Linda Phillips established the Nuci Phillips Memorial Foundation, Inc. in honor of her son, Nuci Phillips, a talented young musician who suffered from depression, which ultimately led to his suicide while he was a student at the University of Georgia. The Foundation owns and operates a facility called Nuci’s Space, which provides a healthy, safe place for the Athens community where musicians and others may come to seek help for anxiety, depression or other emotional disorders. The Foundation applied for an exemption from ad valorem taxation for the property on which its facility is located, and the exemption was granted by the Athens-Clarke County Board of Equalization. The Athens-Clarke County Board of Tax Assessors Board challenged the grant of exemption in the trial court, which affirmed the exemption. The Board appealed from the trial court’s ruling to the Court of Appeals, which reversed in Athens-Clarke County Bd. of Tax Assessors v. Nuci Phillips Memorial Foundation , 300 Ga. App. 754 686 SE2d 371 2009. The Court of Appeals found that since the Foundation rents out rehearsal space as well as space for private birthday parties and wedding receptions, then the Foundation does not use its property exclusively in furtherance of its charitable pursuits as required by OCGA § 48-5-41 d 2 in order to qualify for an exemption from ad valorem taxation. Athens-Clarke County Bd. of Tax Assessors v. Nuci Phillips Memorial Foundation , supra at 755. We granted certiorari to consider whether the Court of Appeals erred in applying OCGA § 48-5-41 d 2. 1. “When we are interpreting a statute, we must presume that the General Assembly had full knowledge of the existing state of the law and enacted the statute with reference to it. Cits.” Chase v. State , 285 Ga. 693, 695 2 681 SE2d 116 2009. Furthermore, when construing statutes, ” ‘their meaning and effect is to be determined in connection, not only with the common law and the constitution, but also with reference to other statutes and the decisions of the courts.’ Cit.” Chase v. State , 285 Ga. 693, 695-696 2 681 SE2d 116 2009. Therefore, in order to discern the meaning and effect of the 2006 and 2007 amendments to OCGA § 48-5-41, we must look to the history of the statute and the decisions of the courts that have interpreted it.
The General Assembly, pursuant to the Georgia Constitution of 1877, exempted from ad valorem taxation the property of “all institutions of purely public charity . . . provided , the . . . property so exempted be not used for purposes of private or corporate profit or income.” Emphasis in original. Ga. L. 1878-79, pp. 32, 33, § 1. Thereafter, the decisions of this Court construed the statute as disallowing the use of exempted property from any type of private or corporate income-producing activity, whether the activity was charitable or non-charitable. Mundy v. Van Hoose , 104 Ga. 292, 299 30 SE 783 1898 superseded by statute as stated in Elder v. Henrietta Egleston Hosp. for Children , 205 Ga. 489, 492 53 SE2d 751 1949.
