ATLANTA (AP) — For Georgians unhappy about rising property tax bills, lawmakers say they have a solution — a limit on how much of a home's increasing value can be taxed.
With early balloting underway, voters are deciding on a state constitutional amendment that would limit increases in a home’s value for property tax purposes to the broader rate of inflation each year.
Supporters say it will protect current homeowners from ever-higher property tax bills, but opponents warn that the caps will unfairly shift the burden onto new homeowners, renters and other property holders.
Georgia is one of eight states where voters will decide property tax measures Nov 5, a sign of how rising tax bills are influencing politics nationwide.
Most significant is North Dakota, where a referendum seeks to end the current property tax for all purposes except repaying existing debt. Many officials there, including traditionally low-tax Republicans, are fighting the measure, saying such a big change could disrupt essential state and local government services.
Questions are also on the ballot in Florida, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico and Wyoming.
With demand outweighing supply, housing prices are rising nationwide, and those increased values can show up in higher taxes.
From 2018 to 2022, the total assessed value of property across Georgia rose by nearly 39%, according to figures from the Georgia Department of Revenue. Most governments pocketed increased revenues without raising tax rates, boosting employee pay and other spending. Statewide property tax collections rose 41% from 2018 to 2022.
Lawmakers got an earful from constituents and responded with the proposed constitutional amendment. State Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Hufstetler, a Rome Republican who helped write it, calls increases based on higher valuations “a backdoor tax increase.”
“I think that some of our homeowners, particularly the elderly, are getting taxed out of their homes,” Hufstetler said. “They don’t even have an income anymore, but yet their taxes are going sky high.”
The protection would last as long as someone owns their home. The assessed value would reset to the market value when a home is sold.
Dozens of Georgia counties, cities and school systems already operate under similar local assessment caps.
There’s little opposition, and early voters interviewed this week were universally favorable. Brad Turney, who owns a condo in Atlanta's Midtown neighborhood, was among supporters.
“I don't want it to get out of hand, and I think this might be helpful,” Turney said after voting in suburban Sandy Springs.
But school systems have been wary, warning that the cap could starve them of needed funds. That’s especially true because most school districts can’t raise property tax rates above a certain level.
To ease schools' concerns, the measure gives local governments and school districts until March 1 to opt out. Any that do not would be permanently governed by the cap.
“You only have one time to opt out, and then you're done,” said John Zauner, executive director of the Georgia School Superintendents Association. He expects many systems could exit.
Hufstetler said it would be a “mistake” to opt out.
Assessment caps lead to disparities, with people paying higher taxes than their neighbors just because they bought a house later. Audrey Yushkov, a senior policy analyst with the Tax Foundation, warned that the measure could make purchasing a home more difficult in the future, because new buyers would face higher bills and longtime owners would have an incentive to stay in their current houses to keep their tax bills low. The Tax Foundation is a Washington, D.C.-based group that is traditionally skeptical of tax hikes.
“There is this lock-in effect for current homeowners and a lock-out effect for new homebuyers,” Yushkov said.
Those effects are rampant in California, which pioneered an even stricter assessment cap, Proposition 13, in 1978.
Yushkov also noted that higher tax bills would be passed on to renters because the amendment doesn't shield apartments and other commercial property from higher assessments.
The measure also includes a provision letting city and county governments increase sales taxes by a penny on every $1 of sales to replace property taxes. Hufstetler lauded that provision, saying it would allow governments to tax visitors to pay for local services. But Yushkov called it a loser, saying property taxes are more transparent because people get one big yearly bill and because the services are clearly linked to the taxes.
People line up around the building at the Tucker-Reid H. Cofer branch of the Dekalb County Public Library on the first day of early voting, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024 in Tucker, Ga. (Matthew Pearson/WABE via AP)
FILE - A sign announcing a home for sale is posted outside a home Feb. 1, 2024, in Kennesaw, Ga., near Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Billie Jean King started the Women’s Sports Foundation with a $5,000 check.
She’s turned that investment into $100 million and a half century of helping girls and women achieve their dreams through travel and training grants, local sports programs and mentoring athletes and coaches.
King celebrated the 50th anniversary of the foundation by honoring the 1999 U.S. women’s World Cup champions, PWHL and Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter and the 2024 WNBA rookie class on Wednesday night in New York.
“What makes me happy is creating opportunities and dreams for others,” King told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “I look back and that’s what drives me.”
Nearly 100 female athletes attended the awards dinner to celebrate the milestone and King, a tireless advocate for equal pay and more investment in women’s sports.
That includes awards host and soccer honoree Julie Foudy. She graduated from Stanford and played for the 1999 U.S. soccer team that won the World Cup before a record crowd of more than 90,000 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
“She’s remained a friend and mentor and such a catalyst for changing the trajectory of women’s soccer and so many sports,” said Foudy, a former president of the Women’s Sports Foundation and current soccer broadcaster for Turner and TNT.
After the World Cup win, Foudy and the team turned to King, Donna Lopiano and Donna de Verona for advice about improving pay and starting a professional soccer league.
“I’ll never forget, (King) said ‘What are you guys doing about it?’” said Foudy, regarding their collective leverage with the U.S. Soccer Federation. “And as players, that was the exact epiphany we needed at that moment.”
Foudy and the ’99ers eventually witnessed the successful struggle toward equity, helping lay the foundation for the current U.S. women’s national team to receive the same pay and working conditions as the men’s team. A players’ lawsuit against the federation resulted in a landmark $24 million settlement in 2022.
“Billie doesn’t have just one meeting. She’d check in and follow up and ask ‘What do you need?’” Foudy said. “She was at that first (WUSA professional) game in Washington D.C. (in 2001) and was a big proponent of the importance of having a league and player pool for the longevity and growth of women’s soccer.”
The current iteration is the NWSL, which started in 2013 and now has 14 teams. Foudy is part of the ownership group of Angel City FC. New owners Bob Iger and Willow Bay acquired a controlling stake in the team in July, with a value of $250 million.
King recently joined forces with Mark and Kimbra Walter to create the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), which will launch its second season in late November. U.S. Olympic gold medalist Kendall Coyne Schofield reached out to King to help unify the fractured pro hockey landscape into one viable league. King, who is part of the Dodgers' ownership group, collaborated with Walter to form the new six-team league.
The WNBA rookie class, led by No. 1 pick Caitlin Clark, received the Next Gen Award for “showing up, showing out and boldly carrying the torch forward.” The popularity of Indiana’s Clark and Chicago’s Angel Reese generated unprecedented WNBA attendance, more nationally televised games and record-breaking TV ratings this summer.
“Caitlin Clark is fantastic,” King said. “It reminds me of Chris Evert in 1971, when she changed everything at the U.S Open. Anytime a player can do well, she helps everybody.”
The rookie class includes Cameron Brink (Stanford), Kamilla Cardoso (NCAA champion South Carolina), Rickea Jackson (Tennessee), Jacy Sheldon (Ohio State), Aaliyah Edwards (UConn), Reese (LSU) and Alissa Pili (Utah).
The WNBA lags in pay equity, with Clark receiving only $76,000 in her rookie season compared to the NBA No. 1 pick, who gets $12 million. WNBA players may see an increase in salary in 2026 from a new 11-year media rights deal for approximately $200 million a year ahead of the next collective bargaining agreement. The players’ union is interested in increasing the WNBA revenue share from 9.3%. NBA players receive about 50% of the money generated from TV deals, ticket sales, merchandise and licensing.
King says it may take more time to close the pay gaps because women’s sports is "still in its infancy.”
“The NBA is 78 years old, the WNBA is 28 years old,” King said. “(Former NBA Commissioner) David Stern made a huge difference, he was a marketing genius. We need to continue to do that for women’s sports.”
King and the ‘Original Nine’ helped market the early women's professional tennis circuit, and she formed the WTA with players a week before Wimbledon in 1973. She advocated for Title IX, beat Bobby Riggs and fought for equal prize money in tennis. In between, she won 39 Grand Slam titles during her career.
The next milestone for the 80-year-old King will be receiving the Congressional Gold Medal. It's one of the highest U.S. civilian honors for individuals whose achievements have a lasting impact on their field.
“The Women’s Sports Foundation, nobody knew how long it would last,” she said. “I look at the 50th anniversary as a continuation to create more opportunities. You can’t let up.”
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
Kathrine Switzer poses for photos on the red carpet at the Women's Sports Foundation's Annual Salute to Women in Sports, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Ilana Kloss poses for photos on the red carpet at the Women's Sports Foundation's Annual Salute to Women in Sports, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Briana Scurry poses for photos on the red carpet at the Women's Sports Foundation's Annual Salute to Women in Sports, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Mary Carillo poses for photos on the red carpet at the Women's Sports Foundation's Annual Salute to Women in Sports, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Lisa Bluder poses for photos on the red carpet at the Women's Sports Foundation's Annual Salute to Women in Sports, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Cheryl Miller, left, and Ann Myers Drysdale, right, pose for photos on the red carpet at the Women's Sports Foundation's Annual Salute to Women in Sports, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Julie Foudy poses for photos on the red carpet at the Women's Sports Foundation's Annual Salute to Women in Sports, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Billie Jean King, left, and Ilana Kloss, right, pose for photos on the red carpet at the Women's Sports Foundation's Annual Salute to Women in Sports, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
FILE - Julie Foudy poses at the Women's Sports Foundation's Annual Salute to Women in Sports, Oct. 12, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, File)
FILE - Mark Walter speaks during a news conference in Los Angeles on Sept. 21, 2018. AP Photo/Alex Gallardo, File)
Tennis great Billie Jean King smiles as she is introduced as grand marshal of the 136th Rose Parade next year on the front steps of the Tournament House in Pasadena, Calif., Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Tennis great Billie Jean King speaks after being introduced as grand marshal of the 136th Rose Parade next year on the front steps of the Tournament House in Pasadena, Calif., Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
