If you want to know about effective property tax reform, don’t ask a politician. Check with a professional:
“Every state that has implemented this — California, Colorado, and Florida — has ended up with higher property taxes,” he said. “The perception behind this is crazy. Tax bills are dictated by budgets. You start freezing values and only updating recent sells or new construction and rates will go up.”
Dobbs said especially in a year when the state is cutting back allocations to counties for road paving, the idea of freezing values was poorly thought out. He said they are virtually guaranteeing that local government will be forced to raise tax rates to cover the loss from frozen values and fewer state grants.
Pickens County Progress – Pickens Chief Tax Appraiser predicts confusion and frustration with property tax value freeze
House Republicans will try once again to pass HR1, a resolution calling for a vote on a constitutional amendment to impose a permanent, statewide assessment cap. I sent the following to every member of the House by email:
House Democrats– please continue to resist efforts to pass HR1, now incorporated into SR1.
On this issue (statewide assessment cap), YOU ARE RIGHT and the REPUBLICANS ARE WRONG. The harm that this bill will cause is measurable and easily proven.
By resisting SR1/HR1, you will give Georgians REAL TAX RELIEF because you will have protected them from HIGHER TAX RATES caused by ignorant, POLITICALLY-MOTIVATED REPUBLICANS.
I am a conservative, but I am also intellectually honest. I am disgusted by Republicans’ refusal to understand this issue.
Please visit MillageRate.com/blog/ for more info. If you have any questions, you are welcome to contact me at 770-713-8070. Further, I am available to respond on your behalf to any effort by Republicans to use this vote against you.
It takes a two-thirds majority to call a referendum. That means Democrats would have to vote for it. They didn’t. Now the legislation is back. The House Rules Committee pasted it into Senate Resolution 1, state Sen. Chip Rogers repeated effort to get some sort of TABOR amendment into the state constitution.
Georgia Legislative Watch » HR 1 back from the dead
The following was sent to members of the Georgia State Senate this morning as they prepare to consider HB-233 this week:
DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER….
… if you are a Republican who is a “team player,” whether or not “the team” is RIGHT OR WRONG…
… if you will not vote your conscience (or your intelligence) because it might cost you that plum committee appointment…
… if you really DON’T CARE whether or not the legislation you support actually DOES what it is supposed to do, or might even cause MORE HARM than good…
… if you have NO CLUE and do not care to know THE TRUTH about HB-233.
Read more…
The following was written in response to Senator Chip Rogers’ 2/13/09 article for the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, “Count on Tax Assessment Caps to Offer Property Owners Accountability:”
Senator Rogers is wrong when he writes that assessment caps are the best way to impose accountability on local officials.
First, there can be no real accountability resulting from an assessment cap because of the primary flaw in the tax law– a City Council, County Commission or School Board can currently adopt any millage rate that it chooses. There is no law that requires them to adopt a tax rate that has any connection to the cost of government. As a consequence, many adopt a tax rate that takes more from property owners than is required to fund government services. And the overtaxation happens even when the millage rate remains the same from year to year. Read more…
Tags: assessment cap, assessment freeze, back door tax increase, chip rogers, georgia property taxes, georgia public policy foundation, government accountability, HB-233, house bill 233, HR-1, millage rate
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