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Call Now: 904-383-7448(a) Except as otherwise provided in this Constitution, all revenue collected from taxes, fees, and assessments for state purposes, as authorized by revenue measures enacted by the General Assembly, shall be paid into the general fund of the state treasury.
(b) (1) As authorized by law providing for the promotion of any one or more types of agricultural products, fees, assessments, and other charges collected on the sale or processing of agricultural products need not be paid into the general fund of the state treasury. The uniformity requirement of this article shall be satisfied by the application of the agricultural promotion program upon the affected products.
(2) As used in this subparagraph, "agricultural products" includes, but is not limited to, registered livestock and livestock products, poultry and poultry products, timber and timber products, fish and seafood, and the products of the farms and forests of this state.
- Art. VII, Sec. II, Paras. II, III.
- Appropriations, Ga. Const. 1983, Art. III, Sec. IX, Paras. I through VII, and § 50-17-23.
Agricultural commodities promotion generally, Ch. 8, T. 2.
Marketing facilities, organizations, and programs, Ch. 10, T. 2.
Disposition of collected revenues, § 48-2-17.
Exemption of agricultural products from sales and use taxes, §§ 48-8-4 and48-8-5.
- The constitutional amendment (Ga. L. 1996, p. 1671, § 1), which would have rewritten subsection (b), was defeated by a majority of the qualified voters voting at the general election held on November 5, 1996.
Georgia Constitution is a limitation upon the power of the General Assembly to tax, and the Constitution requires that the General Assembly not tax except where express constitutional authorization has been granted. City Council v. Mangelly, 243 Ga. 358, 254 S.E.2d 315 (1979).
Express constitutional authorization is required to validate a tax levy by a creature of the state. City Council v. Mangelly, 243 Ga. 358, 254 S.E.2d 315 (1979).
Purpose of Ga. Const. 1976, Art. III, Sec. X, Para. VII (see Ga. Const. 1983, Art. III, Sec. IX, Para. VII), and of this paragraph was to end the practice of allocating or earmarking particular taxes for the use by any specific department, and to require the General Assembly to appropriate from the general fund specific amounts for each fiscal year for support of each department or agency. Gregory v. Hamilton, 215 Ga. 735, 113 S.E.2d 395 (1960) (see Ga. Const. 1983, Art. VII, Sec. III, Para. II).
Cited in Sams v. Olah, 225 Ga. 497, 169 S.E.2d 790 (1969); Board of Comm'rs v. Cooper, 245 Ga. 251, 264 S.E.2d 193 (1980).
Constitutional requirements generally prohibit state organizations from collecting money and using that money for their own programs. 1971 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 71-126.
This provision was designed to give the General Assembly a more complete and continuous control over state finances than it had previously, when many sources of state income were earmarked for specific purposes. 1977 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 77-77.
- Ga. Const. 1976, Art. VII, Sec. II, Paras. II and III (see now Ga. Const. 1983, Art. VII, Sec. III, Para. II), and Ga. Const. 1976, Art. III, Sec. X, Para. I (see Ga. Const. 1983, Art. III, Sec. IX, Para. I), when read in conjunction with Ga. Const. 1976, Art. III, Sec. X, Para. VII (see Ga. Const. 1983, Art. III, Sec. IX, Para. VI), preclude both the practice of allocating particular sources of income for the use of a particular agency and the allocation of the fees, or any part of the fees, collected by the various examining boards to meet their expenses, and further preclude any implied commitment on the part of the General Assembly to appropriate to the examining boards an amount equal to the total fees generated. 1976 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 76-93.
The statutory counterpart to this paragraph is found in Ga. L. 1962, p. 17, § 1 (see now O.C.G.A. § 45-12-92). 1977 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 77-77 (see Ga. Const. 1983, Art. VII, Sec. III, Para. II).
- The General Assembly could tax for, and appropriate funds for, the same purposes as may be intended by Ducks Unlimited, e.g., recreation, conservation of the natural resources of the state, etc.; however, this does not mean the General Assembly may grant a donation or gratuity, in violation of the state constitutional prohibition, in order to effectuate the purposes for which it is authorized to levy taxes. 1971 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 71-128.
- Former Code 1933, § 32-1302 (see now O.C.G.A. § 20-2-832) was now ineffective since adoption of the 1945 Constitution which abolished, by provisions of this paragraph, special or allocated funds and required that all funds of the state be paid into the general fund of the state treasury and appropriated therefrom as required by the Constitution, and Ga. Const. 1976, Art. VII, Sec. III, Para. I (see Ga. Const. 1983, Art. VII, Sec. IV, Paras. I through V) limited the purposes and the amounts to those therein specified that may be borrowed by the state. 1948-49 Op. Att'y Gen. p. 642 (see Ga. Const. 1983, Art. VII, Sec. III, Para. II).
- The lawful method of distribution of funds to the Real Estate Commission calls for the Secretary of State to exercise the Secretary's discretion in dividing the total appropriation for the Joint Secretary's office among the various examining boards including the Georgia Real Estate Commission. 1976 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 76-93.
- Absent a constitutional amendment, a program to assess testing of equines for equine infectious anemia cannot be established. 1995 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 95-18.
A state agency is not authorized to collect fees and deposit those fees in its own account, but rather such fees must be paid over in compliance with this paragraph and Ga. Const. 1976, Art. III, Sec. X, Para. I (see Ga. Const. 1983, Art. III, Sec. IX, Para. I). 1948-49 Op. Att'y Gen. p. 631.(see Ga. Const. 1983, Art. VII, Sec. III, Para. II).
- While the constitutional provisions concerning collections and appropriations do not specifically provide that money recovered for contractual violations or delinquent accounts be paid into the treasury, such money must be paid into the state treasury, and not earmarked. 1971 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 71-126.
- Constitutional provisions require that any money which is collected by State Board of Education from delinquent state teachers' scholarships must be paid into general fund of state treasury and cannot be used in making future scholarship commitments by the State Board of Education. 1971 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 71-126.
Assessments under § 34-9-63. - Assessments made by the State Board of Workers' Compensation pursuant to authority under former Code 1933, § 114-717 (see now O.C.G.A. § 34-9-63) must be paid into the general fund of the state treasury and the operating expenses of the State Board of Workers' Compensation may be funded only through an appropriation by the General Assembly. 1974 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 74-62.
- Proceeds of property sales may constitutionally be retained by the agency concerned, because such proceeds are not "taxes", "fees", or "assessments." As a matter of statute, however, most such proceeds must be paid into the state treasury: first, such proceeds would in general constitute "other moneys" within the meaning of Ga. L. 1962, p. 17, § 1 (see now O.C.G.A. § 45-12-92); and, second, former Code 1933, § 91-804 provided that the proceeds of sales of unserviceable property shall be paid into the treasury. 1977 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 77-77.
Application fees by the joint secretary, State Examining Boards, which are paid into the state treasury are nonrefundable unless there is express statutory authority to do so. 1975 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 75-69.
- If the collection of funds does not depend upon a statutory premise, a statutory command or authorization to collect the funds, then the funds may be retained by the agency concerned. 1977 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 77-77.
All incoming funds are to be placed in the state treasury, unless a specific reason can be found which justifies their retention by an individual agency. 1977 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 77-77.
Gifts and grants, whether federal or private, may be retained by an agency recipient as gifts and grants and are not "taxes," "fees," or "assessments"; nor is an agency under a legal duty to collect them, although some agencies are by law authorized or required to accept whatever gifts may be made available to them. 1977 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 77-77.
- The constitutional and statutory provisions, when they speak of revenues, refer to outside receipts; revenues which are received by one agency from another agency, unlike outside receipts, are already subject to the annual appropriations process; therefore, such revenues need not be deposited into the state treasury to insure that the General Assembly can exercise control over state finances. 1977 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 77-77.
With respect to character examination fees paid by prospective members of the bar, neither the Constitution nor Ga. L. 1962, p. 17, § 1 (see now O.C.G.A. Part 1, Art. 4, Ch. 12, T. 45) requires that such fees be deposited into the state treasury. 1977 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 77-77.
- Fees, generated by proposed rules of the Supreme Court creating a board to determine fitness of bar applicants and an office of bar admissions (now Board of Bar Examiners), are not to be collected pursuant to any revenue statute and these fees do not have to be remitted to the state treasury. 1977 Op. Att'y Gen. No. U77-10.1.
- Certain income generated by the judicial branch of government, including dues paid by members of the State Bar of Georgia, fees paid to the office of bar admissions (now Board of Bar Examiners) by applicants for admission to the bar, and fees paid by court reporters to the board of court reporting of the judicial council, may be retained by the judicial branch. 1977 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 77-77.
- As there is no specific statutory premise for collecting room and board charges from probationers, by the Department of Offender Rehabilitation (now Department of Corrections), or for collecting meal money from employees working in group homes operated by the Department of Human Resources, these funds may be retained by the respective departments. 1977 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 77-77.
Funds donated to and accepted by the Department of Public Safety for a designated purpose need not be deposited in the state treasury. 1974 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 74-140.
- Funds made available to the Surface Mined Land Use Board (now Environmental Protection Division of Department of Natural Resources) by a mining company for specific research need not be paid into the general fund of the state treasury since the moneys involved do not constitute money collected from taxes, fees, and assessments under the authority of revenue statutes of this state. 1970 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 70-29.
- The Subsequent Injury Trust Fund is not subject to the requirement that monies be paid into the general fund of the state treasury. 1993 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 93-28.
Commissions paid state agencies by telephone companies for the privilege of locating pay telephones on state property are not required to be deposited into the state treasury. 1997 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 97-26.
- Validity of special statute authorizing exemption of industrial concern from taxation, 64 A.L.R. 1217.
Encouragement or promotion of industry not in nature of public utility, carried on by private enterprise, as public purpose for which tax may be imposed or public money appropriated, 112 A.L.R. 571.
What constitutes moral obligation justifying appropriation of public moneys for benefit of an individual, 172 A.L.R. 1407.