By now you've probably received your property tax bill and I bet you're not too excited about that $200 to $300 increase this year. For those of you whose mortgage company pays the tax bill on your behalf, expect to see your mortgage payment go up soon as the additional escrow amount needed to cover the tax increase gets added to your monthly bill.

State legislators and local officials across the state are pointing fingers at each other over who is to blame for the tax increase... so let's unravel this one.

First a little background... In the 1930's Georgia established a $2,000 Homestead Exemption for Georgia homeowners, whereby the tax value of your home would be reduced by $2,000 and you would therefore pay less tax. Here we are over seventy years later and the exemption is still just $2,000. No one thought to add a yearly adjustment for inflation into the formula. For the record, some counties and cities over the years have added some additional exemptions such as those for senior citizens.

Earlier this year Republicans in the state legislature tried to pass legislation that would help homeowners by doubling the exemption to $4,000, but city and county officials statewide fought the measure. A 2/3rds super-majority was needed to approve the bill, but Democrats stood in the way and the additional exemption died.

Now let's jump forward to the HTRG... the Homeowners Tax Relief Grant. Hearing an outcry from homeowners who were getting hammered by ever increasing yearly tax assessments on their properties, several years ago the state passed the HTRG, which sent some state tax dollars down to local governments each year to help offset property taxes.

The idea was that local governments would reduce their millage rates in return. Some did and some did not... and instead took advantage of the situation hoping taxpayers wouldn't notice.

Now the HTRG is a grant and it's given back to local governments based upon the state having surplus dollars. Despite the severe economic downturn, state legislators dug deep and provided the money in the budget to cover the HTRG for 2009. However for this 2010 fiscal year we are now in, State officials have already made deep cuts and there are just no dollars available to cover this grant program. Local government officials were advised a year ago that the grants would not be funded.

That's the danger with grants of almost any kind. The recipients, in this case our local governments, had become dependent on the grants. When the money dried up, instead of cutting their own budgets to cover it, local governments decided to pass the costs on to local homeowners.

But it gets worse... for the past twenty years cities, counties, and school systems have relied upon ever increasing property values to pump up their budgets. Property values have fallen a good 15 to 30% across the board, yet if you'll examine your property tax bill, you'll probably find that the tax value of your home did not decrease.

So this year local government officials have hit us with a double whammy... and state legislators are listening. Many state senators and representatives are upset with how local governments have played the property tax game and we may see some major changes in state law... and I for one say it's past time.

That's my opinion, we welcome yours. Thanks for listening and I'll see you next Monday. For a complete transcript of this morning's comments or to replay the audio, go to NewsTalk1270.com

(End of complete transcript of commentary that aired on NewsTalk AM 1270 - WYXC at 7:35 AM Monday, October 5, 2009)