MillageRate.com

The following was sent to all Georgia State Senators today in the wake of the failure of SR-796 and House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s attempt to eliminate the car tag tax.

Senators,

Earlier this week, the House failed to approve SR-796, Sen. Chip Rogers’ constitutional amendment to impose a statewide assessment “freeze” and other restrictions on local taxing authority. The resolution became the vehicle for other tax reform efforts including a plan to eliminate the ad valorem tax on automobiles.

The most prevalent argument against SR-796 was its effect on local control of tax revenue generation. The argument is a valid one; SR-796 would have imposed “one size fits all” restrictions that could not address all situations. In many cases, taxing authorities could have been prevented from raising badly-needed funds. Even worse, I can easily illustrate how SR-796 would have ELIMINATED the tax cut– never again would a Georgia property owner’s tax rate DECREASE.

But what if you could achieve the goals of the original SR-796 without affecting local control of revenue generation? What if a simple law (actually, just correcting a deficiency of the current tax law) could eliminate the “back door tax increase” resulting from rising assessments? Even better, what if you could enact a law that would guarantee that, as assessments increase tax bills actually DECREASE, as long as the politicians hold the line on spending?

You would have accomplished all that SR-796 was intended to do, and more!

Even better, what if your law would make local officials completely accountable for their spending? What if a single number could be the taxpayers’ reliable indicator of their elected officials’ ability to manage the cost of government? And what if local politicians could be FORCED to reduce government spending or enact innovative ways to generate NON-TAX revenue?

I invite you to visit www.MillageRate.com which details a GUARANTEED solution to the problems with the property tax system that you attempted to address this session.

This is no harebrained scheme– I simply encourage you to codify the procedure for calculating the property tax millage rate that has been taught by the Department of Revenue to tax commissioners, assessors and appraisers, and Board of Equalization members for decades.

Please do this NOW:

1. Start with the home page at www.millagerate.com. The site is set up in step-by-step order; please read as far as you choose;

2. Be sure to see http://www.millagerate.com/howto.htm which describes the correct way to calculate the millage rate;

3. View a draft bill at http://millagerate.com/law/bill.htm

4. Call me at 770-713-8070 to discuss this legislation. I am a former Board of Equalization Chairman… I was taught by the state how to correct the problems that you attempted to solve with SR-796.  I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this solution with you.

Take care,