The City of Decatur’s primary interest during the 2016 Georgia General Assembly session is to support the passage of homestead exemption legislation amending and creating tax relief for our resident homeowners, particularly for seniors. Mayor Patti Garrett said, “Property tax relief for long-time residents who have been a part of our community for many years is our top priority, and we are focused on getting homestead exemption legislation passed this session.”
School Board Chair Annie Caiola said, “Over the past decade there have been significant austerity cuts to the State’s education budget, meaning that local residents have had to pay more and more property taxes in order to maintain the strength of our school system. The increasing property taxes are forcing too many seniors out of our community, and it needs to stop. The City Schools of Decatur School Board strongly supports legislation that will exempt our seniors from ad valorem school taxes.”
Proposed homestead exemption legislation would authorize referendums in November, 2016 and, if approved by the voters, would be effective in 2017.
In the 2015 General Assembly HB 663 was adopted by the Georgia House of Representatives that authorized a referendum to annex areas to the east of the existing city limits of Decatur. “We have new City leadership, a new School Superintendent and new Board of Education leadership,” said Mayor Garrett, “and we need to look at a variety of issues, including annexation, so we will not be pursuing adoption of HB 663 by the Georgia Senate during the 2016 session.”
It is anticipated that the City Commission and the Board of Education will revisit annexation later in 2016 to determine what options should be pursued in the future.
This is important legislation for Decatur’s efforts to become a place where people can live for a lifetime. It will help current folks 65+ in making residence in the City affordable, and encourage younger residents to continue to live in Decatur as they age and be part of making it a great place to live. Hopefully we will get more info from our City representatives on how to support the passage of the homestead tax exemption legislation. It is important to know that the City of Decatur cannot do this tax exemption on its own – it has to first go through our State legislature to get approval. And as you can imagine, this is a political process.
Curious, have we done any projections as to how much the tax basis for residents under 65 will have to increase to offset the deficit in funding for our schools? Also, have we thought about doing an income or asset limit on this, so those that still have a large income in this age bracket are helping to pay for taxes in an area where some have a very hard time, financially, doing so?
Don, those are good questions, and I know folks are thinking about them. There will be an info session, sponsored by Elena Parent who is a State Senator for Decatur on Saturday, 2/13/16 at 1 PM at Decatur City Hall. Senator Parent is sponsoring the legislation for this City Schools of Decatur legislation – it is a process and they are considering sunset clauses, etc. You can also contact the City Schools of Decatur as I believe they have crunched some numbers about the impact of the exemption on all Decatur residents.
Those are good questions. You can get some answers by going to an info session sponsored by Elena Parent, our State Senator on Sat. 2/13 at 1 PM at Decatur City Hall. You can call her office as well. I know they are considering a sunset clause for the tax exemption and other concerns. You can also contact the City Schools of Decatur as I believe they have crunched the numbers regarding as to how this exemption effects all Decatur citizens.