Jonesboro residents could wind up paying city property taxes, but first, town leaders have to get residents on board with the idea -- and that could be tough.
The City Council plans to ask Clayton County's legislative delegation to introduce a bill to let Jonesboro residents vote on whether to cut the town's $60,000 homestead exemption in half, effectively clearing the way for the city to collect property taxes.
Mayor Luther Maddox said Tuesday he's "confident" the delegation could move quickly so that the issue is put before residents in a March or November referendum. The City Council approved the move in a meeting Monday night.
State Sen. Valencia Seay, a Democrat who represents parts of Clayton and Fayette counties, said Tuesday that she hasn't seen the resolution yet, but "I don't see a problem with giving voters a chance to vote on whether they want to reduce their homestead exemption."
As it stands now, Jonesboro's millage rate is zero. Even when the city of 4,000 residents had property taxes, its homestead exemption was so high that not many residents paid them.
Based on the hope that voters would approve the lower homestead exemption and the City Council would reinstate a city property tax, the city included about $166,000 in revenue from such a tax in the new budget, city officials said. The 2011 budget approved Monday night is $2.755 million.
However, City Finance Officer Sandra Meyers said the city still needs to see the county digest, which shows property values of homes. It's expected in late summer.
Jonesboro, one of 98 cities in Georgia without a property tax, hasn't had one since 2006. And resident Elaine Grubbs says if it comes up for a vote, she plans to vote no.
"To me, it's just devastating," Grubbs, 60, who has lived in Jonesboro half a century, said Tuesday. "The vast majority of Jonesboro -- what's left of it -- is sitting vacant or is bank-owned."
She said the value of her home has fallen to about $80,000, from about $115,000 three years ago. Homes in her neighborhood are selling at about $26,000.
In addition to dramatic drops in home values, Grubbs said she and many other Jonesboro residents live on fixed incomes and are wrestling with higher utility bills. As a retired federal worker, she gets about $1,960 a month in disability, after taxes.
"The majority of residents haven't been able to pay their county taxes, and now they want to put a city tax on us?"
Meanwhile, workers in this county seat escaped furloughs and layoffs after Jonesboro officials last month abandoned those plans for balancing the budget. Grubbs and other townspeople said the city didn't dig deep enough when it came to finding ways to balance the budget.
"Most county, state and city workers are taking furloughs but not the city of Jonesboro," she said. "I don't know of another place you can work where the city pays all of your life insurance, health benefits and retirement."
The city, which has about 40 employees, pays more than $365,000 a year in retirement contributions and health insurance for its workers.
Maddox said the city is able to fully pay its workers' insurance and retirement expenses because "a lot of cities don't watch their purse strings like we do." But Maddox concedes that a property tax is needed in this economic uncertainty to run Jonesboro properly.
City Councilman Roger Grider said a property tax would be burdensome to many Jonesboro residents who are "trying to survive on Social Security and very small retirements."
Grubbs left Monday night's council meeting "very upset."
"It was just a done deal," she said. "They didn't let people talk."
Maddox says Jonesboro homeowners will warm to the idea of lowering the homestead exemption once they realize they're not facing a giant tax bill.
"It would be less than $50 a year," he said.
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