Gov. signs FY2025 Budget, Vetoes Homestead Exemption Bump

Yesterday, May 7, Gov. Brian Kemp signed off on next year’s budget at a signing ceremony. Later in the day, he vetoed a dozen bills, including  a veto due to a clerical error, that will end up costing taxpayers money.

In Georgia, the governor has 40 days after the close of a legislative session to determine whether to sign a bill that passed both chambers of the General Assembly — creating a law — or veto the bill. If the Governor neither signs a bill or vetoes it, the bill automatically becomes law on the 40th day. May 7 marked exactly 40 days since the end of the 2024 legislative session.

House Bill 1019 would have increased the homestead exemption. The version that passed the House would have raised the statewide homestead tax exemption from $2,000 to $4,000. But state senators increased the amount to $10,000 in committee, only to switch back to the original amount on the floor. The passage through both chambers meant that the matter would be placed as a referendum on the ballot in the November General Election for voters to decide upon.

However, the legislation that was placed before the Governor for his signature still included the Senate’s higher amount in the text that would be placed on that statewide ballot.

Kemp wrote, in his veto statement, “Voters would therefore be approving a different exemption which the Legislature did not pass, while the statutory language would never receive the voter approval needed for it to take effect. This conflict between the statutory language and the referendum language precludes implementation of House Bill 1019.”

If approved by voters, the increase in the homestead exemption would have been the first adjustment of the homestead exemption since the late 1970s.  

Under Georgia legislative procedures, If the governor vetoes a bill, it goes back to the chamber where it originated during the next year’s session to see if they wish to override the veto. If the governor vetoes a bill, a two-thirds majority of each chamber must vote favorably to override the governor’s veto.

Regarding the budget that Kemp signed, the fiscal 2025 budget takes effect July 1 and represents an increase of $3.7 billion over the fiscal 2024 budget, including record spending on education and mental health and significant increases for public safety.

The budget provides 4% cost-of-living raises for most state and university system employees, with an additional $3,000 for workers in state agencies suffering high turnover rates, including law enforcement officers and welfare workers. Teachers will get a pay raise of $2,500, bringing the total to $9,500 since Kemp took office in 2019.

Addressing both education and public safety, the spending plan earmarks $108 million in grants to upgrade security on public school campuses. Every public school in Georgia will get a grant of $45,000.

Also in the public safety arena, the budget provides $10.7 million for a technology upgrade inside state prisons to head off a flood of cellphones and other contraband being smuggled in to inmates. Another $4.8 million will go to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to launch a gang task force in Columbus.

The budget kicks in additional funding for a number of programs already underway, including $20 million for a state reinsurance plan begun last year that aims to hold down health coverage premiums and $6 million for the Rural Workforce Housing initiative, also launched in 2023.

On the mental health front, the budget puts $16.5 million toward a network of behavioral health crisis centers across the state.

Dave Williams Capitol Beat News Service contributed to this report.