ATLANTA (AP) — Georgians voted in November to limit how much of a home's increasing value can be taxed, but many school districts across the state are opting out of the cap, meaning homeowners may not benefit.
A survey by the Georgia School Superintendents Association finds half or more of Georgia's 180 school districts have started the legal process to get out from under the law's limits.
The 6,000-student Carrollton district was the first to exit. Superintendent Mark Albertus said the city school system would have lost more than $4 million in tax revenue over the previous six years if assessed values had been limited to the rate of inflation.
“School district revenues will decrease significantly over time because of this cap,” Albertus said in a statement.
Some state lawmakers are threatening to introduce legislation to force their local governments to comply if they use the escape hatch the law provided. And taxpayers are appearing to object at some of the required public hearings before a school district can opt out.
Mike Goff of Lilburn told the Gwinnett County school board in a Jan. 16 hearing that property taxes on his home have more than doubled in three years and neighbors he talked to are equally against opting out.
“Not one single neighbor was thrilled with what we’re doing here," Goff said. "Not one single neighbor said ‘Let’s opt out and let us double our taxes every three years.’ Not a one of them was interested in that.”
Officials in Gwinnett County, Georgia's largest school district with 183,000 students, forecast that the cap could decrease tax revenue by $35 million a year.
Georgia was one of eight states where voters voted on property tax measures in November, a sign of how rising tax bills are influencing politics nationwide.
Nearly 63% of Georgia voters supported a state constitutional amendment that would limit increases in a home’s value for property tax purposes to the broader rate of inflation each year.
The measure came after lawmakers fielded complaints about rising property tax bills. From 2018 to 2023, the total assessed value of property across Georgia rose by nearly 61%, according to figures from the Georgia Department of Revenue. Most governments pocketed increased revenues even as they lowered tax rates, boosting employee pay and other spending. Statewide property tax collections rose 44% from 2018 to 2023.
But school leaders were alarmed that revenues wouldn’t keep up with future expenses. Needing votes from lawmakers sympathetic to school concerns to reach the two-thirds majority needed for a constitutional amendment, leaders in the House and Senate granted cities, counties, and school districts a one-time chance to exit the cap that must be completed by March 1.
But lawmakers who represent some districts that are considering opting out say they will pass local legislation to place them back under the cap. Such a move would require a second local vote to make the cap mandatory. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Hufstetler, a Rome Republican who helped lead the writing of the amendment last year, has said he will do so if any of the districts exit the cap.
“My feeling was that in areas like mine, in Floyd County, where over 70% of the voters said they wanted it, that would convince the schools that they needed to do this," said Hufstetler, who published his objections in The Rome News Tribune on Thursday. "That’s not necessarily going to happen, in which case there's going to be a second vote that says it will be mandatory."
The Floyd County school board, in Hufstetler's district, announced Monday that it would remain under the cap. Administrators earlier said the district was considering exiting.
While some cities and counties are considering whether to opt out, school districts appear much more likely to exempt themselves. That’s in part because schools only raise revenue from property taxes and state and federal aid, while cities and counties have other options. The law also gave cities and counties the ability to increase sales taxes by a penny on every $1 of sales to replace property taxes, but did not give school districts that power.