Property tax deferments

I expressed my disappointment with the Athens-Clarke County Commission's decision to not pursue a property tax circuit breaker program, and while I'm still disappointed, I also have some additional perspective on two key points.

I'll hold off on one point - the practical realities of getting any sort of legislation for such a program passed at the state level - for another post, but I will focus on the Legislative Review Committee's suggestion that the community seek an expansion of the tax deferral program.

The existing program, which Nancy Denson noted was currently only being used by one property owner, is incredibly narrow in its scale ... which explains its low participation.

For instance, the program only helps property owners older than 62 with income of less than $15,000. According to the state code, the definition of 'household income' is tremendously broad and includes Social Security benefits in addition to pension payments and any income from dividends.

Furthermore, it only works with properties assessed at $50,000 or less and, for properties with a higher value, only applies to the taxes on the portion of the value which is $50,000 or less.

Narrow definitions such as these dramatically shrink the pool of eligible participants, thus suggesting an expansion of this program could potentially work. Based on conversations I've had today, there isn't any sort of concrete idea of what the program could be expanded to cover (I'd suggest, for starters, increasing the income threshold to $30,000 and the value of the property to $75,000 or $100,000).