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Augusta-Richmond County hears three options for local floating homestead exemption
Summary
Staff presented three cap options — CPI, housing price index and a flat 3.5% cap — for a local floating homestead exemption after Augusta opted out of House Bill 581; commissioners heard public calls to pause and calls to act, and staff said local documentation must be submitted to the General Assembly by March 24.
Administrator Allen opened a public information session on Augusta’s local homestead exemption process and said the county previously exercised its option to opt out of House Bill 581. “As you all know, Augusta decided to opt out of House Bill 581,” Administrator Allen said.
Chief Appraiser Scott Rountree reviewed three local options staff modeled as alternatives to the statewide floating homestead: an index tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), an index tied to a Housing Price Index (HPI), and a flat annual cap of 3.5 percent. “The indexes that we looked at for our floating homestead version locally were the consumer price index, a housing price index, and we also looked at some flat annual rates,” Rountree said. He summarized staff’s historical modeling: over about 30 years CPI averaged roughly 2.5 percent, the local HPI averaged about 3.36 percent (4.6 percent nationwide), and a flat 3.5 percent cap produced the least…
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