CITY COUNCIL
Sandy Springs adjusts Police HQ funding ► PAGE 5
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Ballot referendum ties assessments to inflation rate By ZOE SEILER zoe@appenmedia.com METRO ATLANTA — Voters will decide whether to enact a number of statewide ballot measures aimed at relieving sticker shock on property taxes. One ballot question is a constitutional amendment for a statewide floating homestead exemption that would essentially cap property assessments at the inflation rate. House Bill 581 creates the homestead exemption and a new local option sales tax. It will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025, only if the referendum on House Resolution 1022, which is also known as Amendment 1, is approved by voters in November. Election Day is Nov. 5. The ballot question would give the Legislature the constitutional authority to offer this homestead exemption. The question says: “Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to authorize the General Assembly to provide by general law for a state-wide homestead exemption that serves to limit increases in the assessed value of homesteads, but which any county, consolidated government, municipality, or local school system may opt out of upon the completion of certain procedures?" A floating homestead exemption generally increases its value to offset inflation. For example, if a home has a taxable value of $100,000 and that increases the following year to $110,000, the exemption floats to be worth $10,000.
Opponents of a bid by Mount Vernon School to add athletic field lighting don red T-shirts at a community meeting Sept. 16. The City of Sandy Springs will hold another public meeting on the topic Oct. 24.
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MOUNT VERNON COMMUNITY ASSOCATION/PROVIDED
Mount Vernon School, neighbors battle over athletic field lighting By HAYDEN SUMLIN hayden@appenmedia.com SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — The Mount Vernon Woods and Aria West neighborhoods are fighting a nearby private school’s effort to install field lighting in central Sandy Springs. The process to allow lighting on the athletic field requires The Mount Vernon
School to amend the conditions of its special use permit through the City of Sandy Springs. When the school was preparing to move to its current location at 510 Mount Vernon Highway more than 20 years ago, it agreed with a neighborhood to not install lighting on its main athletic field. The terms of the agreement, signed in 2003 between the school and neighbor-
hood, expires in September 2025. The school’s 40-acre Upper Campus abuts Mount Vernon Highway and Glenridge Drive in central Sandy Springs. Head of School and CEO Kristy Lundstrom said the push to have field lighting is about enhancing the student-athletes experience and expanding programming.