← Election Series · Down-ballot coverage · Georgia
Our call — vote YES
The measure
Amendment 1 is a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on Georgia's November 3, 2026 ballot. It concerns the Conservation Use Valuation Assessment program, under which qualifying land is taxed at 40% of its current-use value rather than its development value, under a 10-year covenant; breaking the covenant triggers recapture of the tax savings plus penalties. The amendment would raise the maximum acreage a single owner may hold in the program from 2,000 to 4,000 acres. The ballot title frames the change as protecting family farmland.
What YES does
A yes vote doubles the conservation-use acreage cap to 4,000 acres per owner, keeping larger family farms and timberland taxed at current-use value under the same covenant and penalty rules.
What NO does
A no vote keeps the 2,000-acre cap.
The math
No fiscal note for this measure was published on its Ballotpedia page.
OUR CALL
Our call: YES.
Current-use valuation is what keeps working land working: tax a farm as if it were a subdivision and it will become one. Doubling the cap recognizes the real scale of Georgia family farms and timber operations, while the 10-year covenant and recapture penalties still guard against speculators grabbing the break and flipping the land. Conservation through ownership beats conservation through regulation.
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Sources
- Ballotpedia — Georgia Amendment 1 measure page (accessed October 25, 2026)
- Ballotpedia — 2026 ballot measures — https://ballotpedia.org/2026_ballot_measures
Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.
AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.