The Georgia Ballot
The end of the Georgia general election ballot has one constitutional amendment and two questions, the last of which is nonbinding. I am voting yes for all three.
The constitutional amendment is about a homestead exemption. By voting yes, you will agree that local governments should not tie the value of your home to inflation. This will protect you as a homeowner, providing uniformity in property increases, with some exceptions for local governments.
The first of the two questions concerns a statewide tax court. Currently, when the state judiciary has questions about taxes, those questions are referred to the tax collectors in the Executive Branch, who, naturally, want the taxes. Setting up a tax court, particularly as taxes become more complicated, will provide a level of nonpartisan competence from people who understand tax law but who do not benefit from its collection.
The second question and final part of the ballot asks if you agree with a law that raised the personal property tax exemption from $7,500.00 to $20,000.00. I agree with that.
Those are the last three portions of the ballot.
Why, if the Legislature wants to disconnect property value increases from inflation, did they word an
Amendment in such a way that the Amendment can be ignored by any municipality in the state??? This wording renders the Amendment an exercise in futility as there will be no real effort to ensure its enforcement since enforcing it will mean going against their friends in the municipalities whose intent is to ALWAYS increase revenue rather than reducing expenditures. A proper Amendment would freeze ALL non-commercial property values at the last transaction amount. Then those who wish to live in their Homesteads as long as physically possible wouldn't be forced to sell to pay their now exorbitant tax bills.
Here are a couple of articles from the Georgia Public Policy Foundation. The are in favor of the amendment, but the articles provide more information.
https://www.georgiapolicy.org/news/would-amendment-1-bring-property-tax-relief/
https://www.georgiapolicy.org/news/the-implications-of-amendment-1/