Car tax bill to boost county revenue
But Floyd Tax Commissioner Kevin Payne says a pending change to the statewide software would be an unfunded mandate.
The Georgia House is slated to vote today on a change to the motor vehicle tax that’s aimed at capturing revenue lost when buyers trade in old cars.
House Bill 327, which runs to 28 pages, also contains payout adjustments to the 2012 law that gradually eliminated the annual “birthday tax” assessment. In the end, it should mean a greater percentage of collections will go to the counties.
“For the most part, we’re fine with that bill,” said Floyd County Tax Commissioner Kevin Payne, who is president of the Georgia Association of Tax Officials.
“It corrects some issues with tradeins — what we call a gaming of the system,” he added. “Essentially, a trade-in value can be anything you want it to be ... and that reduces the ad valorem tax. Part of the bill makes the trade-in more of a state book value.”
Another provision sets definitive percentages for the way the state and counties divvy up the taxes. Payne said the original bill included a complicated statewide formula that weighted the split each year. The result was that a few larger counties benefited but the rest saw their share decrease.
“This wipes out the state calculation and specifies the percent for each year,” he said. “Gradually, the counties get a bigger percent and the state gets less ... It’s going to help local governments.”
But a non-legislative change — to the statewide tax computer system — is expected to eat up the new money and, probably, more.
Payne said GATO was notified this month of a major upgrade to the accounting and administrative system used by all the tax officials.
There’s money in the proposed 2019 budget for the software, but nothing for any local improvements to run the software.
New scanners and more internet bandwidth will definitely be needed, he told the Floyd County Commission, and likely other equipment such as printers, as well.
“We’re still trying to figure out how much it will cost us,” Payne said. “But it really should be added to the state budget, so this doesn’t become an unfunded mandate. We’re basically agents of the state.”
As an example, he said, his office collects about $200,000 to $300,000 a month in county taxes and about $800,000 for the state.
The new system is expected
to go live next spring and tax officials have been told to be ready for tests by September.
“But there’s still time to get it in the budget,” Payne told the board.
He urged them to contact the local delegation — Sen. Chuck Hufstetler and Reps. Katie Dempsey, Eddie Lumsden and Christian Coomer — to press for state funding.
Lawmakers are at work now on the 2019 fiscal year budget, which runs from July 1 through June 30, 2019. The spending plan must be adopted by both chambers before midnight on March 29, the close of the session.
“We’re trying to educate as many people as we can about the plan,” Payne said. “Ultimately, if it’s not put in the state budget, the counties will have to budget for it.”