At least one year too late, Georgia lawmakers are toying with a cap on property tax assessments. Better late than not at all!

It has long been a matter of great injustice and frustration throughout the Peach State: It doesn't matter what the economy is doing -- if the local tax assessor thinks your house is worth 5, 6, 7 or 10 percent more than the year before, you're most likely stuck.

And while local politicians like to crow when they hold the line on property tax millage rates -- as the Augusta Commission recently did -- such "frugality" is meaningless if you end up paying more taxes anyway because your home's tax assessment was jacked up.

Many homeowners found that to be the case this year -- and were livid when the tax assessment reflected not the value of their homes today, but the value they had last year. In most cases, the value of homes has dropped significantly; but because of the lag time in tax law -- your home is assessed in 2008 at 2007 market values -- people are paying taxes on more home than they own.

A cap on the increase in tax assessments is the very least the Georgia General Assembly can do to provide us a little relief. One plan favored by House leaders would cap yearly assessment increases at 3 percent or the rate of inflation.

Whatever the specifics, get this done. Homeowners tuned in to the assessment debacle already are steamed. Those who aren't yet tuned in will be when their tax bills arrive.