Legislation: batch A — AK AL AR AZ CO CT DE GA HI IA ID

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

legislation/us/states/ga/2025-26/hb-498.md

@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+---
+type: "Bill"
+title: "Garden City Charm and Tourism Act; enact"
+description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to authorize the governing authority of Augusta-Richmond County to levy an excise tax pursuant to subsection (b) of Code Section 48-13-51 of the O.C.G.A.; to provide for procedures, conditions, and limitations; to provide a short title; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
+jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
+legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
+session: "2025_26"
+identifier: "HB 498"
+citation: "Georgia HB 498 (2025_26)"
+classification: ["bill"]
+subjects: []
+status: "enacted"
+primary_sponsors: ["Brian Prince", "Karlton Howard", "L.C. Myles", "Lynn Heffner", "Mark Newton"]
+version_count: 3
+action_count: 13
+vote_count: 2
+first_action: "2025-02-18"
+last_action: "2025-05-13"
+source: "openstates"
+source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ad29d363-28da-416e-b2f0-deb1e056d0eb"
+source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
+source_hash: "07970a9469946890ea58d7039c616f73c37f059b46a7a454080474935cce1c4e"
+vintage: "2026-07-01"
+source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
+retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
+confidence: "reported"
+tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
+---
+
+# Georgia HB 498 (2025_26) — Garden City Charm and Tourism Act; enact
+
+A BILL to be entitled an Act to authorize the governing authority of Augusta-Richmond County to levy an excise tax pursuant to subsection (b) of Code Section 48-13-51 of the O.C.G.A.; to provide for procedures, conditions, and limitations; to provide a short title; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.
+
+## Version chain
+
+The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.
+
+1. **HB 498/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/234690.pdf)
+2. **LC 47 3390/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/232726.pdf)
+3. **Local Ad** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/232751.pdf)
+
+## Votes
+
+- House Vote #58 - 2025-2026 Regular Session — **170–0** (pass) · lower
+- Senate Vote #106 - 2025-2026 Regular Session — **51–1** (pass) · upper
+
+## Sponsors
+
+- Brian Prince — primary (person)
+- Karlton Howard — primary (person)
+- L.C. Myles — primary (person)
+- Lynn Heffner — primary (person)
+- Mark Newton — primary (person)
+
+## Timeline
+
+The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.
+
+- **2025-02-18** House Hopper `introduction`
+- **2025-02-19** House First Readers `reading-1`
+- **2025-02-20** House Second Readers `reading-2`
+- **2025-02-21** House Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
+- **2025-02-21** House Third Readers `reading-3`
+- **2025-02-21** House Passed/Adopted `passage`
+- **2025-02-24** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
+- **2025-02-28** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
+- **2025-02-28** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
+- **2025-04-07** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
+- **2025-05-13** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
+- **2025-05-13** Act 144 `executive-signature`
+- **2025-05-13** Effective Date
+
+## Source
+
+OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/ad29d363-28da-416e-b2f0-deb1e056d0eb`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).
+