UPSON CO BOC CHAIRMAN DAN BREU ON HB 581

 There are a couple of things the Mayor and City Council really should consider before moving forward with their planned public hearings to opt out of HB 581.

 

First, HB 581 was passed by the people of Georgia and overwhelmingly in Thomaston and Upson County as a way to provide protection against rising home values for homesteaders and a way to provide property tax relief to every property owner.  We have elderly and disabled people in Thomaston and Upson County who have to take out loans to pay their property taxes and fear being taxed out of homes some have lived in their whole lives.  The City of Thomaston has an incredible opportunity to provide home owners in Thomaston tax relief by utilizing the Floating Local Option Sales Tax (FLOST) to essentially eliminate the City M&O tax.  The County can use the FLOST as well to reduce the County M&O tax for everyone in the county.  Limiting the rise in home values, eliminating the City M&O tax, and reducing the County M&O tax are three methods of tax relief for home owners in the City of Thomaston.  They will lose all of those if the City opts out of HB 581.

 

Second, the governing authorities throughout the State who have indicated they intend to opt out of HB 581 presented a reason or reasons to their constituents on why they thought they needed to opt out.  Whether you find those reasons valid or not, they gave their constituents a why.  The City of Thomaston has not provided a single reason why it should opt out.  This really runs contrary to the spirit of public hearings.  The home owners in the City of Thomaston do not know what they are supposed to be arguing against at these public hearings.  Rather they just have to argue for the tax relief that they already voted overwhelmingly for.  It just does not make sense.

 

I call on the Mayor and City Council to do the right thing for Thomaston and Upson County and cancel their planned public hearings and automatically opt in to HB 581 along with the County and give the property owners in Thomaston and Upson County the tax relief they already told us they wanted during the November election.

 

Best,

 

 

Dan R. Brue II

Chairman, Board of Commissioners | UPSON COUNTY

106 E. Lee St., Suite 110, Thomaston, GA  30286

Office: 706.647.7012

Cell: 706.601.9472

Email: dbrue@upsoncountyga.org