Representatives from the ACCG (Association County Commissioners of Georgia) met at the Calhoun Depot on Monday, July 26, to inform regional politicians about bills that would affect property and sales taxes if passed.
Property tax reform
State Senate Bill 346, which passed on June 1 and will go into effect Jan. 1 of next year, proposes a series of changes regarding the property value appeals process.
Previously, appealing to a board of equalization or submitting a non-binding separate appraisal were the only appeals processes available. The new law keeps the board of equalization in place and introduces two separate appeals processes: one involving a hearing officer, the other invoking a binding separate appraisal.
The hearing officers, in their first year of operation, will only assess appeals of non-residential property valued in excess of $1 million, according to ACCG Legislative Director Clint Mueller.
“This is being implemented on something of a trial basis,” he said. “The bill tests the hearing officer on larger property appeals. The hearing officers will probably be implemented on a larger scale after that.”
Mueller said that the hearing officers will impact county budgets because their $25-per-hour compensation must come out of local funds.
Those who choose to appeal through binding arbitration, the third component of the new appeals process, will obtain a private appraisal of their property which they can submit to their local tax assessors office for approval.
Other property tax reforms included in the bill, said Mueller, include the option for taxpayers to pay property taxes in installments. The bill also details the diversification of payment methods accepted; Mueller said that all forms of payment, including credit cards at the discretion of the county, may be accepted for property taxes.
Another feature of the law, which Mueller said regards foreclosures, short sales and bank sales, adjusts the value of newly sold property.
Where laws currently in place leave foreclosures, short sales and bank sales up to interpretation by the county, the new law states that the most recent sale price of a property determines its value for the year following the sale of the property.
Proposed sales tax
Also discussed during the meeting was House Bill 277, a transportation bill which will, if passed in 2012, raise the state sales tax by 1 percent.
Stephanie Carter, special assistant for policy and projects in the Georgia Department of Transportation, gave an overview of the bill, focusing on its proposed regional sales tax feature.
She said the bill proposes using the estimated $1.5 billion yearly revenue of such a tax to fund both regional and statewide transportation projects. These projects would be split between 12 special regional tax districts, Gordon County being a member of the Northwest Georgia region.
The bill would be put into effect in three stages:
Stage one: Regional transportation roundtables are created with two representatives from each county. These representatives, chosen by their respective mayors, meet and approve investment criteria for transportation projects. The criteria, which is written by the Georgia Department of Transportation Director of Planning, is either approved or amended by the regional roundtables.
Stage two: Roundtable members create a project list for each region which will ultimately determines where the money provided by the sales tax will go. The list is drafted and redrafted, then voted upon by the roundtable committee.
Stage three: Georgia citizens vote on whether or not to approve the sales tax in the 2012 primary.
Carter allowed that in the two years before the bill goes to vote, newly-elected politicians may alter the bill from its current incarnation. But, she said, those changes will most likely be insignificant.
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