Friday, December 7, 2007
News Taxes: Johnson vs. Richardson
Posted by Scott Henry @ScottTheHenry on Fri, Dec 7, 2007 at 11:36 PM
Sen. Eric Johnson has pitched his own plan for reforming property taxes and it's nowhere as extreme as Speaker Glenn Richardson's effort to simply get rid of 'em. Under EJ's plan, your residential assessment would not go up until you sell the property.
As Johnson tells it:
Georgia homeowners have had no protection from ‘backdoor’ tax increases, and their ability to pay is not tied to the tax,†said Sen. Johnson. “This amendment would protect homeowners with a sliding homestead exemption that would, in essence, freeze their property taxes until the home sold.
Some cities and counties already have this scheme in place, including Johnson’s own Chatham County, and it's intended to address the real problem of retirees who can't afford to stay in their rapidly appreciating homes because of skyrocketing property taxes.
The plan works something like this: When you buy a house (or when the law goes into effect, whichever comes first), your assessment is frozen and your annual tax bill never increases for as long as you live there. However, when the property is sold (or inherited), the assessment is adjusted to fit the current value and all of the taxes that went uncollected while you owned the property is skimmed off the top of the sales price by the county tax collector.
The only downside for the homeowner is that he has to pay several years' worth of taxes in one huge chunk. But hey -- pay now or pay later, there are no free rides.
The adjustment may be rougher for the city or county, which presumably will see its tax revenues fall for the first few years of the program.
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