DeKalb County government buildings. FILE PHOTO
By Tyler Estep
DeKalb commissioners approved Tuesday the county’s 2022 property tax rate, voting to maintain the same rate that’s been in place since 2015.
The vote, which passed 5-2, means that some DeKalb property owners could see tax increases due to rising values. About a dozen residents spoke against the proposal during a public comment period.
But officials stressed that the county’s EHOST program — a sales tax that’s collected throughout the year and then used to offset property tax increases — will prevent most homeowners from seeing a larger tax bill.
“The EHOST eliminates any property tax increase, or any property tax quite frankly, for the general fund or the hospital fund,” DeKalb COO Zach Williams said Tuesday.
The discussion over the tax rate had been somewhat contentious among county commissioners in recent weeks.
The approval of the rate and corresponding mid-year budget adjustments were split into two separate agenda items after some commissioners expressed concern about the level of detail they’d been provided about the latter. The mid-year budget was not voted on Tuesday.
And District 2 Commissioner Jeff Rader last week proposed using more of the county’s stockpiled EHOST funds to give homeowners a “real reduction” in their tax bills, citing inflation and a potentially looming recession.
During a special-called committee meeting last Thursday, county CEO Michael Thurmond said EHOST was already expected to offset about $137 million in taxes for residents with homestead exemptions this year alone — about $1,230 for someone who owns a home valued at $325,000, the 2021 county average.
Thurmond said DeKalb was already “giving more tax relief than any county jurisdiction in the state” and said current EHOST reserves would be needed if and when the current program expires in early 2024.
Rader’s proposal to go ahead and tap some of the funds to provide additional tax relief now had the support of colleague Ted Terry, but not enough votes to advance out of the budget committee.
Rader nevertheless introduced it again Tuesday, in front of the full board. It failed again.
Rader and Terry cast the two no votes on the property tax rate.
“The bottom line is if you are low- to moderate income renter in DeKalb, you are rapidly being pushed and priced out of your home and your community,” Terry said. “The decision to collect more in taxes through this millage rate vote will hit the most vulnerable neighbors, and small businesses, the hardest.”
Read the original story on AJC.com.
