Assessments pay for benefit, not value
An ad valorem tax is levied on everyone according to what their property is worth. A special assessment is different in kind: it charges the specific parcels that receive a specific improvement — a paved street, a sidewalk, a curb — for the benefit they get. That is why the measure is not value at all.
Front footage is the measure
Georgia rule: the street improvement statute charges each abutting lot by its lineal foot of frontage, at an equal rate per foot. Sidewalks, curbs and gutters are charged entirely to the lots on the side where they are built.
The exam tests exactly this distinction, so do not allocate by assessed value for ad valorem taxes. Charging every parcel equally ignores that a longer frontage receives and pays for more improvement, and square footage puts lot area where frontage belongs.
Worked example
A city paves a street costing $180,000, spread over 3,000 assessable front feet. A lot has 90 feet of frontage.
- Rate = $180,000 ÷ 3,000 = $60 per front foot
- The lot owes 90 × $60 = $5,400
Stopping at $60 answers the rate, not the charge. Dividing $180,000 by 90 as though the charge were equal per parcel gives $2,000, the classic wrong method. A mistaken $180 per foot gives $16,200.
The owners' veto and its deadline
The city adopts a resolution of necessity and publishes it once a week for three consecutive weeks. Owners of a majority of the lineal feet of abutting frontage may then defeat the improvement by filing written protest within 15 days after the last publication. Otherwise the city may contract, assess the cost and fix liens.
Note what the protest counts: frontage, not heads. A simple majority of owners voting one vote each is the wrong measure and usually drops the deadline. The project is not unstoppable once the resolution is published. Recording a termination signed by owners of 51% of the lots is the procedure for ending subdivision covenants, and has nothing to do with special assessments.