ATLANTA – On Wednesday, April 29, 2009 Governor Sonny Perdue signed Senate Bill 240 into law. This legislation was authored by Representative Kevin Levitas (D- Atlanta) and Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R- Woodstock) to allow property owners to take property assessment disputes directly to arbitration. 
“Before the signing of Senate Bill 240, the system for appealing property tax valuations was too cumbersome, too expensive and too weighted against taxpayers,” said Rep. Levitas. “This new law will provide hard-working Georgians with an alternative method of challenging unfair valuations of their homes by county taxing authorities without having to bear the costs and expend the time and energy on appealing to boards of equalization or filing suits in superior court.”
Under this new law, a taxpayer can challenge the county’s valuation of his or her home by getting a professional appraisal. They can then use that appraisal to force the county into binding arbitration if the taxing authority disagrees with the appraisal obtained by the taxpayer.
The provision of SB 240 applies to all property tax appeals submitted to arbitration or appealed to superior court on or after the April 29, 2009, bill signing date. A full-text version of the SB 240 is available on the Internet at: http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2009_10/fulltext/sb240.htm.
* A picture of Representative Kevin Levitas, Governor Perdue and Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers at the signing of Senate Bill 240 is attached *
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Representative Kevin Levitas represents the citizens of District 82, which includes portions of DeKalb County. He was elected into the House of Representatives in 2006, and serves on the Agriculture & Consumer Affairs, Judiciary Non-Civil, Science and Technology, and Transportation Committees.