LAWRENCEVILLE – The current election season has seen the candidates for Gwinnett County Chairman pitching an alphabet soup of new sales taxes, namely LOST and HOST. The elected leaders of Gwinnett’s cities support tax relief for all county property owners, businesses included, not just residential property owners.
“HOST [Homestead Option Sales Tax] would inflict great damage on Gwinnett County for years to come,” remarked Gwinnett Municipal Association (GwMA) Chair Lois Salter, mayor of Berkeley Lake. “While we support property tax relief, we need to provide real relief, and not just shift taxes onto businesses and other taxpayers. LOST [Local Option Sales Tax] is a far more reasonable and fiscally sound approach to put before Gwinnett voters. LOST provides equitable property tax relief to city and county homeowners and businesses in a sustainable way. It would allow our county to continue its leadership in the region as a great place to live, work and play.”
Only two counties, DeKalb and Rockdale, have implemented HOST, and in both instances, the HOST has failed to deliver on its hype. Neither county is now able to fully relieve homeowners of county operating taxes as once promised, and the gap to do so widens each year. Both counties have had to reinstitute homeowner property taxes to fund their shortfalls. Meanwhile, commercial property owners are taxed at even higher rates.
“HOST is a failed tax policy experiment,” said Salter. “There is good reason why 147 of Georgia’s 159 counties have instituted LOST, not HOST. We hope Gwinnett County leaders will recognize that in this economy, with gas prices topping $4 per gallon that freezing out businesses that employ people close to home is bad public policy. We need to embrace businesses and good jobs, not be hostile to them.”
Both DeKalb and Rockdale saw a huge wave of new residential development as a result of implementing HOST. This accelerated a shift in their tax bases toward residential, compounding the tax impact on businesses. New families attracted by the promise of significantly lower taxes also increased the burdens on public schools.
“We, as leaders of Gwinnett’s cities, are committed to ensure the long-term economic health for all County stakeholders,” emphasized Salter. “HOST simply shifts taxes around, pits various groups against one another, and encourages development that doesn’t pay for itself. That would be extremely harmful and would earn Gwinnett a reputation for being anti-business. None of us should be for that.”
