City Approves Brunch Bill, Homestead Exemption Referendums

JOHNS CREEK, GA — The Johns Creek City Council last week pressed ahead with allowing voters to make their choice on two referendums that will be on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Council members voted to allow residents to consider allowing certain establishments to begin serving alcohol by the drink at 11 a.m. on Sundays and imposing homestead exemptions on their city property tax bills.

Senate Bill 17, affectionately called the Brunch Bill, passed the Georgia General Assembly and was signed into law by Gov. Nathan Deal. The legislation allows counties and cities to authorize the sale of alcohol for on-premises consumption at 11 a.m. State law currently allows Sunday sales by the drink to start at 12:30 p.m.

If approved by voters, establishments where at least 50 percent of their annual gross sales are derived from food or room rentals would be allowed to serve booze 90 minutes earlier. The change would not apply grocery and liquor stores. If passed, the City Council would have to amend its alcohol ordinance to accommodate the change.

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The Council also gave the go-ahead for voters to decide on a new homestead exemption that would be applied to the city portion of your overall property tax bill. This referendum stems from six separate bills passed during the 2018 legislative session that would essentially freeze reassessments beginning in 2019.

These new homestead exemptions would be added to the Fulton County School Board portion of your tax bill and the portions for the cities of Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Milton, Mountain Park and Roswell. The city of Sandy Springs already has protections in place for its segment of residents' property tax bills.

The exemptions would freeze homeowners' assessments for purposes of taxation at the 2016 level and allows for increases up to three percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. Homestead exemptions would remain in place as long as homeowners own their homes. The more current assessment would take effect and become the new level after a home is sold. If the referendum is approved in November, the change would go into effect for the 2019 tax bills.

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