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
Dalton City Council member Charlie Bethel considers some of the problems with a tax assessment “freeze” in this article for the Georgia Public Policy Foundation.
Columbus, GA has had an assessment freeze in place longer than just about any Georgia community. Apparently, the middle-Georgia city has become the poster child for unfairness in property taxation:
Consider Columbus property owners, who have had an assessment "freeze" on homestead property for more than 25 years. More than 16,000 property owners pay less than $50 in local government property taxes, while newer residents in similar properties may pay upwards of $2,000. That means families who were not fortunate enough to acquire a home in the early 1980s are now subsidizing the property tax payments of those that did.
Talk Gwinnett! – Property Tax Relief for Whom?
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