GAINESVILLE – The annual chore mobile home owners face of obtaining a Hall County issued decal proving payment of property taxes, and then conspicuously displaying it so Hall County Marshals can see it from the road, is coming to an end.
Thursday evening the Hall County Commission approved a resolution authorized by new state law allowing counties the option of eliminating the decal requirement for mobile home owners.
Senate Bill 193 was passed by the Georgia General Assembly in May giving the authority to each county; at Monday’s county commission work session Hall County Tax Commissioner Darla Eden asked commissioners to make it the policy of Hall County.
“We have an opportunity to eliminate an unnecessary function: the issuance of mobile home decals,” Eden told commissioners. “Eliminating these will result in less work, less expense without loss of information, and even better, a reduced burden on our citizens.”
According to the county the Tax Commissioner’s Office issues 8,800 mobile home decals annually. Eden says the elimination of that process will actually enhance county revenues.
“I estimate the savings to be between $20,000 and $25,000…for the decals and the labor costs to mail these out,” Eden said as she displayed a current decal for commissioners to see.
“The decals are just really not effective any more. They’re not relied on or even relevant in current day,” she added.
Eden detailed that within the past decade mobile home property tax collection has reached near-totality. “Mobile home collections are at about 98.9-percent for 2020, and eight years ago that was in the 70 to 80-percent range,” she said.
Eden ended her presentation by saying, “With your support and approval I think we will be, probably, the first county in the state to do this.”
The resolution was approved unanimously at Thursday’s county commission voting session.
