Penny sales tax could erase property taxes, but not school bills, for Dublin-Laurens homeowners

Already with some of the lowest city and county tax rates in the state, Dublin and Laurens County homeowners could pay no property taxes – except for those levied by the school boards – if officials are successful at fast-tracking local legislation through ahead of schedule as the General Assembly begins its special session this week.

A new law allows counties and municipalities to pass – through voter referendum – a new sales tax that would directly offset property taxes paid on primary residences. A penny sales tax typically generates about $13.5 million for Laurens County, which County Administrator Bryan Rogers said would not only be enough to eliminate taxes on homesteaded properties, but also much of the taxes paid by commercial and rental property owners.

“It could wipe out everybody’s taxes in the county,” Rogers said, “but I want to be clear – this does not affect school taxes.”

Revenue from the new “local homestead option sales tax,” or LHOST,  would be used “dollar for dollar” to offset property taxes on residences, Rogers said.

“Everything else would go to reduce other property taxes.”

The law sets 2028 as the earliest that the new tax can take effect, but local officials see the special session that opened Wednesday as a door to getting it in place earlier. 

County and city officials from Dublin, East Dublin, Cadwell, Dexter, Dudley, Montrose and Rentz scurried last week to get an agreement and required advertisements in place to allow state Rep. Matt Hatchett to introduce local legislation calling for a voter referendum this fall.

Some other counties also plan to get a jump on the new sales tax, and Gov. Brian Kemp has announced that he will allow the Legislature to consider any local LHOST legislation during the special session. However, it’s unclear if lawmakers must vote to change to a 2028 effective date on the tax so that it can be begin a year early.

“We doing this on short notice,” said Rogers. “Nobody thought there would be a special session, so we’re doing a lot of this on the fly. If it works out, we can get it on November’s ballot.”

As of Monday, an effort to pass local legislation on behalf of counties seeking to call for the referendums had been blocked by Democrats, leaving lawmakers short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass.