Who opted out of Georgia's HB 581 homestead exemption in 2025, what that means for your 2026 bill, and what SB 33 changes next.
# Georgia HB 581 Opt-Out Tracker: Counties, Schools and SB 33
For 2026 tax bills, the opt-out decisions Georgia counties, cities and school districts made in 2025 still decide whether HB 581's floating homestead exemption applies to each part of your bill. SB 33, which Governor Kemp signed on May 11, 2026, repealed the opt-out and made the exemption mandatory for every local government, and the Fulton County Board of Assessors and the Georgia Municipal Association both read it as reaching formerly opted-out governments starting in 2027.
This tracker shows which large metro governments are on the Georgia Secretary of State's opt-out list, how many governments opted out statewide, and what SB 33 changes for a homeowner whose county or school district opted out. If you want the broader background first, our guide to what HB 581 changed and what still applies in 2026 covers the law itself.
The exemption limits how fast your homestead's taxable base value can rise each year; it doesn't cap your home's market value or your tax rate. Under HB 581, the part of your assessed value above your adjusted base year value is exempt, and the base can grow each year by no more than the prior year's inflation rate set by the Georgia Department of Revenue.
The Department of Revenue's Policy Bulletin 2026-01 sets that rate at 2.7% for the 2026 digest year (the digest is the county's list of taxable property values for that year). Improvements are handled separately: the base year value is adjusted for "any substantial property change," so the value of an addition goes into your base instead of counting against the 2.7% limit.
The Fulton County Board of Assessors puts the limit plainly: "This does not limit the county's determination of fair market value or the millage rates adopted by taxing authorities." If your value is too high to begin with, the exemption doesn't fix that.
If your county, city or school district opted out in 2025, your 2026 bill most likely still has no HB 581 exemption on that government's portion, because SB 33 names no 2026 change for opted-out governments.
For 2027, those same governments come under the exemption, according to the Fulton County Board of Assessors and the Georgia Municipal Association. The Georgia Municipal Association's summary also says that for these jurisdictions "the base year established will be 2026 and the first year the homestead exemption will be effective will be 2027."
Here's how the first covered year could work. For an illustrative homestead with a 2026 base year assessed value (40% of fair market value) of $160,000, a 2.7% rate would let the taxable base rise by at most $4,320, to $164,320. If the county then assessed the home at $180,000, the exemption would cover the $15,680 difference, before any other exemptions. The 2027 rate hasn't been published yet, so 2.7% here is only for illustration.
The exemption applies to a homestead, so you need a homestead exemption on file with your county; if you don't have one yet, you apply for it with your county (the tax assessor's or tax commissioner's office, depending on the county). Where more than one floating exemption could apply, HB 581 says the one "that is larger or more beneficial for the taxpayer" is used, and Fulton's assessors say they apply the most beneficial one automatically. Check the base year and exemptions listed on your 2027 assessment notice when it arrives.
SB 33 ended the opt-out entirely. The enrolled text of SB 33, the "Homeownership Opportunity and Market Equalization Act of 2026," amends O.C.G.A. 48-5-44.2 "by repealing subsections (h) and (i)" and states its purpose as making "the state-wide base year homestead exemption mandatory for all political subdivisions."
The Act says it "shall become effective upon its approval by the Governor," and the SB 33 bill page shows it was signed on May 11, 2026, as Act 461. That page still carries the bill's old caption, "Georgia Hemp Farming Act," because the property tax text was substituted into a hemp bill; it's the same SB 33.
The Act doesn't name a first tax year for governments that had opted out; its base year is the assessed value "from the taxable year immediately preceding the taxable year in which the exemption under this Code section is first granted." The 2027 date comes from the Fulton County Board of Assessors' May 2026 overview ("mandatory, but not until 2027") and the Georgia Municipal Association's summary. Confirm the base year on your 2027 assessment notice.
The yearly rescission option and the step of opting out again are gone too. The Georgia Municipal Association notes that "the requirement to opt out again or provide a disclosure on the tax bill of the opt out" was eliminated. Some local news stories still say governments must adopt a new opt-out in 2027 or be opted in; SB 33's repeal ended that step.
The Georgia Secretary of State's HB 581 list of opt-outs is the official record of who opted out, and the table below shows only what that list supports for the largest metro counties. Your bill can include a county government, a school district and a city, and each one decided on its own.
Several cities in these counties are on the list as well: the City of Atlanta, Atlanta Public Schools, the City of Marietta, Marietta City Schools, the Decatur City Commission, City of Decatur Schools, the City of Tucker, the City of Savannah and the City of Gainesville.
Fulton County is the clearest example of a split. The county government voted unanimously to opt in, and its assessors write that "Fulton County did not opt out, but some cities and school districts did." The City of Atlanta opted out to keep its own floating exemption, which the city says "caps annual taxable property assessment increases at 2.6%."
The list has limits. It's undated, it includes some resolutions received after March 1, 2025, and it doesn't record reversals. Bryan County Schools appears on it, yet Savannah TV station WTOC reported in April 2025 that the board decided to opt back in.
Per the Tax Foundation's count of the Secretary of State list, spring 2025, 316 local governments opted out: 47 counties (30 percent of counties), 123 school districts (68 percent), 141 cities and towns (26 percent) and 5 consolidated city-county governments (63 percent). The same count found that about two-thirds of counties, home to nearly 83 percent of Georgians, had a school system, a county government or both opt out.
School boards opted out at more than twice the rate of county commissions. The consolidated governments on the list include Columbus and Muscogee County, Augusta-Richmond County and Macon-Bibb County. The Tax Foundation's analysis also notes that the school systems in all five of the largest counties opted out.
HB 581 passed in 2024, voters approved the exemption that November, and the 2025 opt-outs shaped the bills that followed until SB 33 repealed the opt-out in 2026.
An appeal matters whether or not the cap applies, because the exemption only limits growth from your base and never corrects an inflated value. If you're in a government that opted out, the exemption most likely doesn't apply to that part of your 2026 bill.
The base year value includes "any final determination of value on appeal pursuant to Code Section 48-5-311," so a value lowered on appeal can become your base. GMA reads 2026 as the base year for formerly opted-out governments; if your 2026 appeal is still open, its result may set that base.
Under Georgia law, the Department of Revenue's appeal page says you appeal "within 45 days of the date the Assessment Notice was mailed," and your notice prints the last day to appeal, so use that date. If your 2026 window has passed, your next one opens with your 2027 assessment notice.
Start with your assessment notice: our line-by-line guide to the Georgia assessment notice shows where your county prints the value and the appeal information, and our Georgia appeal timeline walks through what happens after you file. A value lowered on appeal also connects to Georgia's separate 299c rule, explained in our guide to what the 299c freeze holds.
If you'd rather not track the county's letters and deadlines yourself, AppealAlly's Full-Service Appeal files the appeal and tracks them for you. AppealAlly handles property tax appeals, not exemption filings; a homestead exemption application is yours to file with your county.
Confirm with your county before you file.
This tracker is general information drawn from the Georgia General Assembly's text of SB 33, HB 581 and HB 92, the Georgia Secretary of State's HB 581 opt-out list, the Georgia Department of Revenue's 2026 inflation bulletin, the Tax Foundation, the Fulton County Board of Assessors and the Georgia Municipal Association, all read October 13, 2026. Dates are estimated where the law doesn't set them, and county practice varies. It isn't legal or tax advice. Confirm your own base year, exemptions and appeal dates on your assessment notice, your tax bill or with your county's board of assessors.