Columbia County held its fourth and final public hearing regarding House Bill 581 on Tuesday, Feb. 18.
County Manager Scott Johnson reiterated a lot of what he said in the first three public hearings, including that there are three pieces to the law: the floating homestead exemption, the optional sales tax and property tax reforms.
The optional sales tax can only be used if the entity opts in to House Bill 581 but must be voted on by citizens in November. All the funds from that sales tax must be used to offset property taxes. However, Johnson informed commissioners that all entities, so the county and two cities, must opt in to be eligible for the optional sales tax. It was also stated that if the county opts in, they are in for 50 years and cannot get out of it.
Johnson brought up the Transportation Special Purpose Localized Optional Sales Tax (TSPLOT). He said that when it first came before voters years ago, it was a regional TSPLOST and Columbia County’s region voted in favor of it, even though the county didn’t. This means that while the county has benefited from it, it is also a donor county and gives away money.
Johnson said a few years later, other counties were able to get the legislative delegation to allow for single county TSPLOST. Columbia County asked if they could do that, so the funds stayed in the county, and was told no.
MORE: RCBOE make decision to opt out of House Bill 581
“I don’t know what’s going to come down the pipe in the next year or the next year and/or this board has the ability, I know there has been a lot of discussion about you enacting your own homestead exemption in Columbia County that is controlled by the local government instead of the state government,” Johnson said.
District 1 Commissioner Connie Melear asked about bills that are currently being discussed in the legislature that would affect House Bill 581. Johnson mentioned two, House Bill 92 and House Bill 370.
“House Bill 92 got a hearing today (Feb. 18),” Johnson said. “That is a house bill that directly affects House Bill 581, it’s referred to as a clean-up bill. It gives us a little more time to opt in or opt out. There is another house bill floating around right now, House Bill 370. That house bill requires us, if we opt out of this, it requires us to put a notice on your tax bill that said we, I want to get the wording right, essentially what it says is that Columbia County opted out of tax relief for its taxpayers. If you have any questions, we have to put our phone number on there.”
It was also mentioned that by County Chairman Doug Duncan what was voted on in November was House Resolution 1022, which was a page and a half long, not House Bill 581, which is 27 pages long. The resolution stated:
“Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to authorize the General Assembly to provide by general law for a state-wide homestead exemption that serves to limit increases in the assessed value of homesteads, but which any county, consolidated government, municipality, or local school system may opt out of upon the completion of certain procedures?”
MORE: Augusta holds final public hearing, takes no action on HB 581
Following the approval of the resolution, Duncan said the legislature then wrote House Bill 581.
“So, voters gave the general assembly the authority to pass legislation or actually (amend the constitution) to control the growth of property taxes and that’s what became House Bill 581,” Duncan said.
If the county decides to opt out, a called meeting will have to be held before March 1.
The public hearing, along with the others, can be found on the Columbia County, Georgia YouTube page.
Other entities regarding House Bill 581
So far, in Columbia County, the Board of Education is the only entity to take action regarding House Bill 581. On Tuesday, Feb. 11, the board voted 3-2 to opt out of HB 581.
The Grovetown City Council has held its three hearings, but has not announced a decision as of Tuesday, Feb. 18. If the city council decides to opt out, a called meeting would need to be held before March 1.
The Harlem City Council has held two of its three public hearings with the third scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 20 at 6:30 p.m. in the Public Safety Building.
