So reports the AJC in this morning’s recap of all the ways the state capital is attempting shift blame and burden of their now $3 billion deficit to local governments with legislation like the hotly debated property assessment cap (a.k.a. the “wishful thinking bill”) and increased homestead exemption.

I certainly recognize that cities are the product of the state, but if our lovely state legislators think that they should be helping tax payers with lower tax bills in this difficult time, perhaps they should first lead by example.  Let’s see some ways in which the state will cut its own revenues, in addition to hampering local gov’t’s, in order to help out the beleaguered taxpayer.  $3 billion deficit be damned!

Until that hell-freezes-over day, I’ll just continue to see these efforts as a way State Republicans shift their own philosophical burden of “tax cuts” to the local level, while they continue to show little ability to live within their own means down at the State House.

OK, pardon me if I just don’t get it.

I WAS admittedly born and raised in a state neighboring “Taxachusetts” and often get unholy pleasure when I pay my city and county taxes. So maybe its just me and my sick liberal fetishes, but this initiative to cap property tax assessments in the state legislature doesn’t even seem worthy of print in the AJC.

Why are GA state legislators even beginning to opine and evaluate the accuracy of property assessments (and by extension property values) in this insanely topsy-turvy real estate market? Yes, soaring real estate prices these past 5 years have allowed local governments to announce tax cuts while assessments and property values have risen. But when Decatur cut the millage rate this past year, I don’t recall ANYONE trying to pass it off as this wonderful favor they passed along to residents. It was just calmly explained that rising property values allowed the city to reduce the rate a tad. Great!

If there is a problem with over-assessments in the state, perhaps we should, at a minimum, wait until the real estate market calms down before throwing around terms like “back-door tax hikes” and instituting caps of 2% for residential and 3% for commercial that didn’t work 20 years ago and won’t work today. Because what do you do in a city like Decatur, where houses in my neighborhood are still going off the market in 1-2 months? What if property values rise 5% this year (he said hopefully), yet the assessment can only go up 2%? How then does the assessment accurately represent 40% of the property’s value?

If my property value increases and I enjoy the benefit when I turn around a sell it for a mint, the city is absolutely in the right to get an equal share of that increase. How the heck else are we going to continue to pay for all the great events and services that we enjoy in our little haven?

If there is a problem with over-inflating property assessments in some more shady locales, then its those local residents that should get out in the streets and demand reform. Providing a blanket, statewide cap can’t work in an arena so local as real estate prices.

Give ‘em hell Mayor Floyd. The next time I attach a stamp with a little American flag to my Decatur tax bill, it’ll represent more than just 41 cents; it will be a symbol that I for one do not take my city services for granted.

h/t: InDecatur