As the AJC reports, the Decatur City Commission approved waiving the sanitation and storm water utility fees for homeowners over age 70 in the city, who qualify for homestead exemptions at Monday’s meeting.
According to a note from City Manager Peggy Merriss to the Commission, qualified seniors will receive a $315 credit on their second installment tax bill that will be sent out later this month.
The Decatur City Commission has been looking for a way to provide tax relief to seniors since the Georgia House of Representatives defeated local legislation during the 2015 session that would have allowed the city to increase homestead exemptions for older residents.
The city plans to “move forward with the local legislation again in the 2016 General Assembly session”, according to City Manager Merriss’ note, but for now is making these additional tweaks that do not require legislative approval. The total cost to the city for the fiscal year is estimated at $340,000.
Also at the meeting, the city showed support for an August Decatur School Board resolution that would give full exemptions from the school tax millage for seniors 65 and over. According to the AJC, the city is likely to approved a similar exemption in December. However, such an exemption would also need to be approved by the Georgia Legislature, so it’s certainly not a done deal.
Photo courtesy of The City of Decatur
When did seniors stop producing trash?
In the early 2000s, I think. Right around the time everyone started eating the Soylent Green.
Exempt from school tax millage? That doesn’t sound like a good idea. I’m all for lowering seniors’ tax burden, but it should be split among city tax and school tax.
Greatly minimizing seniors’ taxes may slow down the housing turnover to young families with kids, which could really help with bursting schools/school expenses. I’d love to see some projections on this from whatever consultants were brought in to provide some data for the decision making.
Agree, let’s lower their bill to keep them here. But why pull money from the school system, which needs it, instead of pulling from the City, which does not.
There is already a school tax exemption for Seniors, but the age is much higher.
While I consider a reduction instead of an exemption, it concerns me that we continue to see an emerging trend in Decatur taxes: Young families with kids who wants more taxes to fund the schools that are becoming overcrowded and older families without kids who do not want to carry the tax burden. Makes me concerned as we are cutting more that the $75M DCS bill is going to fail in November. What most don’t understand is the measure failing will simply be us punting the issue down the road, not merely getting rid of it.
Don, I am curious how you draw the relationship between increasing the likelihood of failure on $75 M GO Bond and the proposed tax reductions on seniors. Could you help me out?
Brad, it isn’t that the two are in a causal relationship, just that they match the trend pattern that I have seen over the last few years. We have seen consistent themes from older, more established residents that have been in Decatur for 20-30+ years about disapproval for continued funding to make the school system better. It isn’t simply that the city counsel said, “hey, no one asked for this tax break, let’s just give it to them”. No, it most certainly came from a group that has been complaining about the high tax rate over time. This is a step in reducing it for them, you can bet these same individuals will not be voting to give a tax increase to themselves in the $75M GO Bond in November. The two aren’t directly related to each other, but definitely follow the pattern that these voters are against funding our schools long term and will likely vote against the measure as their influence in politics was easy enough to have this tax exemption given to them. That was my point.
Thanks Don. I agree, I don’t believe the GO Bond will have as much support in that population as it will with folks with young kids in CSD/ about to start CSD. That being said, I think it is important to note that the proposed GO Bond increase to this Senior community will likely be significantly smaller than the savings associated with eliminating the CSD O&M Millage.
To your point of kicking the can down the road, couldn’t agree more. Beside the aesthetic/reputation hit, using trailers costs operating budget $$ at the expense of programs, teachers, educational resources and puts us up against it as it relates to the millage cap of 25.
“The total cost to the city for the fiscal year is estimated at $340,000.”
Translation: “The total cost being transferred from one special interest group to everyone else is estimated at $340,000”.
Bingo! They already get special tax reductions on homestead exemption. This is basically excluding them from a public service that they most definitely utilize. Everyone uses sanitation and everyone uses water. I bet this coming year we see an increase in the cost to buy our trash bags…
Water and sewer are provided by DeKalb County, not Decatur. Storm water is a City function.
Steve, thanks for the clarification. I know it isn’t the same as using water in your house, but from a definition they still “use” the storm water functionality the same way that we do. That was my point.
This is the same special interest group that paid less into social security and will take more out of it than the next generations. Now they want their children and grandchildren to pay their property taxes, too. Thanks mom and dad!
How dare you!? Ronald Reagan was an American hero!
I like the seniors in our community and I support ways to keep them here in Decatur. I don’t pretend to know what the best ways to keep them here are but I hope we succeed. None of the seniors I interact with strike me as filthy rich and selfish. They tend to do a ton of volunteering around Decatur. Those that were alive during the Depression and/or World War II and/or segregation (official and unofficial) went through a lot and contributed in ways that few of us do now, especially if they fought in WWII, the Korean War, or the Civil Rights movement. At this stage of their life, they have much fewer options in terms of earning and health than we younger (sort of) and healthier folks do.
Plus, one day I will be a senior… .:)
I love seniors too (my parents especially) and don’t want them to have to leave the city. But why make age the marker for tax breaks instead of age + income? If someone doesn’t need the break, why give it?
That is an excellent point. The fact is that blanket tax breaks without recognizing we are potentially giving them to people who don’t need them is concerning.
I’m ok with age + income as a criteria for a senior tax break but only if the income cut off is high enough to retain most seniors. Many income cut offs are so low that even those with a modest income do not qualify. Prudent seniors might leave because they are afraid that their modest but adequate fixed income will become inadequate. It’s scary to be at a point in life in which you can’t just go out and get a second job to make up for lost income or increased costs.
And there may be other downsides to an age + income criteria that I don’t know about. Unfortunately, even the wealthy who don’t need breaks often want them anyway. Maybe the only way to sell an age-based tax break is to offer it to everyone, even if to those so wealthy that they will hardly notice the break.