SOCIAL CIRCLE, Ga. — The Social Circle Metropolis Council voted unanimously to choose out of Home Invoice 581 on Feb. 18.
The invoice, handed in final yr’s state legislative session — and an related constitutional modification authorised by voters statewide in November — arrange a floating homestead exemption that limits will increase in property valuations to the speed of inflation for the earlier yr, as much as a most of three p.c.
The laws did, nonetheless, embody an opt-out provision for native governments, offered they maintain three public hearings upfront of voting to not take part within the new exemption. The Social Circle Metropolis Council held town’s third public listening to as a part of Tuesday’s council assembly.
Town councils in Loganville and Walnut Grove every voted just lately to choose out of the floating homestead exemption, and the Monroe Metropolis Council was anticipated to take the identical motion at its ultimate listening to on Thursday.
In municipalities throughout the state which have determined to choose out of the floating homestead exemption, a main argument has been that it’ll considerably scale back income from property taxes — a significant funding supply for native governments –thereby compromising cities’ means to adequately fund providers together with police and hearth safety.
Throughout Tuesday’s public listening to in Social Circle, councilmembers discovered from town’s finance director, Toni Jo Howard, that if HB 581 had been in place within the metropolis in the course of the earlier three years, town would have misplaced $703,000 in income.
Additionally previous to their vote, Howard informed the council that opting out of HB 581 would protect native autonomy in setting tax charges.
Throughout the public listening to, the council heard from two opponents of opting out of the floating homestead exemption.
John Miller, a Social Circle resident and enterprise proprietor, identified that opting out would go immediately towards the desires of voters within the metropolis, a majority of whom favored the constitutional modification on the November poll.
Miller argued that, as a substitute of working across the floating homestead exemption, metropolis officers ought to train some budgetary restraint as a method of controlling property taxes within the metropolis.
In a short interview after the assembly, Miller stated he was “disenchanted that town has not listened to the voters’ will on this situation.”
Additionally talking out towards opting out of Home Invoice 581 was metropolis resident Gary Home, who contended that opting out would give town “a blanket” beneath which to regulate tax charges exterior the bounds of a floating homestead exemption.
The council made its vote to choose out with no remark from particular person councilmembers.
Requested after the assembly if he had anticipated pushback from residents on opting out of Home Invoice 581, Mayor David Keener stated that he had not recognized in any respect what to anticipate from the general public listening to.
Pursuant to the provisions of Home Invoice 581, town of Social Circle, like all different native governments – county, municipal and faculty methods – should notify the Georgia Secretary of State’s workplace of its resolution to choose out of the floating homestead exemption by March 1.
