Butts County homeowners would get $50,000 taken off the taxable value of their homes for county taxes, and residents 62 and older would get $70,000 off, if voters approve two questions on the Nov. 3 ballot. Voters in six other places decide property tax breaks and liquor sales, and Union County voters weigh in on how their county is run.
More property tax breaks. Two school districts would exempt older homeowners entirely from school property taxes, and a third would widen an existing full exemption. In Heard County, residents 70 and older would owe none on their homes, starting in 2027. In Ware County, residents 75 and older would owe none. In Pickens County, the income limit for seniors’ and disabled residents’ full school-tax exemption would rise from $25,000 to $40,000. In Kingsland, one question would lower the age for a $25,000 city exemption from 65 to 62. The other would exempt the increase in a home’s assessed value above a base year.
Union County: a commission question and two sales taxes. Union County voters will say in an advisory vote whether the county should switch from a sole commissioner to a five-member board. Voters also decide whether to continue two 1% sales taxes: a six-year tax expected to raise $43 million for county and Blairsville projects, with $10 million in county borrowing, and a school tax that could raise up to $49 million over up to five years.
Stephens County: liquor. Stephens County voters decide whether the county may license liquor sales by the drink and whether it may permit them on Sundays. A third question asks about Sunday sales of “distilled spirits or alcoholic beverages” from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., though its title, “Expansion of time for Sunday Sales of Beer and Wine,” names only beer and wine.
Early voting runs through Oct. 30 [1].