Stephen White is a mid-career professional with a good government job making $103,000, thanks to the taxpayers in Cobb County.
So I was intrigued when I got a tip that he had sliced his property tax bill by two thirds by excusing himself from paying school taxes, a benefit reserved for senior citizens. I was even more curious because White is the director and chief appraiser of the Cobb County Tax Assessor’s office.
That's right. The man whose job it is to determine the taxable value of property in Cobb County cut his own bill by 64 percent. It's totally legal, too.
According to tax records, White and his wife paid $2,581 in taxes in 2013 on their Acworth home. The following year, White added his father to the deed, thus qualifying his home for a school tax exemption Cobb County holds out for property owners age 62 or older.
That dropped his tax bill to $933 in 2014.
That was also the first full year White held the position of director, a position he was appointed to by the Cobb County Board of Tax Assessors.
I called White to ask him about it. It wasn’t comfortable.
“I think you are kind of bordering on getting into my personal business,” he said.
Well, not so much. Property taxes — yours and mine — are public. And there’s a legitimate interest in knowing whether public officials, especially those involved in assessing and collecting our taxes, are paying their fair share.
Like many people, White made the admirable decision to care for his father by taking him in to his home. But in doing so, he also made his father part owner of his house, qualifying for one of the state’s most generous tax breaks. And it’s a popular break in Cobb.
In 2000, 24,000 households qualified for the exemption, costing the county schools $20 million in tax revenue. Last year, 47,422 properties received the senior exemption worth $78 million.
That’s enough to cover the instructional expenses for 14,611 Cobb students.
The growth in the exemption far outpaces inflation or the county’s 17 percent population growth over the period. Cobb County Tax Collector Carla Jackson said the 2016 tax numbers aren’t finalized yet, but it’s clear that the number of residents claiming the exemption will go up again this year by several thousand.
Some states discourage property transfers
I asked White if he believes he should be paying to support the county’s school system.
“I think I should do whatever the law says I should do,” he said. “I’m not doing something illegal.”
As an investigative reporter covering government officials, I’m used to that answer. It’s a very popular one at the Capitol used by the folks who write the laws, including those that govern their own behavior. What I’m saying is, “legal” can be a low bar.
In fact, what White is doing wouldn’t be legal in some other states that offer senior citizens property tax breaks. New York and Delaware, for example, require all owners of property to be senior citizens in order to qualify for their tax breaks. Even then they impose a waiting period to apply for the break to, as New York puts it, “discourage changes in ownership of property made solely to qualify for the tax exemption.”
For his part, White said the tax break represents a legitimate agreement between him and his father, complying with state and local law.
“There was some transfer involved. He didn’t just walk into my house and I added him to the deed so I didn’t have to pay school tax,” he said. “He is a part owner of the property and it is his primary residence.”
As a result, White, who is in his mid-40s, is benefiting from a tax exemption nearly two decades before he would otherwise be eligible. Over the years, those savings add up.
‘I’d be embarrassed … to do something like that’
Lance Lamberton, chairman of the Cobb County Taxpayer Association, said the fact that White is benefiting from the exemption strains the rationale for the tax break.
“The reason this exemption is viable at (age) 62 is because you’ve paid in,” he said. “You are paying taxes during the time when your kids are in school.”
By the time you’re ready to retire, your kids are likely out of the public schools, Lamberton said. “You paid your dues,” he said.
The Cobb County Taxpayer Association is a hawkish group that favors a very low tax burden. Even so, Lamberton said allowing a working-age property owner to qualify for a tax break by putting a senior citizen on their deed is a loophole that should be closed.
“I think that’s something we need to look at. I’d be embarrassed if I was the tax assessor to do something like that,” he said.
Lamberton strongly favors the exemption. He fears these kind of situations could weaken public trust in the tax break, placing it at risk of repeal — a call heard regularly from a minority in the county concerned about its effect on the school system.
Jackson, the county tax collector, is more forgiving of White’s situation. “Frankly, I would probably do the same,” she said. “I don’t understand your angle.”
Both Jackson and White said they presume many people in Cobb County who take their parents in do the same thing, although neither had figures. I presume many more haven’t thought about it.
Until now.
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