Democratic State Rep. Eric Gisler began his second Town Hall meeting on Saturday with an update on legislation under consideration in the Georgia House of Representatives and a summary of his position on the legislation.
Gisler said he will vote against House Bill 1116, which is designed to eliminate local property tax for homesteaded property in 2032, because local governmental leaders in both Oconee and Clarke counties are opposed. His House District 121 includes parts of both counties.
He said he voted in favor of House Bill 1001, which accelerates an already planned cut to the state’s income tax rate, saying “It's the only tax bill that I've seen out there that actually is paid for.”
Gisler said he voted against House Bill 1023, which mandates that every public school building install weapons detection systems at main entry points by July 2027.
School systems already have the ability to install these systems, Gisler said, and the bill does not include money to pay for the detectors, making it a very costly unfunded mandate on local school systems.
Gisler said he will support extending the bell-to-bell cell phone ban to high schools when it comes up for a vote. Oconee County Schools already has approved such a ban for next school year.
Gisler summarized what he has learned since his last Town Hall meeting held at the Oconee County Community Center in Oconee Veterans Park on Jan. 10 just before the session began, and he engaged in a back-and-forth on a variety of issues.
Just short of 50 people attended the Town Hall meeting, held at the YWCO on Research Drive in Athens-Clarke County. The meeting started at 3 p.m. and broke up at 4:45.
Property Tax Relief
Gisler said at the beginning of Saturday’s Town Hall meeting that he had expected to vote on House Bill 1116 on Thursday, and when he woke up there were “a bunch of texts on my phone from local leaders in the district in Oconee County and Clarke County universally asking me to vote against this bill because the math just plain doesn't work.”
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| Gisler 2/28/2026 |
The bill, a response to increased property taxes resulting, at least in part, from the growth in assessments, would reduce to zero the amount of property tax that homesteaded property owners pay in 2032.
Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell and Watkinsville Mayor Brian Kemp testified before a subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee about the negative impact the bill as written would on local government.
Oconee County School Superintendent Melissa Butler also issued a statement pointing out the negative impact of the estimated $32 million gap in funding the bill would produce on the county school system.
“I have not heard from a single local leader who's in favor of this,” Gisler said, “so when that comes up, if it's in the current form that it is now, I'll certainly be voting against that.”
In response to a question later in the session, Gisler said “I've kept an open mind. I didn't shoot this thing out of the gate.”
He said after he went over the details of how sales taxes are to be capped and then homeowners are to be assessed for the services now provided by property taxes. “It doesn't make any sense,” he said.
“I'm certainly voting against it,” he said. “Every Democrat I know is voting against it, and it's not a partisan thing. I've had every Republican elected official in Oconee County calling me and telling me to vote against this thing because it's going to devastate their operation.”
“It does require a constitutional Amendment to become law, and to get a Constitutional Amendment through the General Assembly, it has to get a two-thirds vote in the House and the Senate,” Gisler said.
“So they need Democratic votes,” he added, “and they're not going to get them, at least not the way the thing is right now.”
Income Taxes
Gisler said that House Bill 1001 “is an income tax reduction bill, an income tax cut that is...speeding up the income tax (cuts) that are already planned over years. This cuts another 0.2 percent off, and I voted in favor of this bill.”
The rate will drop from 5.19 percent to 4.99 percent, three years ahead of schedule, with passage of the bill.
“Ideally, I would like to see us change the entire tax system,” Gisler said, “and maybe even bring back in a progressive tax scale, but that's not realistic in this session.”
Georgia started the year with a $14.6 billion tax surplus, according to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute analysis of the most recent Georgia Revenues Reserves Report.
“When the state is sitting on that kind of money, some kind of a tax cut is appropriate in the time when people are obviously struggling,” Gisler said.
“So I did vote in favor of that one,” he continued. “It's the only tax bill that I've seen out there that actually is paid for, and it's the only one that I really see getting through both chambers and being signed by the governor.”
“I very much know that most benefits are going to go to the wealthiest people who don’t really need them,” he said.
Metal Detectors
Gisler acknowledged that he “was one of a few people who voted against” House Bill 1023 when it came before the House for action on Feb. 24. The actual vote was 151 to 11, with 8 non votes and 10 excused votes.
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| Gisler 2/28/2026 |
“I've been attacked about that already,” Gisler said. “And the attack is that this bill allows weapons protection systems in schools. That's not what the bill is.”
“These systems are already allowed,” he said. “They're already in place in Fulton, Gwinnet County. You don't have to pass this bill to allow a school system to do this. This bill required them in every public school, not private schools, public schools in the entire state and did not offer any funding for it.”
“We asked that question on the floor, and the answer that we got was, well, schools can use existing funding and existing school safety grants."
“School safety grants are funded at about $50,000, maybe up to about $70,000 per year per school,” he said. “And these systems can cost millions of dollars. So it's an unfunded mandate.”
“To me that’s purely political,” he said. “And that's one of the things that I'm really trying to fight against as much as I can, because this is a school safety bill. It's protecting kids.”
“But if it is putting a mandate out there without the money to make that mandate possible, then it's just a political play, and it's not really accomplishing anything.”
Language Of Legislation
The language of HB 1023 as passed “require(s) local boards of education and other public school governing bodies to utilize weapon detection systems to aid in the prevention of any individual attempting to unlawfully possess or carry a weapon in certain school buildings.”
The bill further states that “Each local board of education and other public school governing body shall utilize one or more weapon detection systems...(at) any permanent building that is owned by or leased to a local board of education or other public school governing body where students are present in accordance with routine school operations and procedures.”
“A weapon detection system shall, at a minimum, be utilized at all main points of entry to such permanent buildings,” it reads.
Oconee County Sheriff James Hale discussed use of these devices when Oconee County Schools began consideration of its School Resource Office Program in September of 2024.
Hale said at the time it was possible to install metal detectors at Oconee County Schools.
“If you’re going to put a metal detector at every door, that metal detector can’t stand there by itself,” he warned. “It takes two people to run metal detectors.”
Those people have to be trained, he said.
“If you give me the money, I’m willing to do it, if I can find the people,” he said.
Surprises So Far
Half way through the Town Hall meeting, a member of the audience asked Gisler “What surprised you that you didn't know going into this?”
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| Gisler 2/28/2026 |
“People have been asking me that since day one,” Gisler responded.
“Early on in the session, I would say that what surprised me was how well everybody seems to get along,” Gisler said. “Republicans, Democrats, I mean, it's fine, shake your hand, cut jokes, whatever, you know, everybody's your best friend.”
“Now, at this point in the session and things are starting to heat up a little bit more, the days are getting longer, and some of the cordialness is starting to wear off a little bit,” he said.
“I think what is surprising is how much bad legislation gets through purely out of fear of political push back outside the chamber,” he said.
“Like the example I gave where Republicans tell me my resolution was a hundred percent right, and, you know, there's no reason to go against it, but they can’t put their name on it because they'll get primaried.”
Gisler had said earlier in the meeting that his first piece of legislation “was a resolution... just reaffirming that it would be against Georgia State law” to turn over to the federal government all of the personal data on voter records.
“I asked for bipartisan sponsorship on that bill before I got any other signatures on it,” he said. “No Republicans came to me to sign on.”
“I talked to a few. I had a couple of conversations on the side with people that seemed pretty reasonable,” he said. “I talked to them individually, and they would tell me individually, there's nothing wrong with this. You're absolutely right about this. I can't sign it.”
“They are afraid of voters, particularly primary voters in the Republican Party,” Gisler said in response to the question half way through the session.
“How much stuff actually gets through because of fear of politics is probably what surprised me,” he said.
Video
The video below, on my Vimeo Channel, is of the entire Town Hall meeting on Feb. 28.
The audio is the room was very poor. When Gisler was using the microphone, there was a noticeable echo.
When he stopped using the microphone, he often let his voice drop, making it difficult to hear him.
Although host Shellby Branch asked people to come to the front of the room and use the microphone to ask their questions, none did so, and picking up questions from the audience was very difficult.
I increased the decibels of the audio in the editing to improve the video as much as possible.
I am sorry the video and audio are not better.
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