Georgia bill would allow property owners a tax refund if cities don't clear homeless encampments

New legislation in Georgia would put more pressure on local governments to enforce laws around homeless encampments, panhandling and other issues.

It would allow property owners to claim a tax refund if they could show they lost value or incurred extra expenses because local governments failed to enforce bans on these practices. The bill mirrors a law approved by Arizona voters last November.

“Our hope is local governments simply do their job and enforce the laws of our state and our local governments and then no one would ever be able to utilize this,” said State Rep. Houston Gaines of Athens, one of six Republicans sponsoring the bill, in a brief hearing Wednesday.