Discussion Continues On MCBOE Potential HB581 Opting Out
mrandolphadvance@gmail.com
Citizens addressed the Montgomery County Board of Education about their intent to potentially opt-out of the HB581 Statewide Floating Homestead Exemption during the Board’s second hearing on the matter on Friday, January 17.
House Bill 581 is a bill that was signed into law on April 18, 2024, which created three major components regarding property taxes: a statewide floating homestead exemption, a new local option sales tax, and property tax procedural changes.
Though this bill was signed into law in April, it was contingent on the passage of an amendment to the State Constitution, which was voted on during the November 5 General Election. This amendment stated that the statewide floating homestead exemption would be created, but that local governments – city, county, and board of education – had the ability to opt out of the legislation if they felt the need. Some examples of reasons to opt out which were provided by the Association of Georgia County Commissioners included the existence of a local floating homestead exemption and complications that could arise because of the differences in what makes up the county’s property digest, as the exemption draws county funding from commercial and non-homestead properties. This amendment was passed in the state, as 62.92% of voters agreed to allow the governments to opt out of the law. In Montgomery County, voters followed this approval, as 62.52% of voters authorized the ability for governments to decide whether or not to join the exemption.
The Montgomery County Board of Education discussed the legislation during their meeting last month, where Board Attorney Daniel O’Connor explained that the homestead exemption capped the increase in taxes at the prior year’s inflation rate – a process which he felt could be both beneficial and detrimental to communities throughout the state.“ That’s great if you’re a homeowner that stays in your home a long time, and it probably works well in some urban districts and districts where there’s lots of industry and commercial properties that you can collect taxes from. But it’s something to consider when you’re in Montgomery County, where most of the properties are homeowners,” he explained. “If there is a big exemption – we know the cost of things is not going to go down – there could be harm if we’re locked into this.”
The Board agreed to host the needed public hearings to exempt themselves from the exemption but stated that this decision to hear concerns from the public did not mean that they had already decided on opting out. “This does not mean that we have voted to opt out of the exemption – just that we agree to let the public share their thoughts on it,” Board Member John O’Conner clarified. The district issued a statement that the decision behind their announced intent to opt out is “a concern to maintain local control to ensure sufficient funding to meet the educational needs of the community’s children in the future.”
The Board previously met to hear concerns of the citizens on January 13, where many citizens voiced their disapproval of the Board’s intent, emphasizing that the citizens had voted to put the exemption in place and that the citizens’ will should be followed.
During the second hearing on January 17, Montgomery County Schools Superintendent Ronda Hightower began the forum by explaining why the Board was considering opting out, as she stated that the Board members had looked into the process of crafting a homestead exemption tailored to the needs of Montgomery County and were prepared to move forward with that endeavor. She stated that the Board was worried about the repercussions of the HB581 exemption, as the school would lose state equalization funding and would potentially pay more into the state for the running of the school. She emphasized the school’s commitment to balancing fair taxes with providing a high quality education, keeping the millage rate low, being transparent with the public about spending, and protecting the best practices in education.
Public Concerns
Citizen Mickey Moore returned to the second hearing to share his belief that the exemption should not be opted out. “The voters voted to pass this homestead exemption. The voters’ will I believe should be followed,” he began.
He suggested that the school system allow taxpayers to utilize the exemption, stating that the Board could raise the millage rate to up to 20 mills if needed. “Just be accountable for it if you do raise it, because it also will have to have public hearings,” Moore remarked.
Moore also suggested that the Board look to cut the cost of employee insurance by looking into cheaper options or paying less than 100% of employee premiums. “Most businesses and industries cannot afford to pay 100% of employees’ premiums these days,” he added.
He concluded by emphasizing the need for industry in the county to shift the burden of funding the school off of homeowners. “We need a group of the school board to work with the industrial authority and the county commission to try to get some industry in here. We need to employ our students so that they don’t leave and we need some industry to support our tax base,” Moore told the Board.
Citizen and Montgomery County District 2 Commissioner Amie Vassey built upon her comments from the previous meeting, as she addressed some of the facts which the Board previously shared with the public.
“While I do appreciate your presentation, I do feel like there were some – I don’t want to use the term misrepresented facts – but some partially represented facts that I feel like were in an effort to villainize HB581 without providing all of the facts, such as the inability of the school system to charge an extra penny of SPLOST or half the properties having to be reassessed every 3 years. That’s not as a result of HB581; that’s something that’s already happened. The HB581 is simply maintaining the status quo on those items, as well as some others,” she explained.
Vassey told the Board that the legislation had come as a result of citizen concerns across the state about their increasing property taxes. “This is how government works in our country. The citizens have called their senators, called their state representatives; they’ve been complaining about this for years – it’s nothing new. They answered the call and responded to us and they crafted this bill to answer that call,” she said. “This is what the American system has put in place for us to have leaders to handle our concerns.”
She continued, “I appreciate that the 5 of you felt the need to do your own research and be concerned and ask questions – that’s wonderful. Any elected official should do that. But just remember the brain power that was behind this bill and the citizens that were behind this bill.”
Vassey commented that she felt the Board’s consideration of opting out came from fear of the struggle that the law may bring to the budget. “What about what might go right? What if none of this stuff that you’re concerned about comes to fruition?” she questioned.
She suggested that if the budget was to need more funding with the exemption in place, the Board should raise the millage rate, but be accountable for that increase. She echoed her sentiments that the Board existed not only to act for the students’ benefits, but to represent the citizens of the county.
“Board of Education [members] are elected officials – you are not appointed. If all you had to do was see about the students, your positions would be appointed. The Board of Commissioners would appoint you like they do every other board. But your seats were elected, and that is for a reason because you are here to represent us – the taxpaying citizens of this county. So, you need to represent our voice, not just the students,” she said. “Yes, I don’t believe that you should sacrifice on education at all, but you and I both know that tightening down the purse strings just a little bit is not the equivalent to sacrificing a high level of education. That’s simply not the case.”
She ended by expressing her disappointment that the Board would consider opting out of this law. “The fact that we are even having this conversation is upsetting to me,” Vassey shared.
Citizen K.C. Seabury also returned to the second hearing to share his disapproval of the legislation.
“Opting out being considered seems to be a reaction out of fear – fear of what could be – without knowing the inflation rate, without knowing the budget needs, without knowing what the appraisals are going to be. There’s so many variables involved in this decision that I can appreciate why you would be willing to do this to help ‘protect your future and your funding.’ However, it’s based on things we don’t know – there’s not facts there to nail down,” he began.
Seabury stated that the Board was attempting to “do an experiment at the expense of the taxpayers instead of the risk of the board.”
“I can’t help but wonder why we couldn’t just let the homestead exemption go through, let’s see what happens for the year or two that takes to gather some facts, then based on those facts, let’s make adjustments as appropriate at that time,” he added.
Seabury stated that according to his calculations, his property taxes will go up by $1,419 (52.39%) without the statewide floating homestead exemption and $116 (4.31%) with the exemption. “That’s a huge difference to raise my taxes 52% by the action of this board to void the voice of the people,” he remarked.
He concluded, “This county has a history of excessively taxing the people. Why not allow this experiment that’s going on with this homestead exemption be at the risk of the school instead of at the risk and expense of the taxpayers?”
Another citizen who stated that he retired from a county government also shared a few short remarks on the potential opting out with the Board.
“The people you serve are the people that elected you. As far as I am aware, none of you received a letter that said, ‘Congratulations, citizen! You’ve been appointed to the school board.’ You all had to choose to run, you all had to go out and spend money to run, and had to be elected to your position. Your responsibilities are to us,” he stressed.
He continued, “Having a great education is wonderful, but when everybody has to leave to get a job, it doesn’t seem to do the county much good. Let’s keep it where we can have jobs in this county, we can have a decent education. You don’t work for anybody but the parents of these kids – that’s who you work for. You don’t work for the kids; they don’t pay your salaries. The teachers are just like you: they draw a government pay check. They don’t work for anybody but us. The School Board cannot employ anybody other than the fact that’s where the money runs through. They are our employees. You are our employees. We’ve told continued from page
you what we want. We’re not going to take anything else.”
The citizen concluded, “We have decided that this is what we want to do – it’s not your place to decide that we didn’t know what we were talking about.”
Citizen Phillip Patterson began his commented to the Board by explaining that he was a member of a military family that moved to the county 4 months ago. Patterson said that he and his wife are from Georgia originally, but specifically were drawn to Montgomery County upon searching for a new place to call home.
“We could’ve went anywhere, but we wanted to come home [to Georgia]. We picked this spot because it felt like what we grew up in – it felt small. It felt like somewhere for my daughter to grow up in, to make a family, to meet people, and to have a community – something we haven’t had in 22 years. And I will give you this – you live up to expectation. She’s done really well here, she’s enjoyed her time in this school system, and all those things that matter are the people,” he said.
Patterson continued, commenting on the school’s budget. “We have a lot of stuff on there that’s fluff – things that we’re afraid to lose, things that if we lose them, our kids aren’t going to get the best education and all these things. I’ll tell you in the 8 times that my daughter has moved, her education hasn’t mattered a hill of beans whether or not what you did. It mattered what we did as parents, it mattered our support to her, it mattered us selling something to her to wanting her to make herself want to be better,” he told the board.
As a 3rd generation military member, Patterson said that he had learned that freedom and democracy did not always have positive outcomes, but was important to be upheld. “You have to take the good with the bad. Sometimes, freedom’s good; sometimes, freedom’s not. It just is what it is, but we’re free,” he explained. “What about this sounds free to you? That I have to come to you after we made a choice and have to sell you on what we made a choice about.”
He told the Board that throughout his world travels, he had learned that you can judge a country by how it treats the elderly, as he emphasized that this legislation was passed specifically with the elderly in mind, and stressed that these senior citizens and taxpayers deserved a break.
“You’re asking us to trust you with our future but you don’t want to trust everybody’s future that we voted for to the state. That’s kind of crazy that I have to trust you, but you don’t trust them,” he remarked.
Citizen Shawn Shein echoed many of the speakers’ sentiments, as she told the Board to accept the exemption and raise the millage rate if needed because keeping the millage rate had helped ease the tax burden but would not help taxpayers as much as the exemption would.
Citizen William Parten was the last to speak, as he told the Board that if they chose to opt out of the exemption, he would ensure that there would be consequences. “I will work to see that y’all won’t be on the board any longer,” Parten said.
He explained that he is a senior citizen who has lived in the county for the past 20 years, but only lives off of retirement payments that were based on costs from 25 years ago. He says these payments have not increased to keep up with inflation, but his property taxes recently increased from around $1,500 to $2,300 with recent assessments. “I cannot afford all these increases,” Parten emphasized.
Next Hearing
The Board will hold their last public forum to hear the concerns of the citizens at 6 p.m. on Friday, January 31, in the Board Room of the Montgomery County Board of Education. All individuals wishing to address the Board should sign up prior to the hearing on the speaker sign-in sheet, which is located near the entrance of the Board Room.
REPRESENTING THE TAXPAYERS – Citizen and Montgomery County District 2 Commissioner Amie Vassey told the Montgomery County Board of Education that they do not exist to merely serve the students, but to represent the taxpayers of the county as well.Photo by Makaylee Randolph
