Editorial: Here's who to blame for property tax hike

Notwithstanding the fact she's a candidate for Athens-Clarke County mayor in 2010, it was wise of Clarke County Tax Commissioner Nancy Denson to submit a letter to the editor of this newspaper gently telling local property owners where they should direct their concerns about what will be - for most, if not all, of them - a significant property tax increase.

Put simply, it ain't all the county's fault.

Yet it's a virtual certainty that, when bills sent from the county tax commissioner's office arrive in mailboxes in the next few days, that's where most property owners are likely to focus any frustration.

It's true enough that Athens-Clarke County commissioners approved a 0.25-mill hike in the property tax rate for the coming year, which, as Denson explained in her Monday letter, adds $10 per $100,000 of a property's fair market value to the tax bill.

It's also true that some property owners saw the county tax assessors' office increase the valuation of their homes, which forced their property tax bills upward.

But the real source of the increased bills going out to homeowners beginning today is the state legislature, which earlier this year adopted a measure that halted the state's Homeowners Tax Relief Grant program.

Under the program, the state sent money to local governments which they, in turn, passed along to property owners as a property tax credit.

As Denson explained in the Monday letter, the grant "was the equivalent of an $8,000 homestead exemption. ... Loss of this funding resulted in a property tax increase ... . In Clarke County, this increase is $

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