(The Center Square) – A bill that would give Georgia governments until May 1 to opt out of a homestead exemption passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday.
House Bill 581 freezes property assessments at the rate of inflation. The General Assembly passed the bill last year, and 63% of Georgia voters approved it in November.
But several entities are taking advantage of an provision that allows them to opt-out if they hold three public hearings by March 1.
House Bill 92 extends that deadline to May 1.
“There are a number of new commissioners and there are a number of new school board members and I think there was some thought that if there was a little more time and maybe not as much of a rush to the opt-in period March 1 that maybe some more questions could get answered,” said Rep. Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, the bill’s prime sponsor and the committee’s chairman. “This is an attempt to move quickly and maybe give our communities and levying authorities a little bit more time to analyze it and come up and make a really good decision on saving our homeowners and taxpayers some much needed dollars.”
The bill passed the committee unanimously.
Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, told The Center Square last week that lawmakers are looking at local legislation to make the assessment freeze mandatory. Rather than introducing a bill that would mandate the tax break statewide, it will be a trend among lawmakers to introduce bills specific to their counties where entities are opting out of the requirement.
