Committee advances bill to simplify property tax assessment notice, removes newspaper ad requirement

A Georgia Senate committee approved Senate Bill 566 on a voice vote after sponsors and proponents told the panel the measure is primarily a technical cleanup to the property tax assessment notice.

The committee considered SB 566, described by members as closely resembling House Bill 275, during a brief session where lawmakers and advocates said the format of the taxpayer notice is unchanged. A member of the panel said the bill was drafted to reflect language developed with local appraisal staff in Paulding County and to improve clarity for taxpayers.

"Rather than writing a bill, we worked with James Stokes, the chief appraiser ... and put together how we wanted it to look like to clean it up for the people," a committee member said, explaining the process that shaped the current draft. Dante Hanel of the Southern Group, who said he was representing "G double a l," told the committee the bill's description was "spot on" and characterized several provisions as cleanup language previously seen in versions of House Bill 1116.

The principal substantive edits described at the hearing remove a requirement for a newspaper advertisement and change references so that, in counties where a homestead-exemption application is accepted by a tax commissioner rather than a tax assessor, the statute instead refers to "the appropriate taxing official assessor." A committee member described the number of counties affected as "8 or 9," characterizing that figure as approximate.

Representative Weissman asked whether the assessment-notice format had otherwise changed; the committee's presenter and Dante Hanel confirmed it had not. After a brief exchange of questions and no further discussion, Representative Weissman moved to pass the bill. The clerk recorded that there was a motion and a second (the second was not named on the record), called for a voice vote, and the committee answered "Aye" with no recorded opposition; the motion carried by voice vote.

Committee members thanked staff and local appraisers for their work on the draft. The clerk said either he or Chairman Williamson would carry the bill forward. The committee adjourned following the vote.

What happens next: SB 566 passed the committee by voice vote; the committee did not enter a recorded roll-call tally in the hearing transcript and no formal vote counts were provided on the record. The bill will be carried forward by a committee designee to the next legislative step.