Patti Garrett Proposes Citizen Board To Help Residents With Tax Relief
Decatur Metro | October 15, 2009On October 13th, District 2 candidate Patti Garrett asserted that the city needed a more immediate solution to the “crushing burden” that city taxes can place on “some, especially our seniors on fixed incomes.”
Garrett writes that she applauds the city commission’s recent resolution to up the low-income senior homestead exemption from $30,000 to $50,000, but adds “that’s not good enough” and details the legal reasons why the earliest the city could provide any additional tax relief to Decatur residents would be in April 2011.
Garrett’s solution?
I propose something altogether different from the exemption approach. I call it the Assessment Ombudsman.
It works like this: The city would create a volunteer, appointed board, not unlike our other citizen boards, whose job would be to help applicable Decatur residents navigate the sometimes complex bureaucracy of the DeKalb County assessor’s office. These folks would provide expertise, advocacy and support, making it easier for seniors and others to appeal their assessments and, in turn, reduce their tax burden if warranted.
In effect, we’d be leveling the playing field for those unable or ill equipped to do so themselves. And we’d be doing it at no cost to our residents.
Latest from Decaturish
I’m against a homestead exemption based simply on someone’s age, and here’s why.
Some seniors are on a fixed income, others are wealthy.
Why should we exempt seniors from paying for city services?
Their homes have ballooned in value because of the fine city services that are provided in Decatur.
But I do like the notion of reducing taxes on a need basis.
Could we also collect some of these taxes from the estate of the seniors? In other words, could some seniors defer taxes to their estates, and the taxes come due after they die or sell their property?
Many of these seniors with “crushing burdens” of taxes are benefiting from the things those taxes pay for, including terrific police and fire protection, excellent property values, great city schools.
Plus those seniors may get volunteer community services other ways, such as MLK day work.
The referenced homestead exemption is both age and income dependent. Seniors with household income in excess of $25K a year don’t qualify. It also doesn’t exempt anyone from paying; it simply lessens the amount.
You mean the one Patti is proposing is age- and income-dependent, or the ones we already grant are both age- and income-dependent?
Patti’s not proposing a homestead exemption because, as she spells out in her blog post, Decatur has the maximum amount allowed by law. Her proposal is for a volunteer advisory and assistance board to serve as a resource for seniors and others looking to pursue a possible reduction of their appraisal from the DeKalb assessor’s office.
You can find what she’s actually suggesting here: http://votepattigarrett.wordpress.com/
how about some tax relief for those of us that live in Decatur, that do not have kids. That (along) with the fixed income is essentially why the seniors get the break (because they don’t have school age children anymore). Every year i say i am going to march myself down to Clairemont Elementary and put a sticker on a kid that says ” my school is sponsored by _____ (my name inserted here). Ever wonder why very few single people live in Decatur? The taxes are TOOOOOO high. People only move here after they have had kids or when they know they are on the way. Give those of us without kids a break.
Okay, i think DM is hitting the bottle a bit early this Friday. But Claire, I’ll repeat something I just wrote today on another thread. School taxes are 19% higher in Decatur vs unincorporated DeKalb. Non-school taxes are 185% higher (part of which goes to DeKalb). So blame the schools a little bit for out taxes, but they shouldn’t get all the blame. Yet I wonder how much the reputation of CSD contribute to our property values.
Just wanted to comment on the statement that “very few single people live in Decatur.” Actually demographic data indicates that 39.8% of Decatur’s households are characterized as single person households. That’s compared to 22.9% for the metro area and 26.3% nationally. A third of the city’s population is between 25 and 45.
Better yet…how about more commercial property! Yum delicious annexation!
Public schools are supported by taxes on all the citizenry. If they were only supported by those with children, that would be tuition and would make those private schools. In fact, we do have many parents who do pay tuition to send their children to Decatur schools. As a society, we all benefit from an educated citizenry, whether or not we have children who attend those schools. And the reputation of the schools has, in my opinion, fueled the increase in property values.
I question Judd Owen’s calculations. I do think our school taxes are much higher than anyone elses in the state. In Decatur, the city owns the schools.
If I’m DM, I wasn’t hitting the bottle early, my friend.
If y’all think paying for good public schools is expensive and not worth it, go examine the property values in Clayton County and other places with troubled public schools.
Anyone for getting back to the actual topic ie what the candidate suggested?
Anyone?