When appraised property tax values skyrocketed in 2017, I led the effort to correct erroneous assessments, get them reset and ensure homeowners would have future protections in place so that a large jump in appraised value would not also mean a large property tax increase. During this time, I was challenged and questioned by many local officials and even found myself as the lead witness for the County in a case filed by the Georgia Department of Revenue.

It was a fight worth fighting, and the wins in those battles have paid off for homeowners in the long term. In addition to wins in court, a key win for homeowners was garnering the support of key North Fulton state legislators to force referendums to enact floating homestead provisions (similar to the one Fulton County Government has in place) for all North Fulton cities and the Fulton County School System. The referendums approved in 2018 generally cap the amount homeowner's taxable assessed value could grow at 3 percent. You see the benefit to homeowners when you compare neighboring jurisdictions. 

Local governments, counties and school boards frequently hold their millage rates flat year over year. For example, the city of Sandy Springs has never reduced their millage rate and the city of Milton has only done it twice in their history. If your home is reassessed, a flat millage rate doesn’t prevent your tax bill from increasing. Georgia law requires municipalities to calculate a rollback millage rate that results in the same revenue for the current year that the previous year’s millage rate would have produced had no reassessments occurred. 

If the taxing jurisdiction does not adopt the rollback millage rate, Georgia state law defines that as a tax increase. Using those definitions as a proxy and comparing some local north Fulton taxing jurisdictions to neighboring jurisdictions, you can see the benefit of floating homestead exemptions in the face of what has been a time of skyrocketing property values.