Amendment 3: Georgia Next Generation 9-1-1 Fund

What a vote means

A yes vote

The General Assembly may create a 9-1-1 fund, dedicate revenue to it, and spend it on nothing else; any other appropriation from it is void.

The state's own words: A yes vote would amend the state constitution to allow the state legislature to create and dedicate revenue to a fund titled the Georgia Next Generation 9-1-1 Fund.

A no vote

No 9-1-1 fund is authorised in the constitution, and dedicating revenue for it stays subject to the existing limits.

The state's own words: The state constitution stays as it is now.

In full

This is a lockbox amendment. Georgia's constitution restricts how far the General Assembly may dedicate revenue to a particular purpose, and this would carve out one more exception: a Georgia Next Generation 9-1-1 Fund, built from revenues the Legislature designates, spent on nothing but 9-1-1 ^[1]. Three clauses give it teeth. The money may be used “exclusively … for the expansion, maintenance, and operation of 9-1-1 systems throughout the state, including the transition to Next Generation 9-1-1”. Anything else is void: “Any other appropriation from the Georgia Next Generation 9-1-1 Fund shall be void.” And the balance does not expire or count against the constitution's dedication limits: contributions and revenues “shall not lapse and shall not be subject to the limitations of subparagraph (a) of this Paragraph or of Article VII, Section III, Paragraph II” ^[1]. What the amendment does not do is raise money. It authorises the General Assembly to create the fund and to dedicate revenue to it by general law — the ballot question speaks of “certain existing revenues, including revenues reallocated by law”. The amendment names no source, no rate and no amount ^[1].

On the ballot

The question as it is printed, word for word.

Amendment 3. Short caption: “Authorizes creation of Georgia Next Generation 9-1-1 Fund for 9-1-1 systems expansion, maintenance, and operation.” Question: “Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to authorize the General Assembly to dedicate certain existing revenues, including revenues reallocated by law, to a nonlapsing fund to be used exclusively for the expansion, maintenance, and operation of emergency 9-1-1 systems in this state?” [1][2]

What it would change

• Amends Article III, Section IX of the Georgia Constitution “in Paragraph VI by adding a new subparagraph” — a new subparagraph (s) in the legislative article's paragraph on appropriations for specific sums ^[1]
• The authority: “The General Assembly is authorized to provide by general law for the creation of the Georgia Next Generation 9-1-1 Fund” — so the fund does not exist on ratification; a statute must create it ^[1]
• The funding mechanism: “The General Assembly may provide by general law for the dedication and deposit of revenues raised from specified sources for the purposes of the fund into the fund” ^[1]
• The spending limit: “Moneys in the fund shall be exclusively used for the expansion, maintenance, and operation of 9-1-1 systems throughout the state, including the transition to Next Generation 9-1-1, as such term may be defined by the General Assembly, and all expenses related thereto” ^[1]
• A definition left open: “Next Generation 9-1-1” means whatever the General Assembly says it means — “as such term may be defined by the General Assembly” ^[1]
• The enforcement clause, and the sharpest sentence in the amendment: “Any other appropriation from the Georgia Next Generation 9-1-1 Fund shall be void” ^[1]
• No sweep at year end: “Contributions and revenues deposited to the fund shall not lapse” ^[1]
• And an exemption from the constitution's own dedication limits: the fund's money “shall not be subject to the limitations of subparagraph (a) of this Paragraph or of Article VII, Section III, Paragraph II” — two restrictions on dedicating revenue whose texts were not read for this profile ^[1]
• The amendment raises nothing by itself. The ballot question's phrase is “certain existing revenues, including revenues reallocated by law”, and neither the question nor the amendment names a source, a rate or a sum ^[1]
• The official summary names the exact edit: the proposal “amends Article III, Section IX, Paragraph VI of the Georgia Constitution, relating to appropriations to be for specific sums, by adding a new subparagraph (s)” ^[1]

When it would start

• Nothing happens immediately: the amendment authorises the General Assembly to create the fund by general law, so a statute must follow before a dollar moves ^[1]
• No effective-date clause appears in the resolution; its second section covers only publication and submission “as provided in Article X, Section I, Paragraph II of the Constitution” ^[1]
• On ratification it becomes constitutional text: “If such amendment shall be ratified as provided in said Paragraph of the Constitution, it shall become a part of the Constitution of this state” ^[1]
• No implementing legislation was found, and whether any is drafted and waiting was not established in any source read here

If it passes

• The constitution authorises the General Assembly to create a Georgia Next Generation 9-1-1 Fund by general law, to dedicate revenues from specified sources into it, and to spend it only on the expansion, maintenance and operation of 9-1-1 systems — with any other appropriation void, the balance never lapsing, and the money exempt from the constitution's dedication limits ^[1]

If it fails

• No 9-1-1 fund is authorised in the constitution, and any dedication of revenue for 9-1-1 remains subject to the existing constitutional limits on dedicating revenue ^[1]

What it would cost

• No fiscal note was read for this research: Georgia's legislative site could not be reached (see what we could not find) ^[1]
• Georgia prints no fiscal estimate on the ballot, and the joint official summary carries no figure ^[1][2]
• The amendment's fiscal character is a fence rather than a tax: it does not raise revenue, and the ballot question describes the money as “certain existing revenues, including revenues reallocated by law” — money already being collected ^[1]
• “Reallocated by law” is the phrase a reader should weigh: revenue dedicated to the fund is revenue no longer available for anything else, and the amendment makes that dedication permanent by exempting it from the lapse rule and from the constitution's dedication limits ^[1]
• No estimate of how much revenue would be dedicated, from which source, or of what it would cost the general fund was found in any source read here
• No estimate of the cost of Georgia's transition to Next Generation 9-1-1 was located

How it got on the ballot

• A legislative referral, by House Resolution No. 1243, published at Ga. L. 2026, p. 1109 ^[1][2]
• The resolution's own title: “Proposing an amendment to the Constitution so as to authorize creation of the Georgia Next Generation 9-1-1 Fund; to provide for submission of this amendment for ratification or rejection; and for other purposes” ^[1]
• Adopted in the standard form: “BE IT RESOLVED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA” ^[1]
• The General Assembly wrote the ballot question itself into the resolution, including the words “certain existing revenues, including revenues reallocated by law” ^[1]
• The subparagraph letter is itself a record of how often Georgia does this: the new clause is (s), the nineteenth in a paragraph of dedicated-fund exceptions ^[1]
• No sponsor, committee history or roll call was located: the Georgia General Assembly's legislation service could not be read in this pass (see what we could not find)
• Georgia publishes proposed amendments in an unusual way, and the booklet describes it: “As required by the Constitution, these proposed amendments in their entirety are on file in the office of the judge of the probate court in each county and are available for public inspection” ^[1]
• The summaries are official and jointly authored: “prepared by Attorney General Christopher Carr, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and Legislative Counsel Betsy Howerton and published in the newspaper which is each county's official legal organ” ^[1]
• The short caption that appears above each question on the ballot is not the sponsors' wording either: the captions are “those adopted by the Constitutional Amendments Publication Board” ^[1]

What came before

• Georgia's constitution is unusual in requiring a vote of the people to fence revenue off for a purpose: that is why the paragraph being amended is a list of lettered exceptions, and why this one arrives as subparagraph (s) ^[1]
• The two limitations the fund would escape — subparagraph (a) of the same Paragraph, and Article VII, Section III, Paragraph II — are the general brakes on dedicating revenue. Their texts were not read for this profile, so what is being switched off is named above but not quantified ^[1]
• “Next Generation 9-1-1” is the industry term for replacing analogue emergency call routing with an internet-protocol network able to carry text, images and location data. The amendment does not define it, leaving that to the General Assembly ^[1]
• This is one of three amendments on Georgia's 2026 ballot, and one of two from the 2026 session ^[1][2]

Who is paying for the campaign

Totals reported by committees formed for this measure. They are not the final figures, and a committee that campaigns on more than one measure is counted on each.

Georgia committees supporting or opposing a ballot question report to the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission. No filing was read for this research, so no committee is named and no total is given — that means no figure was read, not that no money is being spent. See what we could not find.

What each side says

Other people's words and claims, not ours, each with the page it came from. Where we found no organised campaign on a side, the page says so rather than inventing one.

Questions worth asking

• The fund would hold “existing revenues, including revenues reallocated by law”. Reallocated from what? Whatever those dollars pay for now would lose them.
• The amendment names no source, no rate and no amount. What is the General Assembly planning to put in, and when would a bill say so?
• The money would be exempt from the constitution's limits on dedicating revenue, and would never lapse. What is the case for taking it outside the brakes that apply to everything else?
• “Next Generation 9-1-1” is to be defined by the General Assembly. Could that definition widen over time to cover things a voter would not call 9-1-1?
• “Any other appropriation … shall be void” is a strong clause. Who enforces it — a court, on whose suit?
• Georgia's 9-1-1 systems are run by counties and cities. Would the fund pay them, and on what formula?
• What does Georgia's Next Generation 9-1-1 transition cost? No official estimate was found for this profile.
• The new clause is subparagraph (s), the nineteenth exception in this paragraph. At what point does a constitution of fenced-off funds stop being a budget the Legislature can balance?
• Who is campaigning for or against? Georgia's committee filings were not read for this research.

What we could not find

• The Georgia Secretary of State's website returned a bot-protection refusal (HTTP 403) on every attempt in this pass, and the Georgia General Assembly's legislation API requires a signed key that its own web application computes. Neither block was worked around. So the resolution's sponsors, its committee history, its roll calls in the House and Senate, and any fiscal note are not reported here.
• Article X, Section I, Paragraph II of the Georgia Constitution — the paragraph the resolution points to for how an amendment is submitted and ratified — was not read, so the majority or supermajority required to ratify, and the legislative threshold the resolution had to clear, are not stated above.
• No campaign finance filing was read, so no committee is named and no total is given, for or against.
• Georgia publishes no argument for or against a proposed amendment: the official material is the resolution's text and the joint summary by the Attorney General, the Secretary of State and Legislative Counsel, all of which is descriptive. So neither side's case can be printed from an official source.
• The official material was read from a county election office's published booklet and sample ballot rather than from the Secretary of State directly, because of the refusal above. The booklet states that the amendments in their entirety are on file with each county's probate judge for public inspection.
• Subparagraph (a) of Article III, Section IX, Paragraph VI, and Article VII, Section III, Paragraph II — the two constitutional limitations the fund would be exempt from — were not read. What exactly is being switched off is therefore named above but not described.
• No fiscal note for House Resolution 1243 was found, and no official figure for the revenue that would be dedicated, its source, or the cost of Georgia's Next Generation 9-1-1 transition was located.
• Whether implementing legislation creating the fund has been drafted or enacted was not established.
• How the fund would reach the county and city authorities that actually operate 9-1-1 systems, and on what formula, was not established: the amendment is silent and no statute was read.
• Georgia's existing 9-1-1 charges on telephone and wireless service, and where that money goes today, were not read, so nothing above establishes what would be “reallocated”.

Sources