting sales and use taxes collected under this part shall separately identify the location of each retail establishment at which any of the sales and use taxes remitted were collected and shall specify the amount of sales and the amount of taxes collected at each establishment for the period covered by the return in order to facilitate the determination by the commissioner that all sales and use taxes imposed by this part are collected and distributed according to situs of sale. (c) The proceeds of the sales and use tax collected by the commissioner in each special district under this part shall be disbursed as soon as practicable after collection as follows: (1) One percent of the amount collected shall be paid into the general fund of the state treasury in order to defray the costs of administration; (2) Except for the percentage provided in paragraph (1) of this subsection and the amount determined under subsections (d) and (e) of this Code section, the remaining proceeds of the sales and use tax shall be distributed to the governing authority of the county whose geographical boundary is conterminous with that of the special district; provided, however, that a county and any qualiﬁed municipality shall be authorized by intergovernmental agreement to waive the equalization amount otherwise required under subsections (d) and (e) of this Code section and provide for a different distribution amount. In the event of such waiver, except for the percentage provided in paragraph (1) of this subsection, the remaining proceeds of the sales and use tax shall be distributed to the governing authority of the county whose geographical boundary is conterminous with that of the special district. As a condition precedent for the authority to levy the sales and use tax or to collect any proceeds from the tax authorized by this part for the year following the ﬁrst complete calendar year in which it is levied and for all subsequent years except the year following the year in which the sales and use tax is terminated under Code Section 48-8-106, the county whose geographical boundary is conterminous with that of the special district shall, except as otherwise provided in subsection (c) of Code Section 48-8-102, expend such proceeds as follows: (A) A portion of such proceeds shall be expended for the purpose of funding capital outlay projects as follows: 919 48-8-104 (i) The governing authority of the county whose geographical boundary is conterminous with that of the special district shall establish the capital factor which shall not exceed .200 and, for a county in which a qualiﬁed municipality is located, shall not be less than the level required by subsection (d) of this Code section; therefore, at a minimum, the county shall set the capital factor at a level that yields an amount of capital outlay proceeds that is equal to or greater than the sum of all equalization amounts due qualiﬁed municipalities and existing municipalities under subsection (e) of this Code section; and (ii) Capital outlay projects shall be funded in an amount equal to the product of the capital factor multiplied by the net amount of the sales and use tax proceeds collected under this part during the previous calendar year, and this amount shall be referred to as capital outlay proceeds in subsections (d) and (e) of this Code section; (B) A portion of such proceeds shall be expended for the purpose of funding services within the special district equal to the revenue lost to the homestead exemption as provided in this Code section as follows: (i) The homestead factor shall be calculated by multiplying the quantity 1.000 minus the capital factor times an amount equal to the net amount of sales and use tax collected in the special district pursuant to this part for the previous calendar year, and then dividing by the taxes levied for county purposes on only that portion of the county tax digest that represents net assessments on qualiﬁed homestead property after all other homestead exemptions have been applied, rounding the result to three decimal places; (ii) If the homestead factor is less than or equal to 1.000, the amount of homestead exemption created under this part on qualiﬁed homestead property shall be equal to the product of the homestead factor multiplied times the net assessment of each qualiﬁed homestead remaining after all other homestead exemptions have been applied; and (iii) If the homestead factor is greater than 1.000, the homestead exemption created by this part on qualiﬁed homestead property shall be equal to the net assessment of each homestead remaining after all other homestead exemptions have been applied; and (C) If any of such proceeds remain following the distribution provided for in subparagraphs (A) and (B) of this paragraph and subsections (d) and (e) of this Code section: 920 48-8-104 (i) The millage rate levied for county purposes shall be rolled back in an amount equal to such excess divided by the net taxable digest for county purposes after deducting all homestead exemptions including the exemption under this part; and (ii) In the event the rollback created by division (i) of this subparagraph exceeds the millage rate for county purposes, the governing authority of the county whose boundary is conterminous with the special district shall be authorized to expend the surplus funds for funding all or any portion of those services which are to be provided by such governing authorities pursuant to and in accordance with Article IX, Section II, Paragraph III of the Constitution of this state. (d)(1) The commissioner shall distribute to the governing authority of each qualiﬁed municipality located in the special district a share of the capital outlay proceeds calculated as provided in this subsection and subsection (e) of this Code section which proceeds shall be expended for the purpose of funding capital outlay projects of such municipality. (2) Both the tax commissioner and the governing authority for the county in which a qualiﬁed municipality is located shall cooperate with and assist the commissioner in the calculation of the equalization amounts under subsection (e) of this Code section and shall, on or before July 1 of each year, provide to the commissioner and the governing authority of each qualiﬁed municipality written certiﬁcation of the following: (A) The capital factor set by the county for the current calendar year; provided, however, that the capital factor may not exceed 0.200; (B) The total amount, if any, due to be paid to existing municipalities from the capital outlay proceeds as required by any intergovernmental agreement between the county and such municipalities; (C) The incorporated county millage rate in each qualiﬁed municipality; (D) The net homestead digest for each qualiﬁed municipality; (E) The total homestead digest; and (F) The unincorporated county millage rate. If the tax commissioner and the governing authority of the county fail to provide such certiﬁcation on or before July 1, the commissioner shall not distribute to such county any additional proceeds of the sales and use tax collected after July 1 unless and until such certiﬁcation is provided. 921 48-8-104 (3) The commissioner shall then calculate the equalization amount due each qualiﬁed municipality based on the certiﬁcations provided by the tax commissioner and the governing authority of the county and pay such amount to the governing authority of each qualiﬁed municipality in six equal monthly payments as soon as practicable during or after each of the last six months of the current calendar year. In the event an existing municipality that has entered into an intergovernmental agreement with a county at any time before January 1, 2007, to receive capital outlay proceeds of the homestead option sales and use tax and such intergovernmental agreement has become or does become null and void for any reason, such existing municipality shall be treated under this part the same as if it were a qualiﬁed municipality as deﬁned in paragraph (4) of Code Section 48-8-101 and therefore receive payment of equalization amounts under this part as provided for under this part. The commissioner shall distribute to the governing authority of the county each month the net sales and use tax remaining after payment of equalization amounts to the qualiﬁed municipalities. (e)(1) As used in this subsection, the term: (A) “Equalization amount” means for a qualiﬁed municipality the product of the equalization millage times the net homestead digest for that qualiﬁed municipality. (B) “Equalization millage” means for each qualiﬁed municipality the product of the homestead factor calculated pursuant to division (c)(2)(B)(i) of this Code section times the difference between the unincorporated county millage rate and the incorporated county millage rate for that qualiﬁed municipality. (C) “Incorporated county millage rate” means the millage rate for all ad valorem taxes for county purposes levied by the county in each of the qualiﬁed municipalities in the county. (D) “Net homestead digest” means for each qualiﬁed municipality the total net assessed value of all qualiﬁed homestead property located in that portion of the qualiﬁed municipality located in the county remaining after all other homestead exemptions are applied. (E) “Total homestead digest” means the total net assessed value of all qualiﬁed homestead property located in the county remaining after all other homestead exemptions are applied. (F) “Unincorporated county millage rate” means the millage rate for all ad valorem taxes for county purposes levied by the county in the unincorporated areas of the county. (2) For illustration purposes, a hypothetical example of the calculation of the equalization amount is provided below. 922 48-8-104 First, calculate the homestead factor in accordance with division (c)(2)(B)(i) of this Code section as follows: (A) Capital factor certiﬁed by county as required by subsection (d) of this Code section 0.150 (B) Net amount of sales and use tax collected in the special district pursuant to this part for the previous calendar year $50 million (C) Taxes levied for county purposes on only that portion of the county tax digest that represents net assessments on qualiﬁed homestead property after all other homestead exemptions have been applied $100 million (D) Calculation of homestead factor using ﬁgures above = [(1-.0150)($50 million/$100 million)] .425 Next, calculate the equalization amount in accordance with paragraph (1) of this subsection as follows: (E) Unincorporated county millage rate 15.0 mills (F) Minus the incorporated county millage rate for qualiﬁed municipality ‘‘Y’’ (10.0 mills) Difference: (G) Times homestead factor (calculated above) = 5.0 mills x .425 (H) Equals the equalization millage: = 2.125 mills (I) Times net homestead digest for qualiﬁed municipality ‘‘Y’’ $200 million (J) Equals the equalization amount payable to municipality ‘‘Y’’ $425,000.00 (3) In the event the total amount payable in a calendar year to all existing municipalities as certiﬁed by the county pursuant to subparagraph (d)(2)(B) of this Code section plus the total equalization amount payable to all qualiﬁed municipalities in the special district exceeds the capital outlay proceeds calculated based on a maximum capital factor of 0.200, the commissioner shall pay to the governing 923 48-8-104 authority of each qualiﬁed municipality a share of such proceeds calculated as follows: (A) Determine the capital outlay proceeds based on a maximum capital factor of 0.200; (B) Subtract the amount certiﬁed by the county as payable to existing municipalities pursuant to subparagraph (d)(2)(B) of this Code section; (C) The remaining amount equals the portion of the capital outlay proceeds that may be used by the commissioner to pay equalization amounts to qualiﬁed municipalities. The commissioner shall calculate each qualiﬁed municipality’s share of such remaining amount by dividing the net homestead digest for each qualiﬁed municipality by the total homestead digest for all municipalities. (4) In the event the incorporated county millage rate for a qualiﬁed municipality is greater than the unincorporated county millage rate, no payment shall be due from the governing authority of the qualiﬁed municipality to the governing authority of the county. (5) In the event the amount of capital outlay proceeds exceeds the sum of the equalization amounts due all qualiﬁed municipalities plus the total amount certiﬁed under subparagraph (d)(2)(B) of this Code section as due all existing municipalities, the commissioner shall distribute to each qualiﬁed municipality a portion of such excess equal to the net homestead digest for such municipality divided by the total homestead digest. (6) If any qualiﬁed municipality is located partially in the county then only that portion so located shall be considered in the calculations contained in this subsection. History. Code 1981, § 48-8-104, enacted by Ga. L. 1995, p. 655, § 1; Ga. L. 1997, p. 1, § 4; Ga. L. 2007, p. 309, § 7/HB 219; Ga. L. 2007, p. 598, § 3/HB 264; Ga. L. 2009, p. 8, § 48/SB 46; Ga. L. 2010, p. 662, § 23/HB 1221; Ga. L. 2015, p. 217, § 2/HB 215.