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Public comments favor statewide floating homestead exemption; council to vote on opt-out after three hearings
Summary
Interim city manager Diana DeSanto summarized House Bill 581 and the optional FLOST sales-tax process during a Feb. 4 public hearing; several residents and neighboring officials urged council not to opt out and to preserve the homestead exemption and the option for a FLOST referendum.
Diana DeSanto, the city's interim manager, summarized House Bill 581 (2024) and the implementation steps Villa Rica must follow to opt out of the statewide floating homestead exemption or to remain in and possibly pursue the related floating local option sales tax (FLOST).
What HB 581 does: DeSanto explained the bill implements a statewide floating homestead exemption that caps the annual increase in a homesteaded property's taxable value at a rate tied to inflation (the state revenue commissioner will set the inflation measure, expected to be CPI). The exemption freezes increases in taxable value for qualifying homestead properties by offsetting annual taxable-value growth based on the set inflation measure. The law does not apply to debt-service (bond) millage but does apply to maintenance-and-operations ad valorem taxes and to special service districts (including Tax Allocation Districts) where applicable.
FLOST and local choices: HB 581 also authorizes an optional local sales tax (a "floating local option…
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