Governor Sonny Perdue joins the ranks of the numerous elected officials who have no clue about what is wrong with Georgia’s property tax system, or how to fix it. We have written to excess about assessment caps; check out the archives:
Legislation Gov. Sonny Perdue signed into law on Wednesday makes sure of that. House Bill 233, sponsored by Rep. Ed Lindsey (R-Atlanta), prevents local governments from increasing the assessments used to calculate property taxes for three years, ending with the 2012 tax year.
New law freezes property assessment hikes | Gold Dome Live
Democrat Senators Tim Golden (D-Valdosta) and Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna) have co-authored an editorial highlighting the foundational problem with HB-233, Rep. Edward Lindsey’s assessment cap legislation that passed the Senate yesterday and is headed for the Governor’s desk:
We do need to deal with rising property taxes in a responsible way. State government has actually been a big part of the problem – especially when it comes to shifting the burden to the local level. By handcuffing local governments through drastic funding cuts and unfunded mandates, the state has practically guaranteed that property taxes will go up, and go up they have.
We have railed against this harmful legislation for weeks, but our reasoned analysis fell on deaf ears. Although the two Senators failed to offer the only workable solution to the problems with Georgia’s tax code, they recognized that the State Legislature, with what “solution” it offers, usually just compounds the problem.
Erick at Peach Pundit questions just how committed to `tax relief` the two Democrats are. Neither Senator even voted when the time to oppose HB-233 came.
Valdosta Daily Times – Passing the buck to local governments is not ‘tax relief’
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