Wednesday, October 1, 2024–12:49 p.m.
-David Crowder, WRGA News-
In November, Georgia voters will decide a constitutional amendment that would limit assessment increases on homesteaded property to no more than 3 percent annually, and allow local governments to implement a sales tax of up to one penny to offset a portion of property taxes.
For Rome and Floyd County residents, the sales tax could go from seven to eight cents, but property taxes would be rolled back.
Floyd County Manager Jamie McCord told the Rome-Floyd County Joint Services Committee on Tuesday that he expects the amendment to pass, which means the city and county will have to come up with an agreement as to how revenues from the extra penny would be distributed.
“All of that one percent would be applied to property taxes across the board, homestead or not,” he said. “It would apply to owner-occupied, rental property, and commercial property will be rolled back, whatever the increment of the penny or the full penny would be. The city and the county would have to have an intergovernmental agreement on how that split would be worked out.”
McCord also told the committee, that he would like to see the distribution be slightly different from the current local option sales tax agreement, citing land swaps and operational changes that occurred as part of the LOST agreement. He added that he and Rome City Manager Sammy Rich recently had a good conversation about the funding split.
“We’re not going to make this a total renegotiation of the LOST agreement,” he said. “Our last LOST agreement had some nuances in it with land swaps, the Forum, the police headquarters, bridges, and parking decks. We plan to bring a recommendation to this committee at some point, and hopefully, we will work forward.”
The current LOST split sees Floyd County at 53 percent, the City of Rome at 45.2 percent and Cave Spring at 1.8 percent. Cave Spring would not be eligible to share in a portion of the extra penny tax since it does not have a millage rate.
State Senator Chuck Hufstetler, who sponsored the senate version of House Bill 581, which put the amendment on the November ballot, told the Rome Rotary Club in May that if the local penny tax is implemented, the county tax rate could go down by as much as 41 percent while the city rate could go down by around 82 percent.
“It’s a win-win,” McCord added. “You are going to pay an extra penny, but it will be where everyone contributes to that penny and everyone gets an equal rollback on property taxes, documented by that intergovernmental agreement between the city and county.”
HB 581 also streamlines the valuation and appeals processes.
“It has a lot of other things in it as well, such as if you do not have a floating homestead, you have to add one,” McCord said. “However, the City of Rome and Floyd County already have a floating homestead. So, ours is actually richer than what would be required by the state.”
Individuals 62 years of age or over may obtain a floating inflation-proof county homestead exemption, except for taxes to pay interest on and to retire bonded indebtedness, based on natural increases in the homestead’s value. If the appraised value of the home has increased by more than $10,000, the owner may benefit from this exemption. Income, together with spouse or any other person residing in the house cannot exceed $30,000.