Fulton Tax Assessment Protection Bills Pass State Legislature

JOHNS CREEK, GA — The Georgia General Assembly has passed several bills that supporters say would protect North Fulton County homeowners from similar drastic property tax reassessments that rocked the county in 2017.

Senate Bill 317 and House Bills 707, 708, 710, 711 and 712 have all cleared both chambers, and will now move onto to Governor Nathan Deal for his signature or rejection (For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here)

The bills would expand current protections for the Fulton County portion of property tax bills. The bills would also add protections for the Fulton County School Board portion of property tax bills and portions for the cities of Roswell, Johns Creek, Alpharetta, Milton and Mountain Park.

New homestead exemptions in those cities and for the school system would freeze homeowners' tax assessments at the 2016 level. It would allow increases up to 3 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less (the city of Sandy Springs already has this in place). The homestead exemptions would remain in place as long as homeowners own their homes. The more current assessment would take effect and become the new “frozen” level once a home is sold.

“I was proud to work with North Fulton legislators to protect our constituents from unpredictable and unaffordable property tax bills due to reassessments,” said Rep. Jan Jones of Milton. “After working on this since last fall, I was relieved when the bills gained final passage.”

Fulton County residents outside of the city of Atlanta will vote on whether to approve the new homestead exemption for the Fulton County School System tax in a referendum in November. City residents will also vote in referendums at the same time. If approved, the protections would become effective for 2019 tax bills. Because statewide law sets the tax digest for the current tax year for April 1, the homestead exemptions would not take effect for the 2018 tax year.

The measures are a result of a concerted and unified effort by local elected officials and state lawmakers to address 2017 reassessments that would have resulted in large property tax increases. The Fulton County Commission threw out the 2017 figures and froze the assessments at the 2016 level. While the State Department of Revenue later rejected the county's 2017 digest, a judge ruled in November that the county, its cities and Fulton County and Atlanta Public schools could property taxes.

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