Home / Featured Segments / Georgia’s HB581 with Senator Gooch: Property Tax Reform and Local Government Accountability

Georgia’s HB581 with Senator Gooch: Property Tax Reform and Local Government Accountability

  • In Novem­ber Geor­gia had a con­sti­tu­tion­al change on the bal­lot. HB581. The peo­ple of GA have been con­cerned about their prop­er­ty tax and appraisals. The amend­ment 65% vot­ed yes on the con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment. But there is an option for cities, coun­ties and the board of edu­ca­tion to opt out. There are town hall meet­ings all across the state. There is a lot of con­fu­sion around this amend­ment. . 
  • The opt-out came from the House. The lob­by­ist pushed back and tried to kill the bill. They had to pass the bill because it was good for the home­own­ers so the com­pro­mise was to opt-out. The ⅔ school boards are lean­ing in the direc­tion to opt out. Get your tax bill and look how fast these tax bills have gone up. They have kept the mill­age rate the same but what they have done is a back­door tax increase with the appraisal val­ues. Local tax pay­ers are look­ing at the mill­age rates 
  • This bill does not low­er the rev­enue. Keeps the inflat­ed rates not to go above the pre­vi­ous years CPI. if a local school board says they need a 10% increase in rev­enue. 
  • Any coun­ty that cur­rent­ly has an exemp­tion on the book. This bill does noth­ing to the cur­rent exemp­tion. The ben­e­fit will go to the tax­pay­er. This is an addi­tion to the cur­rent options. 
  • FLOST does require that all the cities and coun­ties par­tic­i­pate to get the ben­e­fit. There is a poten­tial to elim­i­nate prop­er­ty tax­es. But does not help the school board. Help to reduce the bur­den of the tax­pay­er to pro­tect 
  • They do not want to take the account­abil­i­ty for the increas­es. It will force them to low­er bud­gets rather than rely­ing on the back­door tax­es. It is time for them to accept the account­abil­i­ty. The increased rev­enue will no longer be based on increased appraisals. It would lim­it the increas­es to the CPI, last year was 8%. They would need to live with­in the 8% increase. 
  • Local tax asses­sors already have the equip­ment to han­dle because they already fig­ure the dif­fer­ent prop­er­ty tax­es for each prop­er­ty with­in the dis­trict. 
  • FLOST, it is not a rev­enue increase, is an off­set, it is a zero net gain for the coun­ty or city. All cit­i­zens pay the tax. We don’t have sales tax on gro­ceries. It is the peo­ple that are spend­ing the mon­ey on the big tick­et items that would pay the lion’s share. 
  • There are nev­er any dis­cus­sions on bud­get cuts. Cut the ones you don’t use. School boards use the ad val­orem tax to main­tain a con­sis­tent rev­enue source rather than a sales tax that would fluc­tu­ate. 
  • The board of regents are look­ing into pro­hibit­ing DEI. The gov­er­nor’s office is look­ing at pro­hibit­ing DEI. 
  • There are state agen­cies that did not come back to work after COVID. The gov­er­nor has done a good job crack­ing down on the work from home employ­ees. 
  • Bud­get hear­ings were can­celed ear­ly in the week. WE have bil­lions that are being returned back to the cit­i­zens. Low­er­ing the income tax rate.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This div height required for enabling the sticky sidebar