COLLEGE PARK, Ga. — The city of College Park is holding a referendum on eliminating property taxes for senior citizens.
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Shirley Harper Robinson will be 85 in August. She has lived in her College Park home since 1979.
However, she is on a fixed income and battling cancer and it’s become hard to keep up with rising property taxes.
“When you’re paying all the bills by yourself, it’s a big burden to try to pay everything when you are not working and not young anymore and being sick, it’s not easy,” Robinson said.
That’s why College Park turned to the Georgia General Assembly.
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This session, a law was passed allowing College Park to exempt seniors from city property taxes.
City councilman Roderick Gay has been spearheading the effort.
“If you’re 65 or older, you own your home for at least five years in our city, you would no longer be required to pay the city property tax,” Gay said.
Channel 2 Action News first reported on this back in 2022, when Robinson filed a lawsuit against the city of College Park.
She sued because three years ago, after securing General Assembly approval for the exemption, the city council decided to hold the referendum.
This time around, the measure has unanimous city council support.
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With a city budget of $200 million, healthy from taxes related to the airport, Gay says the city can afford it.
“It would cost, if all seniors took it, only under $2 million,” Gay said.
Some, but not many, Georgia communities have similar exemptions.
Cobb and Cherokee Counties have a local school property tax exemption for homeowners 62 and over.
DeKalb has exemptions for lower-income seniors.
Robinson says she just wants to be able to stay in a home that holds so many memories.
“By trying to keep up all my doctor bills and then that bill comes in on top of everything else I’ve got, it’s not easy,” Robinson said.
Voters in College Park will make the ultimate decision on the exemption in a November referendum.
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