ATLANTA, GA — Gov. Nathan Deal has signed legislation that would help protect Fulton County property owners from large reassessments. Deal signed a total of six bills that would essentially freeze reassessments beginning in 2019.

These new homestead exemptions would be added to the Fulton County School Board portion of your property tax bill and the portions for the cities of Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Milton, Mountain Park and Roswell. The city of Sandy Springs already has protections in place for its segment of residents' property tax bills. The exemptions would freeze homeowners' assessments for purposes of taxation at the 2016 level and allows for increases up to three percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. Homestead exemptions would remain in place as long as homeowners own their homes. The more current assessment would take effect and become the new level after a home is sold.

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However, Gov. Deal's signature doesn't mean the legislation will take effect right away. Fulton County voters outside the city of Atlanta will have to vote on the new exemptions for the school system in a referendum planned for November. Residents in the aforementioned cities will consider referendums for their jurisdictions at the same time.



If approved by voters, the exemptions would go into effect for the 2019 tax bills. You should note that because the tax digest is set at April 1 for the current tax year by state law, the homestead exemptions cannot not take effect for the 2018 tax year. The legislation was a result of an effort by north Fulton state senators and representatives to address the extreme spike in 2017 reassessments that would have resulted in large tax increases for property owners. As readers recall, the Fulton County Commission threw out the reassessments and utilized the 2016 tax digest.