2016 BALLOT
PROPOSED GEORGIA CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
This handout describes the four constitutional amendments that will be voted on by
the Georgia State House of Representatives. In order to amend the state constitution, a
bill describing the amendment must pass both houses of the state legislature. If the bill
passes both houses of the state General Assembly, it then must be approved by the
registered voters in the next election.
1.
Opportunity School Districts
This proposed amendment will allow the state to intervene in chronically failing public schools
to improve student performance. In order to turn struggling schools around, the creation of
an Opportunity School District (OSD) would authorize the state to temporarily step in to take over the
administration of schools defined as chronically failing.
In the governor’s proposal, persistently failing schools are defined as those scoring below 60 on
the Georgia Department of Education’s accountability measure, the College and Career Performance
Index, for three consecutive years. The OSD would take in no more than 20 schools per year, meaning
it would govern no more than 100 at any given time. Schools would stay in the OSD for no less than
5 years but no more than 10 years, and would then return to local control. While in the OSD the local
school board would have no power to act even though the board was locally elected.
In effect, the Governor can remove a school from control by the local school board and make
decisions with respect to the operation of the school system, the hiring and firing of teachers, and the
financial management of the school system without approval of the school board elected by the voters.
This proposal is similar to the Michigan law that allowed the governor to take local control of the water
supply system in Flint Michigan and to deny local control of the system as established in the city’s
charter.
A “yes” vote would allow the state to take over a failing school district whereas a “no” vote
would keep a failing school under local control.
2.
Additional penalties for certain sex related crimes
This proposed amendment would allow for special monetary penalties in addition to
imprisonment and fines already being imposed in certain sex related crimes. The monies raised by this
penalty would be specifically paid into the Safe Harbor for Sexually Exploited Children Fund. The fund
would be a separate fund in the Georgia State Treasury and its primary purpose is to disburse money to
provide care and rehabilitative and social services for sexually exploited children.
A “yes” vote supports the law that would create the fund and allow judges to assess the penalty
upon conviction of a sex related crime. A “no” vote would result in no change to the current law.
3.
Judicial Qualifications Commission
This proposed amendment would repeal the 1972 law that created an independent Judicial
Qualifications Commission to determine cases of judicial misconduct. It would put into place a new law
that would put all matters dealing with judicial misconduct under control of the General Assembly. By
making the appointment of the commissioners and control over the rules and procedures of the
commission under the General Assembly, opponents of this measure argue that the proposal would take
what is now an independent commission and make it into a body that would be subject to the political
control of the General Assembly and thereby violate the doctrine that the judiciary is independent of the
other two branches of government.
A “yes” vote supports a change to the current laws whereas a “no” vote would result in no
change to the current law.
4.
Use of Excise Tax from sale of fireworks for mandated purposes
The sale of fireworks was legalized in 2015. A companion law approved a state constitutional
amendment to call for the proceeds of excise taxes raised from fireworks sales to be used for trauma
care, fire services, and local public safety purposes. The amendment, if approved would allocate the tax
revenues as follows:

55 percent of revenues would go toward the Georgia Trauma Care Network Commission

40 percent of revenues would go toward the Georgia Firefighter Standards and Training
Council. Specifically, the revenue would be used to fund a grant program for improving the
equipment and training of Georgia firefighters.

5 percent of revenues would go toward local governments, to be used specifically for
public safety purposes.
The important question with this type of amendment is not whether it is a good idea to direct the
revenues as described above, but whether it is more important or desirable for the State government to
earmark or direct tax revenues to specific items by a constitutional amendment rather than through the
regular budgeting process. If it became necessary to change the percentages or redirect the funds to the
state’s general fund, it could take two years or more to amend the constitution to accomplish a change to
the distribution of the funds set forth in the amendment.