Grovetown residents expressed support for the city opting out of Bill 581’s homestead exemption, Tuesday afternoon, at the city council’s third and final public hearing on the Georgia legislation.
Early in the meeting, finance director Bradley Smith echoed information disseminated in the previous hearings, such as that Grovetown’s opting out would not affect any exemptions homeowners currently have, and that the city has not decided yet on whether to opt out, having examined and considered the new law for some two months.
Smith also noted that if the three levying authorities in the county—the cities of Grovetown and Harlem and the Columbia County government—all decided not to opt out of Bill 581, they could seek via a referendum a floating local-option sales tax (FLOST), a penny or half-penny tax to mitigate the resulting loss in revenues.
City council could also opt to raise the millage rate—which the city has rolled back three times in the past five years—or reduce city services, to counter the decrease in revenue due to the homestead exemption.
MORE: Columbia County Schools opt out of House Bill 581 in 3-2 vote
“If we happen to reduce our millage rate based off the amount of collections, the City of Grovetown still doesn’t collect any more than they collected previously, they collect less, just like as if the FLOST wasn’t implemented,” said Smith. “So I still think in the long run, based on the math we’re looking at, we still see needed increases in the military, or being able to identify additional funding sources, or still looking at a reduction in force or reduction in services.”
Resident Bradley Roemer spoke in favor of the city opting out of the exemption, calling a potential FLOST as “inherently regressive.”
“If you’ve got two families of four, they’ve got basically roughly the same basic day to day expenditures… that family of four with a gross income of $40,000 a year, that extra 1% sales tax is a much bigger portion of their disposable income than it is for a comparable family making $100,000 a year,” said Roemer. “I think it is unethical to give people who are at least well off enough to be able to own a home property tax relief on the backs of people who likely don’t. That’s not a fair tax especially when you already have mechanisms to be able to provide property tax relief.”
Homeowner Carla Harrison echoed this sentiment, saying “it’s a good thing” for the city to opt out, alluding to difficulties as a landlord to maintain affordable rents.
MORE: Augusta holds second hearing on opting out of House Bill 581
“I’m trying to figure out the whole rental thing and keep them under control,” Harrison said. “Because we do have the military community that has government paycheck… and we’ve got just the regular citizens who maybe are here in the middle of all that, and then we get the lower income folks, and everybody needs a house.”
Local governments and school districts that elect to opt out of Bill 581 must submit their decision to the Secretary of State by March 1. As Grovetown has already held its city council meeting for the month, the council would have to hold a special called meeting to publicly make its decision. This meeting could not be legally advertised as a public hearing.
The city will soon announce the date of the special called meeting, Smith said.
Skyler Andrews is a reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
