NORMAN PARK — At a public hearing Wednesday night, Norman Park city councilmen announced that they were not opting out of the House Bill 581 homestead exemption legislation.

Three residents attended the meeting, along with city councilmen Waylon Stuckey and Sam Brown and City Clerk Hope Amador.

“We’re not opting out of the Homestead,” Stuckey stated. “We’re going to keep things the way they are.”

In the Jan. 22, edition of the Moultrie Observer, the City of Norman Park ran an advertisement stating its intent to opt out of the statewide adjusted base year ad valorem homestead exemption.

Amador said that, because of the March 1 deadline for opting out of the legislation and because the city did not have its financial reports at the time, they went ahead and ran the advertisement in The Moultrie Observer to keep their options open as they considered what to do.

She also said, with Stuckey agreeing, that the advertisement is worded exactly the way House Bill 581 requires it to be worded to run in the newspaper.

“Our intent was never to opt-out,” said Stuckey.

Amador said that, as the hearings are already advertised, she will be at the Norman Park City Hall for each of the remaining two in case a resident had any further questions about the homestead exemption. The hearings are Wednesday, Feb. 5, at 10 a.m. and at 6:30 p.m.

HB 581, which passed the Legislature last year and was approved by voters in November, creates a variable homestead exemption to limit an increase in the taxable value of a homesteaded property based on the previous year’s inflation rate, as determined by the state Department of Revenue. The same law creates a Floating Local Option Sales Tax, or FLOST, that replace property tax revenue with sales tax revenue for cities and counties.

The law allows local governments to opt out of the homestead exemption, but if any city opts out, the count it’s in cannot levy a FLOST.

The Colquitt County Commission will look at the possibility of asking voters to adopt the FLOST in November of this year, which would add a penny to the current sales tax if it passes.