Wednesday, July 23, 2025–9:30 a.m.

-David Crowder, WRGA News-

Rome and Floyd County residents will have the opportunity to vote on an extra penny sales tax that would go toward offsetting property taxes as soon as this November.

With public hearings taking place regarding the millage rate for the City of Rome and Floyd County, property taxes are very much on everyone’s mind.

State Senator Chuck Hufstetler was at Tuesday’s Floyd County Commission meeting, and spoke about House Bill 581, which allows local governments to hold a referendum where voters will say yes or no to the floating sales tax.

“I think we all want the same thing,” he said. “Property taxes are the most hated of all taxes of all, I think, and we want to get them as low as we can. The penny tax is going to help cut them for the city and county. I heard 40 percent. However, I think the city number, when I calculated it, was a lot higher than that, but I guess it just depends on the ratio you guys do, but I think about half of the taxes will go away for the homeowners from the city and county if this passes in November.”

According to Floyd County Commission Chair Allison Watters, the city and county will have to approve an intergovernmental agreement regarding how the revenue from the extra penny will be distributed.

A meeting will be held on August 5.

HB 581 also mandates that the homestead exemption in Georgia include school taxes.

The existing homestead exemption in Rome and Floyd County is already greater than the one mandated by the state legislature, but the school systems were not included. 

However, that has changed.

“Your city and county are still going to be frozen, and the schools are going to be almost as good, in that it will be 2 or 3 percent—whatever the rate of inflation is,” Hufstetler said. “Say you have a $100,000 home, and this year they said it’s worth $200,000. Well, they can only tax you at the rate of inflation, which would be an additional $2,000 or $3,000 that they would tax on, and not the entire $100,000. So, in my mind, my taxes aren’t really going up.”

Hufstetler said when people get their tax bills, they will see that their assessment increase will be completely covered for the city and county, and almost all of it covered for schools.