Clarke County board holds first public hearing on House Bill 581 homestead exemption

The Clarke County Board of Education held the first of three required public hearings on House Bill 581 on an evening meeting, receiving a presentation from Chief Financial Officer Chris Greiner and public comment from dozens of residents.

Greiner, the district chief financial officer, told the board that HB 581 creates a statewide "floating homestead exemption" that would limit annual increases in assessed value for homesteaded property to last year’s inflation rate as set by the state revenue commissioner. "Just wanted to kind of do a quick overview of House Bill 581," Greiner said while reviewing updated numbers from the tax commissioner.

The presentation outlined how the policy would affect local revenue. Greiner said property taxes account for roughly 57% of the school system’s general fund revenue and that the FY25 property-tax budget is about $135,000,000 based on an 18.8-mill rate. Using example inflation indexes, the district estimated a revenue decrease of a little over $1,000,000 for 2024 and a cumulative loss of about $7,400,000 over six years under the illustrative scenario. He also noted those figures depend heavily on which inflation index the state uses…