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Ballot Explained

Georgia ballot measure · November 3, 2026

Georgia Proposed Constitutional Amendment, explained

Conservation use acreage limit for farm and timber land. A ballot measure is a yes-or-no question put directly to voters — no candidate is involved, and the wording on the ballot is the wording that becomes law. This page shows that wording first, then what it actually changes.

The official wording

Shall the Constitution of Georgia, for the purpose of protecting family farmland, be amended so as to increase the maximum acreage to qualify for assessment and taxation as a bona fide conservation use property from 2,000 acres to 4,000 acres?

This is what appears on the ballot. Everything below explains it.

What it actually means

Georgia's Conservation Use Valuation Assessment programme lets an owner of farm or timber land have it taxed on what it is worth as working land rather than on what a developer would pay, in exchange for a ten-year commitment to keep it in that use. A single owner can currently enrol up to 2,000 acres. This amendment doubles that cap to 4,000 acres. Nothing else about the programme changes.

Y

If you vote YES

  • A single owner could enrol up to 4,000 acres of bona fide agricultural and timber land in the Conservation Use Valuation Assessment programme, double the present 2,000-acre limit.
  • Land above the current cap would be valued on its conservation use value rather than its fair market value, which for land under development pressure is generally the lower figure, reducing the property tax owed on those acres.
  • The rest of the programme would be unchanged: a minimum enrolment of 10 acres, a ten-year covenant with the county, and recapture of the tax savings plus penalties if the covenant is broken.
  • Counties, cities and school districts that levy property tax on newly enrolled acreage would collect less from it, unless they raise millage rates or the loss is offset by growth elsewhere.
N

If you vote NO

  • The cap would stay at 2,000 acres per owner, as it has been since voters created the programme by constitutional amendment in 1990.
  • Acreage a single owner holds above 2,000 acres would continue to be assessed at fair market value rather than conservation use value.
  • Local property tax bases would be unaffected by any change in the programme.

Why supporters say YES

We found none published in the sources reviewed.

Why opponents say NO

We found none published in the sources reviewed.

What’s genuinely uncertain

  • No committee has registered to support or oppose the amendment and Ballotpedia has located no arguments in opposition, so no arguments are presented on either side. Sen. Sam Watson (R-11), a sponsor, said in support: "Agriculture has changed. Our family farms are getting much larger today," and argued the conservation use laws have gone largely unchanged since the 1980s.
  • No state fiscal note quantifying the revenue effect on counties, cities or school districts was located. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that some have reservations that approval could cost local governments and schools property tax revenue, but attributed that to no one by name.
  • The amendment passed the House 168-5 and the Senate 50-1, so the legislative record shows almost no dissent to draw a case against from.
  • The number the amendment will carry on the ballot had not been published when this was written.

The bottom line

Doubling how much land one owner can have taxed on its working value rather than its market value — relief aimed at larger farm and timber holdings, set against the property tax base of the counties and school districts where that land sits.

One neutral sentence describing the tradeoff — not a recommendation.

Sources:ballotpedia.orgballotpedia.orgajc.com

Checking it against the official text

The Georgia Secretary of State publishes the certified measures and, in most states, an official voter guide with fiscal notes. That is the authoritative version. Everything here is an explanation of it, not a substitute for it.

Confirm this with the official source

Your ballot is determined by your election authority, not by us. Verify your registration, precinct, and sample ballot at Georgia Secretary of State.

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