The Sumter County Board of Commissioners met on Sept 9. County Administrator Douglas Eaves gave a presentation on House Bill 581, which is the property tax homestead exemption bill
which will be on the November ballot as a constitutional amendment.

Eaves gave details on the Bill. “Unfortunately, all of these cities, and the Board of Education, and County, have a very short window to make some very important decisions that are going to effect. . .your tax millage, what the digest is.” He stated the bill was likely to pass.

He gave further details. “It addresses property tax and sales tax reforms.” Eaves addressed the most relevant part. “The main part of it is going to be a floating homestead exemption. It’s going to be automatic, if not opted out by March the 1rst. You cannot start the process until January the 1rst. But once you do, if you’re going to opt out, you have to have the advertisement, you have to have three hearings, a press release. . . just like a tax increase.” He also mentioned that it would require a resolution sent to the Secretary of State by March 1, 2025.

Eaves stated the opt out decision could be made separately. “Any of the entities can opt out. The Board of Education can opt out by itself, the County can opt out by itself, or any of the municipalities can opt out.” Eaves mentioned that it would freeze the base assessment value of properties at the 2024 rates. He also stated that it would survive the death of a spouse, allowing the surviving spouse to benefit from the exemption. However, the exemption would not survive a sale, and would reset when sold. He stated that the only increases that were allowed were tied to
CPI, which is stands for consumer price index, a measure of inflation.

Margaret Goodin gave nutrition information, stating that participation for breakfast for 2024 was 75%, which was an 8% increase.

Natasha Merritt shared finance information. She gave the day-to-day general fund balance as of August 31rst as $8,118,284.38. She gave the funds available for capital and special projects as
$5,052,301.26. She gave the SPLOST report for the month of August as $471,515.57. Merritt also gave the fund balance as of August 30 th at $13,654,845.65. Merritt stated that their next payment on their long-term debt would $3,335,675 which would be paid October 1rst. The current balance on the long-term debt is $13,981,025.