• Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to provide that the General Assembly by general law shall encourage the preservation, conservation, and protection of the state's forests through the special assessment and taxation of certain forest lands and assistance grants to local government?

YES: The Georgia Chamber of Commerce states that this referendum will promote conservation of the state’s fast-dwindling forestland like never before.

If approved, individual and corporate landowners with timber holdings of 200 acres or more would enjoy lower property taxes in exchange for agreeing not to develop the land for at least 15 years, preserving it instead for the good of the environment. The property could still be used for responsible timber farming.

NO: Would leave some underdeveloped counties which rely heavily on ad valorem taxes with less taxable property.

• Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to authorize the General Assembly to provide by general law for the creation and comprehensive regulation of infrastructure development districts for the provision of infrastructure as authorized by local governments?

YES: The Georgia Chamber of Commerce states that this would give local governments the power to create Infrastructure Development Districts, or Infrastructure Development Districts. IDDs are special-purpose districts established by cities and counties to help get new infrastructure built within their boundaries.

NO: With an IDD, though, developers – not local governments – are the ones who issue the tax-exempt bonds. And unlike a TAD, the land within an IDD typically isn’t blighted; in fact, it’s usually an area that has never been developed and needs new roads and sewer and water connections before new residents and businesses can move in. The way it works is that the developer collects a fee or assessment from those who live and work in the district to pay down the bonds. Currently, typically, developers build those costs into the cost of each lot sold in the development. IDDs are heavily used in Florida, which has more than 400 of them.

• Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to authorize community redevelopment and authorize counties, municipalities, and local boards of education to use tax funds for redevelopment purposes and programs?

YES: The Georgia Chamber of Commerce states that these Tax Allocation Districts, or TADs, will attract private investment to deteriorating areas that otherwise would have little to no chance of landing new homes, stores, offices and entertainment venues.

Local governments and school boards issue TAD bonds to finance the infrastructure improvements needed to pave the way for new investment, such as water and sewer lines, road work or environmental cleanup. The bonds are then paid down – typically over 15 to 20 years – using the additional property tax revenue flowing in from all the new development within the boundaries of the TAD.

NO: Spreads the taxing authority for TADs to local school boards, which previously had not been allowed to issue the bonds; only governments could.