Recently I wrote about the homestead exemption generated under HB 581 Fayette schools receive less tax money but costs are rising relentlessly – The Citizen. This past week, Coweta County Public Schools and this week, Peachtree City are discussing the aftermath of the voters decision to enact amendment 1 in HB 581 to create an additional homestead exemption that limits personal residential property tax value to a percentage set by the department of revenue that should be akin to the consumer price index or CPI.
While I can’t speak to what Peachtree City will say on Tuesdayat 6:30, it was interesting to hear what Coweta Schools were saying as they quoted parts of the above article. The twenty six page presentation HB 581/Amendment 1 Informational Presentation, brought me back to the first meeting for “concerned citizens” regarding FCBOE’s attempt to pass the 2008 ESPLOST after previous attempts failed.
Without studying the data, I was confident that FCBOE had plenty of money and they should “learn to live within their means.” I was surprised by the transparency of the team and the urgency of the situation.
In that meeting, superintendent Dr, John Decotis attempted to present a forty plus page presentation but the meeting never got past the first few pages as some guy who has a compulsive need to dig through the data kept asking questions and taking the room on a tour of every tangent. The data on those first few pages made a compelling case that the excellent and quality Fayette County Public Schools had a reasonable cost structure and were in trouble if the ESPLOST failed. That numbers guy become chairman of the committee, Fayette Citizens for Children.
As a new Coweta County citizen, I was excited to listen to my first school board meeting on YouTube. The superintendent, Dr.Evan Horton, gave a presentation regarding HB 581. Unfortunately, the PowerPoint presentation did not inspire me the way the meeting way back when did.
First to be clear, Dr, Horton did not advocate for a position either way, however, his presentation made his preferred direction rather clear. As a former principal, I am certain of his desire to protect the classroom.
First, he often repeated the question on whether the school board was going to “opt in” to Amendment one or “opt out”. To be clear, in November 63% of Coweta’s voters (56% of Fayette) have already voted to “opt in” and have the growth of the homestead property value capped at a reasonable rate.
Oddly, the Georgia Legislature decided to empower voters to decide this issue and then gave government bodies (CCBOE, Peachtree City) the ability to opt out or veto the will of the people. That is the only question for the Coweta County School Board for one, will they honor the will of the people, or will they decide the decision of the voters in Coweta is more optional.
The presentation often referred the fact that Coweta has the lowest school tax millage rate in metro Atlanta (15.41 v 19.15 Fayette). However, while there has been a few “new maths” since I was in school, the mathematical principles, however,remain the same. If the growth of the property is not reasonable controlled, voters are still going to pay more taxes even if the milage is low. However, the Coweta County School Board could then blame the Coweta County Tax Assessor. I hope I read to much into this.
A voter spoke during public comment and said they believed that even if the Coweta County Board of Education needed to raise the millage because the taxable value was capped, they believed the voters would support it if the case were made. I believe that too and we proved this in Fayette.
When I first got involved in the ESPLOST, some believed we would fail. However, the voters were given the facts and made the decision to support the excellent and quality Fayette County Public Schools by less than 300 votes in a heavily contested Presidential election (2008 Obama v McCain).
While the presentation correctly quoted my article concerning the effects of amendment 1 contained in HB 581, they missed the last paragraph which I hoped tied the article together.
Solutions are needed on the cost side, but the challenge is that over 80% of school costs is personnel. Revenue solutions are needed and may include moving away from a property tax solution toward a mixed approach that either sits long side or repurposes ESPLOST.
However, the data suggests that the time to chart an alternative course is already here and we all need to work together.
I look forward to the coming discussion and will report accordingly.
