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PAGE 12A -- THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2007
School Board Quiet On
Property Tax Break For Seniors
Larger property tax exemptions
for senior citizens have been dis
cussed in Jackson County for
several years, and last week, Tax
Commissioner Don Elrod showed
some proposed ideas to the Jackson
County Board of Education.
Although the board didn’t take
any action on the ideas, pressure
from both local senior citizens and
state officials calling for property
tax reform has pushed the exemp
tion issue back into the spotlight.
According to Elrod’s data, raising
the exemptions from $20,000 to
$40,000 for those age 65 and older
would cost an additional .25 mills.
Raising it to a $50,000 exemption
would raise the millage rate by .33
mills.
“It’s something that’s been dis
cussed not only in this community,
but in a lot of communities late
ly” said Superintendent Shannon
Adams. “A lot of senior citizens on
fixed incomes question why they
should pay any school tax. If there
were a greater exemption, it might
lessen the burden on some of those
folks. But as Don pointed out, that’s
just a shift to somebody else. It’s a
tax shift, not a tax decrease for the
entire population.”
Rising city, county and school
property tax rates have been con
troversial in recent years and sev
eral high-ranking state officials say
they plan to address the matter in
the upcoming state legislative ses
sion.
Some officials want to abolish
property taxes and replace them
with additional sales taxes. But that
idea has faced major opposition
from many local officials who say it
amounts to a state takeover of local
governments by the state.
— Discussion Focuses On HR 900
Cont. from Page 11A
increase the state sales tax to 6.5
percent (it is now four percent)
and to broaden its application to
include groceries, prescription
medications, personal and pro
fessional services such as medi
cal and dental care, and labor
on everything from auto repairs
to pest control. In exchange for
paying substantially more sales
tax, Georgia residents would no
longer pay ad valorem taxes on
their personal vehicles and the
property on which they reside.
Benton indicated that he’s heard
from every city and county gov
ernment and every school board
in the three counties he repre
sents, and said he’d like to “hear
from someone not connected to
government.”
Hudgens repeatedly pointed
out that the proposal is not a tax
cut, but rather “a tax shift,” of an
estimated $1.7 billion dollars.
Critics of the legislation say that
the shift is away from property
owners — typically the wealthier
taxpayers — and to low and mid
dle income residents who spend
much higher percentages of their
annual income each year, but
Hudgens did not weigh in on that
discussion.
Scott Martin, chairman of the
county’s Industrial Development
Authority, asked Hudgens if he
thought the change would affect
economic development — the
IDA’s objective.
Hudgens said he didn’t know,
but suggested that the original
idea — the elimination of all prop
erty taxes — would have been
more attractive to new compa
nies. He also indicated some sup
port for HR 900.
“There is a mindset out there
that we need equability in the
taxes. We don’t need one class of
people who pay everyone else’s
way. We need to make the tax sys
tem fair, and it is not particularly
fair when you single out property
owners and say you’re going to
have to foot the majority of the
bill,” he said. “So anything we can
do to make it more equitable and
spread it around ... If you can tell
a company that ‘if you bring your
business here your employees
won’t pay any school board tax
es on their personal residences,’
that’s somewhat of an incentive,
but it’s nowhere near the incen-
tive that if you were able to say
“you come here, you won’t pay
any property taxes at all. Georgia
is a property tax-free state.’”
Martin offered the opinion that
the “general public is getting the
impression they’ll be relieved of
some taxes,” when, in fact, the
middle class “will be footing the
bill.”
Martin suggested that if govern
ments cannot expect sufficient
property taxes from new com
panies, they’ll be less inclined to
invest in the infrastructure and
the incentive it typically takes to
land a major industry.
“These are the kinds of things
I think everybody needs to look
like on a county level,” Martin
said . “It’s really going to impact
that, because some of these com
munities, if they can’t benefit
from the economic development,
there are going to be a bunch of
them who are going to say ‘I’m
not interested.’”
Hudgens replied that the origi
nal version of HR 900 has little
chance of passing, and that the
most recent version still leaves
cities and counties able to levy
property taxes.
A couple of people questioned
the accountability of the state in
regard to providing the money
school systems need under the
proposed change.
“The speaker is guaranteeing
(in) his proposal that the school
boards will not suffer a down
turn in their revenue,” Hudgens
replied.
“I think it’s time in the State of
Georgia to look at revenue and
how we extract it from the peo
ple,” Hudgens said. He compared
school spending to a household
budget, saying that the first step
is to determine income, and the
second how to spend it, whereas
school boards determine how
much money they want and set a
tax to cover it.
“That’s kind of a backward pro
cess as far as I’m concerned,”
Hudgens said. “School boards
are going to have to realize it’s
not just a bottomless pit that they
can just keep extracting money
out of.”
“You know how many children
you have in your family too,” in
terjected Kathy Wilbanks, chair
of the Jackson County Board of
Education, to which Hudgens
noted that schools are funded on
a full-time equivalency basis. An
other school official interjected,
“yeah, three years back.”
OTHER ISSUES
In the little time devoted to wa
ter, McCall, who is on the state
committee working on a new
state water plan, said what peo
ple in his district worry about
“is Atlanta taking our water.” He
suggested that the Atlanta area
fix the leaks that cost it 168 mil
lion gallons a day. Other ideas
being floated include a bill to of
fer $100 credits for retrofitting
houses with water-efficient appli
ances.
Bicknell reminded his audi
ence of the current status of the
drought, including the coopera
tion among water suppliers in the
area. He announced that the Up
per Oconee Basin Water Author
ity has asked the Environmental
Protection Division for permis
sion to pump more water out
of the Middle Oconee River to
hasten the recovery of the Bear
Creek Reservoir.
“We felt it was prudent to get
the reservoir filled as quickly as
we can,” he said. Bicknell added
that he is “very confident we’ll
continue to have all the water we
have to have — until next sum
mer,” reminding the audience
that the reservoir has “only a 90
to 120-day supply” of water.
Benton said he is sponsoring
a bill that will allow citizens to
block access to their credit infor
mation so that it can be accessed
only with their permission. Mc
Call said legislation is pending
to allow the sale of raw milk for
human consumption.
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Elm Street, Commerce.
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