Issue Position: Property Taxes

Issue Position

As a subcommittee Co-Chairman on the House Ways & Means Committee (deals with all tax legislation) I have been very involved with efforts to contain, reduce and eliminate various property taxes (called ad valorem taxes). I do believe it is fundamentally the most unfair way to tax the citizens of this state who have worked very hard to gain property ownership. As seen in recent Atlanta Journal Constitution investigative reports, property valuations are in many cases capricious and unreliable as to true value.

Therefore, in the 2009 Legislative Session House Republicans pushed multiple efforts to give Georgians property tax relief

* Most important among these efforts were HR 1 and SB 83
* HR 1 would have capped property tax assessments at 3% per year or the rate of inflation, whichever is less
* SB83 would have raised the homestead exemption from $2000 to $4000
* These bills required a 2/3 vote to pass and they received no support from the Democratic minority.

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