Stonecrest council votes 3-2 to opt out of stateHB 581 homestead exemption

The Stonecrest City Council voted 3 to 2 on Feb. 24 to opt out of the city'portion of House Bill 581, the statewide "floating" homestead exemption that ties homestead assessment increases to inflation and creates a new countywide sales-tax mechanism intended to offset reduced property-tax revenue.

The vote followed a third public hearing in which Deputy City Manager Michael McCord and financial adviser Ed Wolf presented examples showing that, under the bill as written, a typical Stonecrest homeowner would see only modest near-term savings (about $2 on a $250,000 home in the presenters' example) while the city would give up a degree of local control over exemptions and future tax policy. "Most of your tax bill is not the city''it's the county and the school board," Ed Wolf said during the presentation, noting that Stonecrest's millage is 1.257 mills and that school and county levies account for most of residents' property-tax bills.

Why it matters: Council members and several residents said the modest immediate savings for homeowners did…