06/09/2024
Please read the important letter from the Cherokee County referencing taxes.
Cherokee County Friends,
This is another of my periodic “Updates” about actions of and issues before your Cherokee County Board of Commissioners. I send it to people who have contacted me about county issues over the years. Feel free to share it with others who may be interested, in spite of any auto-generated message to the contrary below. If you’re getting a forwarded copy and want to be added to the direct distribution, just let me know. Same if you want to be removed.
In this Issue:
Expansion of Senior School Tax Exemption Passes
New Five-Year Requirement for the Senior School Tax Exemption
Tax Assessment Notices
Elections Board Appointments
Expansion of Senior School Tax Exemption Passes:
The local referendum to make Cherokee’s Senior School Tax Exemption unlimited passed easily. Starting with the 2025 tax year, homeowners with that exemption will pay no School Tax, regardless of the value of their homes. The current exemption covers just the first $501,000 of market value.
New Five-Year Requirement for the Senior School Tax Exemption:
The Senior School Tax Exemption will now require the homeowner(s) to have held a regular homestead exemption in Cherokee County for at least five years. (This was not my suggestion.) Anyone who qualifies for the current exemption by January 1, 2025, and applies for it by April 1, 2025, will be “grandfathered” into the new exemption regardless of the five-year requirement. So anyone planning to move here needs to complete their purchase, move in by the end of this year, and apply for the exemption by April 1 2025.
More important points on this….
The five-year requirement can be met in a different home or homes as long you’ve held a homestead exemption in Cherokee County continuously for five years.
Often, two or more names are on the deed to a home. Any one of them can qualify the property for the age requirement and now the five-year requirement. But only those who qualify and apply for the exemption are actually listed on it. If it’s just one, and that person dies, the exemption is cancelled, even if the other inherits and remains in the home. Under the current exemption, if the remaining owner is 62+, he/she can re-apply for and receive the exemption immediately. And if not yet 62, he/she can get it upon reaching 62. But effective in 2025, a surviving owner not already listed on the exemption will be subject to the five-year wait. This may be an unintended consequence of the change. So, it’s important that both/all qualifying owners get their names on the exemption. If only one qualifies initially, be sure to add any others as soon as they do qualify. There’s no on-line way to see which name(s) are on your exemption. You have to call or go to the Tax Assessors’ Office.
NOTE: This “inheritance” problem already applies to the “floating” homestead exemption for the County M&O Tax. If only one owner’s name is listed on the exemption and that owner dies, the accumulated amount of the exemption is lost. The remaining owner can re-apply immediately, but the exemption is re-set at the base $5000 amount. Get both names on that exemption too.
The BOC and Assessors Office don’t have latitude on this. It’s in state law.
Assessment Notices:
All property owners should have received their assessment notices recently. I’m told that the total county tax digest increased 6.6%, with new construction making up 3.7% of that. The average inflationary increase is 2.9%, though I’m hearing from some people who had assessment increases of 10% or more. Mine was up about 2%.
In looking at the total estimated tax bill amount, remember that we got a one-time state credit last year that we’re NOT getting this year. It was $485 for most of us.
The estimated tax amount assumes that the tax rates stay the same as last year. That may be a fairly good assumption this year. The School Board has already advertised unchanged rates. It’s always challenging for the BOC to reduce the County M&O rate because, for homeowners, the net taxable values are “frozen” for as long as you own your home. We should have a little more flexibility on the Fire Tax, but that budget also has to grow to cover new construction and inflation. I’m sure we can reduce the Park Bond Tax rate slightly, but that’s a small tax anyway.
State law requires the assessors to base their valuations on recent selling prices of similar homes in your area, and it requires comparable homes to be assessed comparably. If your assessment is higher than those, you can appeal it. You can see the recent sales in your area by looking up your assessments record as follows:
Go to: Tax Assessor's Office | Cherokee County, Georgia (cherokeega.com)
Click on “Real Estate Search”
Pull up your property by name, address, or other indicators
At the top of your actual property record, click on “comper” to see all recent sales in your area. Some will be bigger or smaller and on bigger or smaller lots, so you have to adjust for that.
An appeal won’t be successful if it’s based solely on how much the assessed value has increased. It has to be based on selling prices or assessed values of similar properties.
You can file the appeal yourself. The Tax Assessors’ Office has a form for that, but you don’t necessarily have to use it. You can also use one of several services available to handle appeals. They typically charge 25% of whatever they can save you on this year’s taxes.
Elections Board Appointments:
Under a 2023 local Act of the Legislature, the BOC now appoints four of the five members of the Cherokee Board of Elections and Registration. They serve two-year terms, with two expiring June 30 of each year. Those four appointed members then name a fifth member who serves as Chairman.
Previously, each of the two local political party organizations directly made two appointments. Now, they make nominations for consideration by the BOC, but the BOC is not limited to those nominees.
Note that there’s actually a 3-2 split on the five-member BOER, with the two current Democrat appointees agreeing on a Republican to serve as the fifth member/chairman. In the event they don’t and the four appointed members deadlock on that choice, the law calls for it to be made by majority vote of the BOC Chair, County Legislative Delegation Chair, and Probate Judge. So the fifth member/chairman will remain a Republican as long as the voting public remains Republican.
Last year and again this year, some Republicans asked the BOC to appoint three Republicans and only one Democrat, to match the county’s approximate voting split. The BOC voted 4-1 last year to keep a 2-2 party split of those appointments. We may be more closely divided on it this year, and I know the county is similarly divided.
I support continuing the 2-2 party split of the BOC-appointed BOER members. It has given us an elections process in Cherokee County that virtually everyone acknowledges as free and fair, including those who doubt it elsewhere. I can’t see how stacking the BOER in either political direction could increase that fairness. It’s important that everyone have confidence in our elections, not just the majority party.
As always, I’m interested in your thoughts on these and other county issues. Please reply and let me know.
And especially, thanks for caring about Cherokee County!
Harry
Harry Johnston
Chairman, Cherokee County Board of Commissioners
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