The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Senate panel backs cap on assessments
Property tax bill passes committee despite some opposition from local government, school groups.
A key Georgia Senate committee backed a measure Friday aimed at slowing the rate of property tax hikes especially prevalent in metro Atlanta by limiting how much home assessments can go up each year at 3%.
Senate Bill 349 by Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Hufstletler, R-Rome, was passed without debate after initially facing some opposition from local government and school groups, which have a stake because limiting assessments may mean they have to raise tax rates to bring in more money to pay for government services.
The bill’s passage through the Senate Finance Committee came a day after the House passed legislation to double the standard state homestead exemption on property from $2,000 to $4,000 a year, a measure the chamber’s leaders said could cut property taxes by $100 million a year.
Both efforts are aimed at helping homeowners who, in some areas, have complained about being taxed off their property as assessments have skyrocketed with the booming housing market even as tax rates have remained stable.
A homeowner’s property tax bill is mostly made up of two elements: the tax rate and the assessed value of the property. School districts, cities and counties have been able to count on a boost in revenue without raising tax rates because the assessed values of homes and businesses in some areas have risen sharply.
“We’ve probably heard more about property taxes than we’ve heard about any other issue in the past year,” Hufstetler said at a recent meeting.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, president of the Senate, praised passage of the measure.
“Senate Bill 349 addresses longstanding problems with local property taxes, including large surprise increases in home values and a confusing appeals process,” he said.
At least 39 Georgia counties, 35 cities and 27 school systems have adopted local measures limiting how much assessed values can rise. Some of them only benefit homeowners 65 or older.
A 3% cap on unimproved property assessment increases could mean local governments and schools would have to raise tax rates, but some lawmakers say at least that would make the process more transparent to homeowners, many of whom don’t understand why their home is valued at what it is.
Lawmakers from both parties have periodically tried to address rising property taxes.
Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes in the late 1990s passed a “homeowners bill of rights” and a tax credit on property tax bills. When Republicans took over the General Assembly, then-Speaker Glenn Richardson crusaded against rising property taxes — and Republican lawmakers floated the idea of replacing property taxes with higher sales taxes to pay for schools.
A swap from property taxes to sales taxes was first suggested in Georgia in the 1990s, but the idea was criticized as bad for low-income families — who pay a higher percentage of what they earn in sales taxes — and potentially damaging to school systems. Sales tax collections are also seen as especially sensitive to downturns in the economy.
Critics say one of the issues with the current system is that in some counties, big commercial property is undervalued by assessors, shifting the burden to smaller businesses and homeowners to pay for vital services.
Some local officials like the idea of a cap on homeowner assessments; others find caps problematic. For instance, school districts generally have a cap on their tax rate at 20 mills, although a few systems have higher rates. So if growth in property digests are limited, many districts might quickly run up against that 20-mill cap.
ELLABELL — The Hyundai Metaplant under construction near Savannah has trained its first 500 production workers in anticipation of the electric vehicle manufacturing plant’s opening in early 2025 — if not sooner.
Those initial employees are learning skills in four Savannah-area training centers operated by QuickStart, a division of the Technical College System of Georgia. According to Hyundai Metaplant CEO Oscar Kwon, those employees, known as “metapros,” will begin building test cars in the months ahead prior to the start of full production.
Kwon’s update came during a Thursday morning groundbreaking ceremony for an on-site training facility. The QuickStart Hyundai Mobility Training Center of Georgia is adjacent to the Metaplant’s headquarters building on the 2,906acre site along Interstate 16, about 20 miles west of downtown Savannah.
Once the on-site center opens in late 2025 the facility will become the training hub for the $7.6 billion project. Plans call for the assembly plant and a neighboring EV battery factory to employ 8,500 by 2030.
The 89,000-square-foot training center was part of the $1.8 billion incentive package used to attract the South Korean automaker in 2022.
“The Metaplant is not your everyday project … it’s a game-changing endeavor,” said Scott McMurray, deputy commissioner of QuickStart. “The training center is specifically designed to meet Hyundai’s training needs.”
Labor ramp-up
Hyundai and QuickStart launched their training programs last summer at the state’s existing workforce development hub at the Chatham County Economic Development Site, formerly known as the Pooler Megasite, as well as at a temporary facility housed at a warehouse in the Savannah suburbs. More recently the program expanded to the Savannah Technical College campus and a shuttered elementary school in Bryan County near the Metaplant site.
Hyundai will also offer job training at three additional technical colleges: Ogeechee Tech in Statesboro, Coastal Pines Technical College in Waycross and Southeastern Technical College in Vidalia.
Hyundai’s appetite for workers comes amid an already tight Savannah area labor market. The metro area unemployment rate is a scant 2.9%, better than the state’s historically low 3.4% rate.
Hyundai officials did not offer details on the pace of hiring but have said plans call for the Metaplant to produce 300,000 EVs a year in its first phase. A workforce study conducted by the Savannah region’s Joint Development Authority projected the region’s overall labor force demand is for 5,500 new workers this year and around 4,000 in each of the next three years.
A majority of those laborers will be employed by Hyundai or one of its nine area suppliers, which together will hire more than 6,500 workers.
QuickStart’s expanded investment and presence in the area will be invaluable as the region grows its worker base, said Anna Chafin, director of newly created regional workforce development arm of the Savannah Economic Development Authority.
“QuickStart will be an important partner to help us ensure our industries like (Hyundai) have access to the quality training they need for their employees to be successful,” she said.
‘Full throttle’
Thursday’s ceremony gave visitors a glimpse of progress on the Hyundai Metaplant.
Construction began with site clearing in August 2022, three months after Hyundai and Gov. Brian Kemp announced the South Korean automaker chose the site for its first North American EV manufacturing facility.
Now 21 months removed from that announcement, 5,000 workers are transforming the property. Most assembly plant buildings are vertical and crews are prepping the location of the EV battery factory. The last building foundation pad was completed last month.
“Our friends from Korea only know one speed: Full throttle,” said Carter Infinger, chairman of the Bryan County Commission.