With a runup in home values sparking higher property taxes for many Georgia homeowners, there is a groundswell among state lawmakers in this election year to provide relief.
Georgia’s Senate Finance Committee plans a hearing on Monday on a bill limiting increases in a home’s value, as assessed for property tax purposes, to 3% per year. The limit would last as long as the owner maintained a homestead exemption. Voters would have to approve the plan in a November referendum.
Meanwhile, Republican House Speaker Jon Burns of Newington proposes doubling the state’s homestead tax exemption, a measure likely to cut tax bills by nearly $100 million statewide.
From the article
Oh, okay, so them owning a significantly more valuable piece of property to pass down to their kids is okay if they aren’t planning on selling it. And, I mean, if they decide to sell it anyway, we should be understanding that that wasn’t their plan. They can keep paying that $7.79, so sorry.
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Literally no one? Sorry for thinking that home ownership shouldn’t result in ever-increasing value for ever-reduced tax rates?
You do realize the point of an example given by an appraiser to a state fucking legislature is to demonstrate an issue, right?
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Clearly, you don’t get it. The rest of us are expected to move with the change of property values and the shifting market, but the argument being made here is that the people who are best suited to weather such a change, those with property that they can sell and actually returns value to them, should be insulated from the horrific offense of having to pay [checks notes] a tax of 1% of its value to the government that sustains their community.
Maybe you should redirect this irritation and channel it into lobbying for legislation that would cap rent increases, too, to also insulate the other half of the population from the effects of increased property values? It doesn’t have to be a matter of “It’s bad for me therefore it must be bad for everyone else, too” unless you make it one.
That’s also not viable. Property values aren’t just some abstract that don’t matter. As long as we’re living in a market economy, the idea of “Just implement price freezes!” doesn’t work so long as the increase of valuation is driven by actual value factors and not just greed.
Again, to someone who is not selling their home, there is no “actual value” being increased. It’s not like someone is coming around and saying “Hey, your house is pretty run down… would you like $40k in free renovations? Please note that this will increase your property taxes due to the improvements.” It’s because of supply and demand, and low mortgage rates driving an increase in people buying homes, and the real thing you should be railing against are the habitual landlords buying tons of properties to rent, not the families who own a home that they live in. They are not the problem.
Edit: To add some context to this, there are currently ~28 vacant homes in the US for every homeless person. It’s not a matter of there not being enough homes out there - there would be plenty, if every home was owned by one family. Far more than enough. It’s folks buying up swaths of land to rent out, and price fixing those rentals, that are causing the problems, both for families who can afford to buy homes, and for people who are renting.
Do you not understand how that involves an increase in value?
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Sure, and railing against those property tax rebates is one thing, but as what you quoted says, that’s not the norm. Property taxes are a problem across the country right now, not just in Georgia (as the article notes), and other states are also passing measures to help.
This also is part of a homestead exemption, so it’s not stopping people who own multiple properties from paying higher taxes.
A family owning a home and passing it on to their kids is not a problem, and I’m not sure why you’re framing it as one. It’s also not like it’s just one family’s home that’s rising in value while everything else stagnates; that hypothetical family who chooses to sell is not getting rich from the decision. Either they’re moving to renting, and paying high rental rates, or they’re buying elsewhere and paying the current market value of that property.