Study recommends exemption restrictions

A recently released study of City Schools of Decatur’s homestead exemption for seniors 65 and over proved definitely that the district is losing far more revenue than originally anticipated. Subsequently the study, prepared by Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School Center for State & Local Finance, has recommended that CSD include income restrictions when updating the exemption.

Beginning in 2017, seniors 65 and over were given full exemption of all school taxes, but this included a five-year sunset. After 2021 the exemption expires unless CSD introduces new legislation that either continues the current exemption or revises it.

“At the next board meeting (Nov. 12) we’ll begin discussing this report,” said Superintendent David Dude. “I anticipate [the board] will also discuss how we’ll want to gather input from the community.

“But there has been no conversation about just letting [the exemption] run out and not taking any action,” he added. “[That means the board] will want to put something forward for legislation [in early 2021]. We’ll be trying to figure out what that is over the next year. It’s not until next fall that we really have to have a decision made.”

Before the exemption took effect, CSD estimated it would lose $1.2 million in revenue annually. But the GSU study showed it was actually a lot more: $3.41 million in 2018 and $3.24 million in 2017.

To meet that original goal of $1.2 million in lost revenue, the GSU study “recommended” two possible scenarios:

■ “Should CSD desire to maintain the qualifying age at 65, the exemption amount will need to be $100,000 or less with a qualifying income of $40,000 or less ...” That is you get an exemption on only the first $100,000. If your property’s worth more you don’t get more savings.

■ “If the qualifying age were to increase to 70, the exemption amount could increase to $125,000 or less with a qualifying income of $75,000 ...”

“I think that after the November meeting we’ll have a better idea how [the GSU] study has helped informed the board and what the next steps are,” Dude said. “It could come down to choosing one of those two scenarios, or some other combination of parameters.”