Monday, December 16, 2024–9:00 p.m.

-David Crowder, WRGA News-

The Floyd County Board of Education met with State Senator Chuck Hufstetler Monday to talk about the impacts of House Bill 581.

Under the law, assessments on homesteaded properties cannot rise greater than the rate of inflation.  New homes and sold properties can increase at more than the rate of inflation. It also establishes automatic homestead tax exemptions for school system levies across the state, but it gives taxing authorities the option to opt-out.

Board members expressed concerns about the impact of the law on the ability to fund education.

“Finance 101 is when you decrease a revenue, we have to offset that,” said board member Tony Daniel. “As expenses go up and revenue comes down the only way we can do that is to raise a millage rate, and we don’t want to do that. So, these are some of the considerations that this board is looking at to make sure that we create some balance here and do what’s best. It’s all about the students and making sure we can give them the best education we can give them.”

Superintendent Glenn White has previously indicated that he wants Floyd County to opt out because it could cost the school system millions of dollars in the long run.

“I don’t know of any school system that operates solely off of QBE [state] funding,” he said. “In fact, you have to levy five mills to even participate. What I am saying is, if we’re going to provide quality education, we’ve got in invest in it. I understand the taxpayers and we don’t want them to pay more property taxes than needed. This school board rolled back the rate just last year.”

Hufstetler told the board he does have concerns about the “opt-out” option.

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t want an opt-out,” he said. “The House wanted an opt-out, but I thought it should be mandatory for everybody. Floyd County and the City of Rome have been operating on a more stringent cap on homeowner property, and I think we need to look at that.”

Hufstetler admitted it will bring in less revenue, but added when you look at the revenue increases over the past five years, it’s 55.54 percent on all the taxes but with the homesteaded properties, it’s gone up 85.73 percent.

“That’s one of the reasons why there is outrage statewide over property taxes, which is why we looked at it,” he said.