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It comes to light that Gov. Sonny Perdue could remove the state tax on property and automobiles with the stroke of a pen - instead of proposing an amendment to the Georgia Constitution as he announced last week.

"Removing the state's one-quarter mill levy does not take a constitutional amendment," advises Larry Griggers, director of the Property Tax Division (now the Local Government Services Division) of the Georgia Department of Revenue from 1988 to 2003.

"The law as it is currently written authorizes the governor to set the state's millage rate each year at 'no more than .25 mills,'" Griggers said via e-mail. "He could set it at whatever he wanted, for example .25, .20, .18, .05, or zero. Setting it at zero would seem more prudent than removing the constitutional authority altogether since the law permits the governor to set it higher than .25 mills in an emergency."

The quarter-mill tax originally was authorized to fund the Property Tax Division "which provided local tax commissioners and tax assessors with technical support, monitored digest uniformity and provided supplies and training," Griggers said.

"Over time the collections ($94 million) greatly exceeded the budget of this division (about $4 million although underfunded), but no governor seemed willing to reduce the levy or increase funding to the Property Tax Division," he added.

"The governor has the authority under the existing law to set the state's property tax levy at just high enough to fund this Division's budget (about .012 mills) or eliminate it altogether."

Georgia Code section 48-5-8 requires the governor to make the state levy each year and for the state to immediately send notices to each local tax collector and tax commissioner.

"Most people you talk to don't understand how the law works," Griggers said. "Each year when I sent it over, the governor's staff would call and ask me what it was!"

This governor, however, knows what the law provides - and that's why he wants to get rid of it. He told the legislature he wants to give "tax relief" - and "also remove the excuse that some local governments have given for reassessing property values."

Press secretary Bert Brantley was asked why the governor didn't simply reduce the tax to zero, thus effectively removing it.

"Many local governments have used the excuse of state government collecting property taxes as a reason to reassess every three years," Brantley replied.

"It could be argued that even if the governor lowers the levy to zero, local governments could still make the argument given the possibility that the levy could be raised back up at any time.

"By changing the constitution and going through the appropriate rule change process at the Department of Revenue, the governor wants to make it clear that there is no way local governments can blame the state for requiring them to reassess property on any certain timetable."

But he still could set the tax rate at zero immediately, pending approval of that constitutional amendment. Why wait?

dmckee9613@aol.com

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