LEGISLATIVE BRIEFS: Assessments would change

If there’s a foreclosure on your street, a bill that passed the Senate Wednesday would require the tax assessor to take it into account when assessing the value of your home.

If the foreclosed home sells for less and the assessment goes down, the other houses on the street should also see a lower assessment and therefore a property tax decrease, said Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock).

“It’ll bring the assessment to fair market value,” Rogers said.

Sen. Steve Thompson (D-Marietta) cautioned that the bill, Senate Bill 55, could affect the value of neighborhoods, sending values of nonforeclosed homes down in what is already a bad economic time. He voted against it. The bill passed 46-6.

The bill requires that other factors be taken into account when determining the value of a home. including the net taxable value declared, for tax purposes, on the real estate transfer tax declaration; and the decreased value of the property based on limitations resulting from a conservation easement.

Soul Food Supper’s name changed

Call it a nod to President Obama, or just an attempt to be more inclusive, but the Soul Food Supper is no more.

The Georgia Legislative Black Caucus has quietly changed the name of its annual 600-person banquet to the “Heritage Dinner and Black History Celebration” for 2009, the year the nation’s first African-American president took office.

Sen. Emanuel Jones (D-Decatur), chairman of the 53-member group, said the name change had been discussed in years past but was finally enacted with Obama’s election.

“The Heritage Dinner sounds a lot more inclusive,” Jones said. “The African-American people are not a pure race as our president reminds us.

“I wanted to emphasize our overall heritage even more because of President Obama.”

The $100-a-person event, slated for Thursday evening at the old Freight Depot across from the state Capitol, will still feature a huge banquet of corn bread, collards, black-eyed peas, fried chicken and chitlins. There will also be musical entertainment and speakers. It’s one of dozens of such events held every year by various groups during the 40-day legislative session.

Panel passes Milton bill

The move to recreate Milton County from the north Fulton County suburbs moved forward Wednesday with a key legislative victory.

House Resolution 21, which passed the House State Planning and Community Affairs Committee 7-1, now moves to the House Rules committee.

It still needs a two-thirds vote by both the House and Senate before it’s approved.

Its sponsor, Rep. Jan Jones (R-Milton), was thrilled to get the bill moving after two years of debate but little progress.

She said despite overwhelming opposition from Fulton County and Atlanta, the changes HR 21 would bring would be good for both by allowing each to be reformed and refocused.

Lobbyists for both governments complained the legislation would be expensive and disruptive. Atlanta also said it could destabilize the city’s credit if the new county interferes with the water lines Atlanta owns in Sandy Springs.

The resolution doesn’t create the new county. It merely begins a long process that would eventually lead to statewide approval first and local approval later.

Staff writers Mary Lou Pickel, D.L. Bennett and Jim Tharpe contributed to this report.