Representative Mitchell Horner calls it a 100% homestead exemption. Here is what his own spreadsheets, and the county's own records, actually say happens.
Rep. Horner walked through his model at a public meeting on July 16, 2026. I asked him to share it, and so did other residents. On NightTalk on August 5, he said he'd have “a full analysis” up on his Facebook page, hopefully that Friday. As of this writing, it isn’t there.
He did share his work with other local officials, and I got a copy through an open records request. Those files are the starting point for everything on this site. Where I check his numbers against something else, like the county’s property records or the school system’s budgets, I say so and name the source.
If he releases an updated model with different numbers, I’ll update this site to match.
Every number below comes from Rep. Horner's own spreadsheets, his own public statements, the county's property records, or audited Catoosa County and school system budget documents.
See where his own words disagree with it → Check the math yourself →Your neighbor could pay $0 while you pay thousands in school tax on the same kind of home, just because you moved in more recently.
On the 2028 average Catoosa homestead, his plan raises the school rate from 15.75 to 18.80 mills, then only exempts people who've owned their home five years or more. Same tax rate, same home value, same year: one owner's school tax is $0, the other's is $2,654.
First-time buyers. People who moved here for work. People who've lived in Catoosa their whole life and just bought a different house across town.
This is school tax only, the part of the plan that carries the five-year rule. County and city tax work differently and don't depend on how long you've owned your home. See what FLOST does to county and city taxes →
Not an estimate. A row in his own spreadsheet, labeled as revenue. It starts at $6,630,217 in 2028 and grows every year to $9,036,306 in 2037.
To account for people who bought homes in the last five years, his file holds back 20% of all homestead value from the exemption every year. It then adds a share of that back for seniors who would be exempt anyway. What's left, 17% of homestead value, is the newest homeowners paying their full school tax until they hit five years. People age out, new buyers take their place, and the 17% is on the tax roll every year.
He labeled his number "Max Usage." It's a third of what the county's own unclaimed-homestead list shows right now, before a single new filing.
Hold him to the 100% he advertises, correct two assumptions using his own file and the county's records, and the plan needs more property tax than state law allows a school system to collect. The gap: $12.9 million a year, or about 118 teaching positions.
Year over year, actual growth has been 4.39%, 7.10%, 6.10%, 6.25%, 4.88%. Not one year came in under his 3.5% assumption. Leave out the two pandemic years and it's still 5.74%.
The 118 teachers above doesn't even count this. Add real cost growth and his recommended option needs about 28 mills, against a legal cap of 20.
He has said in writing that the plan should be stress-tested before anyone adopts it. Nobody has. He has never released the spreadsheets themselves, so the only way to see them is to request it through open records. And even then, Option C, the ten-year version, is 273 typed-in numbers with no formulas behind any of them. There's nothing to check. You either take it on faith or you don't.
You’ve seen his numbers. Want to get to know the other candidate for House District 3?
Meet Margaret Spear at spearforga.com →The plan walked through in order, and where it starts breaking down.
Direct quotes next to the spreadsheet cells that don't match them.
Every toggle, every assumption, checked against real numbers.
One thing worth knowing. The penny sales tax on the November ballot is step one of this plan. The school homestead exemption described on this page is a separate vote that hasn't happened yet.