Georgia lawmakers are weighing a long-shot bill that would exempt many seniors from paying taxes to Atlanta Public Schools, a move that opponents say would undercut the school system’s budget as it seeks to rebuild after years of financial turmoil.
Bill sponsor state Rep. Beth Beskin, a Republican freshman lawmaker from Buckhead, said House Bill 633 is aimed at preventing seniors from being priced out of Atlanta. She fears that many seniors are leaving city limits for Cobb and DeKalb Counties, both of which have more generous school tax exemptions for that age group.
Atlanta already has an exemption for seniors ages 65 and older who earn $25,000 or less annually. Beskin's bill would broaden the exemption to all seniors — paupers and millionaires alike — once they turn 70.
“My policy reasons are not because seniors can’t afford to pay their property tax; some can and some cannot,” she said. “These are people we want to retain and allow to age in place. And they are financially disincentivized to stay.”
Beskin’s bill has a slim chance of passing this session. It received bipartisan support in Atlanta’s local delegation, but then failed in the House. After successfully motioning for reconsideration, Beskin’s bill was tabled. Beskin could attempt another House vote on Friday.
APS Board Chairman Courtney English believes the bill would harm APS’s bottom line at a time it’s working to shore up its finances amid growing costs.
“I understand taking care of senior citizens; they are among the most vulnerable people in our society at times, but so are our children,” he said. “… We’re still trying to educate our kids, some of whom are dealing with generational poverty and long standing inequities. Certainly any erosion to our funding base doesn’t make our job any easier.”
English said APS Superintendent Meria Carstarphen recently proposed a $682 million budget, the first balanced budget in recent memory. He’s concerned the measure would undo the school system’s progress.
Beskin said her bill could help prevent further school crowding problems due to the “gentrification” of Buckhead. Seniors are often replaced by young families, she said, whose children would attend public schools already squeezed by crowding.
“We have to fight gentrification of Buckhead. People are taxed out of their homes … and are being replaced by (families with) children that we need to educate,” she said. “I don’t think the school system has an interest in increasing the number of children in their system; it’s their job to educate the students that they have.”
English said the district is working to address those crowding problems, but said her bill isn’t the way to do so.
“We’re trying to do what we can with the resources that we have, but less resources isn’t the answer,” he said.
The school district is working with the Fulton County tax assessor to get a sense of the bill’s impact, he said. Chief Appraiser David Fitzgibbon told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that measuring the impact is difficult to do on a quick-turnaround, given available data.
According to an Atlanta Regional Commission analysis of data provided by ESRI, a company specializing in demographic research, seniors ages 70 and older accounted for 7.4 percent of Atlanta’s 439,000 residents in 2014. But tracking how much those seniors contribute to the tax base is far more complicated, as is determining the rate at which the group is moving away from Atlanta’s borders, according to the ARC.
Beskin’s bill could also affect other areas of local government, as Atlanta maintains several tax allocation districts that use a portion of school taxes for economic development efforts, such as the Atlanta Beltline and Atlantic Station.
A spokeswoman for Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, who was traveling in Israel earlier this week, declined comment for the story.
If passed this week by the House, HB 633 would head to the Senate, where members of Atlanta’s local delegation must approve the measure before it can go to a full vote.
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