House Bill 744

HB744 -https://legiscan.com/GA/text/HB744/id/3161965

A law written just for Walnut Grove by your state leaders, House Bill 744 (HB744). How should you vote? Is it really what it states on the ballot? YOU DECIDE!!!!!! But PLEASE read the bill (link above) and check out what it really means for your city. If you truly care about your property taxes then please read the comments compiled below from people that live in and around Walnut.

In November Walnut Grove Residents will see the following on the ballot:

"( ) YES ( ) NO Shall the Act be approved which provides a homestead exemption from City of Walnut Grove ad valorem taxes for municipal purposes in an amount equal to the amount by which the current year assessed value of a homestead exceeds the adjusted base year assessed value, including any final determination of value on appeal pursuant to Code Section 48-5-311 of the O.C.G.A., as amended, of such homestead?"

Is this an accurate representation of what this bill does (or doesn’t do)?

We at Walnut Grove Citizens Info & Input (WGCII) do not feel so. The original ver similiar bill was House Bill 581 which the City decided to opt OUT of as the application to Walnut Grove Residents would provide little benefit to the residents and was better designed to work for city’s with more retail/commercial properties.

Three state reps, Bruce Williamson, Rey Martinez and Tim Fleming came back with HB744 as an answer. The three of them sponsored this bill made just for Walnut Grove, which is essentially the same bill as HB581without the ability for a city to opt out plus one or two other revisions that provide less benefit to the city than that of HB581. This bill applies ONLY to Walnut Grove, GA.

We feel this bill could actually interfere with our local leaders ability to provide future exemptions and tax roll backs giving them no choice but to circumvent around this bill each year with no clear cut definition of how it helps residents. We know that it came into play just this year when the council was looking at a milage rate reduction for citizens and may have affected how much they reduced taxes due to the uncertainty of what would happen in the vote for this bill.

We at WGCII feel that there are several disadvantages to this bill that override the benefits.

  • If the assessments are not to your liking you will be trying to discuss this with people at a state level versus at a local level.We don’t know about you, but knowing we can reach out to local leaders and actually talk with them and not their ‘administrative team members” seems much better.
  • Having MORE control from higher up seems like more government involvement than wanted or needed. Do we really need MORE state government involvement in what we can do locally?
  • Values will be tied to inflation and tables that are not local to Walnut Grove or even necessarily the state of Georgia.
  • It will NOT prevent the taxes from changing or being increased. Local leaders can still increase your taxes, and may be forced to do just that in future years.
  • If the county happens to adjust values without the this bill in place it will be much easier for the City leaders to do roll backs, or even more, as they did this year, in order to keep your "out of pocket" under better control.
  • This bill WILL NOT be something that has an immediate effect and the effect is "unknown".

 

We are also a bit curious as to if this bill will help Rep. Bruce Williamson since he owns a number of rental properties in our city. We can see no reason to have this bill pushed down our throats other than one of a political nature. We doubt seriously that ANY of the state representatives that voted in favor of putting this bill in place even read it or talked to local people about it before pushng it through. We have had people attempt to discuss this bill with two of those that sponsored it. Bruce Williamson provided no good reason for why we should have it and Rey Martinez did not even seem to understand what the bill was about. And now we hear that Tim Fleming is running for Secretary of State. Was this bill just a political move to use to get elected (or re-elected) or is it good for Walnut Grove?

We think the local leaders of Walnut Grove have been doing a good job overall and would like to see that their hands don’t get tied.

If you have questions about the bill or comments, please share them on the Walnut Grove Citizens Facebook page on the link to the original posting. Let’s get a dialogue going to find out what everyone thinks about having a state bill dictate what can be done with your property values versus allowing local leaders to work with locals to make those decisions. If you don’t have facebook and wish to send in a comment, please use the email and we will see that your comments get shared.

 

 

Feel free to share your comments with us. We will post them if you wish, either with a name or anonymously. Just email us