ATLANTA – State Representative Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur) today announced that she has pre-filed House Bills 23, 24 and 25 as a legislative package to strengthen opportunities for local governments and school systems to evaluate proposed annexation and tax abatement plans.
“In my central DeKalb County district and across the state, there is conflict and discussion about the financial impact of annexation efforts on school systems and on local governments,” said Rep. Oliver. “I want us to have a focused discussion and strengthen the statutes to allow for objections to annexations, review of bond validations with related tax abatement issues and increase transparency for all participants.”
Rep. Oliver’s three bills seek to assist all parties engaged in annexation and bond validation proceedings with tax abatement offerings. House Bill 23 would grant affected local school systems standing and authority to participate in annexation dispute resolution proceedings. The second bill, House Bill 24, would authorize objections to annexations based on tax abatements or other financial incentives, give the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) authority to create rules and regulations on how annexation panel hearings should be conducted and require the appointment of qualified lawyers as hearing officers to support the volunteer annexation panels in procedural and substantive matters, with the cost of such hearing officers shared among the parties. Finally, House Bill 25 would grant school systems standing to become parties to bond validation hearings.
A number of stakeholders have already been included in preparing the draft bills, and Rep. Oliver hopes the bills will increase access to local government decisions.
These three bills will be formally introduced during the upcoming 2021 legislative session of the Georgia General Assembly, which begins January 11, 2021.
For more information on House Bill 23, please click here.
For more information on House Bill 24, please click here.
For more information on House Bill 25, please click here.
Representative Mary Margaret Oliver represents the citizens of District 82, which includes portions of DeKalb County. She was elected to the House of Representatives in 2002 and currently serves on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Human Resources and the Governmental Affairs, Juvenile Justice, Judiciary and Science and Technology committees.
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