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Hall County schedules first public hearing on opting out of statewide adjusted base-year homestead exemption
Summary
County staff will present a first public hearing Thursday on a proposal to opt Hall County out of the statewide adjusted base-year homestead exemption under OCGA 48-5-42(b), a change staff says would reduce administrative burden and reset base-year valuations to 2023 for county homestead properties.
Hall County commissioners on Monday added a first public hearing to Thursday's voting meeting to consider opting the county out of the statewide adjusted base-year ad valorem homestead exemption provided in OCGA 48-5-42(b).
County Administrator Zac Probst told commissioners the hearing will present staff's recommendation and the rationale for the change. "This is a recommendation by staff to the board to opt out of House Bill 581," Probst said, calling it a placeholder item for the voting meeting.
Probst said county staff favors the opt-out because it would streamline administration. "What that does is clean up an administrative burden for the county," he said. He explained that, under the local exemption already in place for Hall County homesteads, parcels would be returned to a 2023 base year, "which wipes out any air market value adjustment that's been realized from 2023 moving forward." Probst said the county's 3% maximum local exemption became effective Jan. 1 and would be reflected on property tax bills released by the tax commissioner's office this fall.
The county will hold the public hearing at the Thursday voting meeting; Probst said he will present a brief PowerPoint before the hearing and that the change is intended to reduce the complexity of administering two separate exemptions in Hall County. Commissioners asked whether the reset would produce refunds for taxes already paid; Probst answered that the values would be reset going forward and characterized the change as a recalculation of the base year rather than an immediate refund.
Because the action at this stage is a public hearing, no final vote was recorded in the work session. The matter will return to the board for a formal vote after the hearing at the Thursday meeting.
