Tag Archives: Hahira

SPLOST with Lowndes County and the cities @ SPLOST 2012-06-11

The second of two meetings on the Lowndes County Commission According to the calendar for Monday morning, 11 June 2011, is about SPLOST, and also involves all the cities in the county.

SPLOST Meeting/ (6/11/2012)

The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners along with the City of Valdosta, City of Hahira, City of Dasher, City of Lake Park and City of Remerton will be holding a SPLOST meeting on Monday, June 11, 2012, at 9:30 a.m. in the Multi-Purpose Room on the 2nd floor of the Administration Building.

SPLOST is not to be confused with LOST (created by the legislature), nor with ESPLOST for educational purposes, and certainly not with T-SPLOST for transportation.

Unlike the work session, which has no description of what it's about, there is at least a link on the county Quick Links for SPLOST, which says:

Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST)

As of July 1, 1985, Georgia law enabled local jurisdictions to use SPLOST proceeds for capital improvement projects that would otherwise be paid for with General Fund or property tax revenues. SPLOST stands for Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. This is a one-cent sales tax, which the State of Georgia allows counties to collect to fund specific improvement projects. SPLOST must be approved by voters in a general referendum in order to be enacted and last for a maximum of 60 months (five years) or until the total amount of revenue specified in the referendum is reached. The SPLOST projects and the amount of money raised by SPLOST were identified prior to voting on the SPLOST referendum. The proceeds of the tax must be spent for capital (non-operating) items by the county government and participating municipalities within the county.

That page also includes a list of SPLOST projects completed by January 2010.

-jsq

Rezoning density outside of Hahira @ LCC 2012 05 07

Two rezonings had no comments. The third, just north of Hahira, got opposition at the Planning Commission, which recommended a qualification, which County Planner Jason Davenport interpreted as trying to limit the density of development of the property.

At the Lowndes County Commission at its 7 May 2012 Work Session during the discussion on

7.c. REZ-2012-07 McNeal Property, McNeal Road E-A to R-A, Well & Septic, 25 acres

Crawford Powell, Commissioner for District 3, which is the south end of the county, asked a question, while Richard Raines, Commissioner for District 2, which is the north end of the county including Hahira, sat silent, although he did nod his head.

A neighbor sent a letter with details of opposition. I wonder what’s in it? If you want to know, you can submit an open records request to the county. Of course, with the three day time limit for the county to respond, the Commission will have already voted on it this evening before you find out what’s in the letter.

Here’s the video:

Rezoning density outside of Hahira
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 May 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

Videos of Mayors and County in Hahira @ LOST 2012 05 02

The five local cities (Valdosta, Hahira, Remerton, Dasher, and Lake Park) presented their case in terms of changed demographics from the 2000 to the 2010 census. Much of the presentation was explained by Hahira City Manager Jonathan Sumner.

Lowndes County wasn’t interested in discussing, and is waiting for arbitration, which will happen in 60 days (presumably from when they started negotiating). The VDT writeup protrays that as a surprise, but it’s what County Chairman Ashley Paulk has been saying since before these negotiations began.

I would have preferred to hear what services the cities do now or could with more tax revenue provide that would benefit the entire county.

Even more, I think the local governments could spend their time together better talking about how to increase the pie, for example through solar energy for municipal revenue or through county-wide fast Internet broadband access, either of which would help attract knowledge-based jobs, which would provide employment and increased tax revenue.

However, I salute the cities and the county for being transparent about their positions, as you can see in these videos.

Here’s a playlist:

Videos of Mayors and County in Hahira
LOST Negotiation,
Mayors and County in Hahira, Lowndes County Commission (LOST),
Hahira, Lowndes County, Georgia, 2 May 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

Austin Energy changed from anti-solar to pro-solar in one year

At the end of 2003, Austin Energy (AE) suddenly went from very anti-solar to very pro-solar. Formerly coal-smoking Cobb EMC is doing it right now. If AE and Cobb EMC can do it, so can Georgia Power: change in one year from opposed to aggressively promoting solar power.

Mike Clark-Madison wrote for the Austin Chronicle 5 December 2003, AE drops a solar bomb,

In a near-complete turnaround from its public position just a week ago, Austin Energy has announced plans to adopt specific, highly ambitious, and undeniably expensive goals for adding solar energy to the Austin electric and economic mix. At a town hall meeting held Tuesday night to discuss the AE plan — also the subject of a public hearing at City Council today (Thursday) — AE’s Roger Duncan announced the utility’s commitment to develop 15 megawatts of solar generating capacity by 2007, escalating to 100 megawatts by 2020. The AE plan also calls for a study of the “comprehensive value” of solar power — putting a dollar amount on the economic and environmental benefits to Austin, in addition to the cost of solar-generated electricity itself. This would determine the price Austin Energy would pay for electricity generated by privately owned solar installations, just as AE now buys wind power from third parties.

Georgians tend to think Georgia Power’s foot-dragging and disinformation campaign about solar is so entrenched it will never change. But I’ve seen it happen, and it happened despite people’s expectations set by the power utility, and it happened very quickly and very big:

Continue reading →

LOST again in Hahira 9AM 2 May 2012

The local cities want more LOST money from the county. Imagine if they and the county spent this much effort bringing in new industry such as solar to increase the pie!

David Rodock wrote for the VDT 17 April 2012, County’s LOST proposal declined: Cities want more money; negotiations to begin in May. Well, that about sums it up. Looks like this is going to end up in another round of litigation after a lot of talking past each other.

So there will be LOST again, this time in Hahira, 9AM 2 May 2012 at the Hahira Community Center, 215 Randall Street.

They could spend their time talking together more productively.

-jsq

Parks and Rec citizen meeting tonight in Hahira

Following up on something I heard last night, I called Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks & Recreation Authority and determined they’re having a citizens meeting tonight in Hahira:

Who: Lose & Associates presentation
What: will ask questions and take community input
Where: Courthouse, 305 W. Main Street, Hahira, GA
When: 6-7PM 18 April 2012

Image by Old Shoe Woman

There was one of these yesterday at Mildred Hunter in south Valdosta. For unknown reasons these events were not posted on VLPRA’s website, which is odd considering this earlier report:

In March there will be about six public meetings concerning the master plan. According to Mr. Page the meetings will be advertised on the VLPRA website, in the Valdosta Daily Times, and by word of mouth.

I heard by word of mouth there was a notice in the VDT yesterday, so that’s two out of three.

-jsq

April 2012 LAKE meeting: China 1, Hahira

See the owl use chopsticks! Come to Hahira Tuesday.

What: Monthly LAKE Meeting
When: 7 PM, Tuesday 17 April 2012
Where: China 1
205 South Church Street
(one block south of Main or GA 122)
(don’t believe google maps)
Hahira, GA 31632

If you follow the LAKE blog, On the LAKE Front, you know what we cover, from elections to gardening, connecting the dots. What else do you want to investigate?

If you’re on Facebook, please Like the LAKE facebook page. You can sign up for the meeting event there, Or just come as you are.

-jsq

 

 

Videos of Lowndes County and the mayors @ LOST 2012 04 09

Here are videos of the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) talks yesterday morning between Lowndes County and the local cities (Valdosta, Hahira, Remerton, Dasher, and Lake Park. Not really negotiations, these were more an exchange of views. The county’s position is the same as Chairman Ashley Paulk told me after the county’s four minute work session earlier that morning: the county could claim 72% of LOST based on cost of services delivered to the whole county, but the county’s offer is to stick with the 58% share from 2002. The cities all would like a bigger share.

The venue was the county’s meeting room next to Commission Chambers. There was no sound feed available in there, so sound is variable.

First County Manager Joe Pritchard explained the state-mandated procedures and Lowndes County’s position, both of which were spelled out in a three page paper. Basically, the county wants to stick to the percentages negotiated in 2002, although by the county’s reckoning it could ask for a much higher percentage.

None of the cities had a written position paper. Valdosta Mayor John Gayle noted Valdosta had grown more than the county as a whole. County Chairman Ashley Paulk responded that the city couldn’t grow without the county growing. The Mayor said nontheless most growth was in Valdosta. The Chairman asked whether that was growth in households? The Mayor said he didn’t know the answer to that right now. The Chairman remarked that according to his reading of the census, it was mostly not in households.

Hahira Mayor Wayne Bullard Continue reading →

Lowndes County position on LOST negotiations @ LCC 2012 04 09

Lowndes County Clerk Paige Dukes handed out this document, Lowndes County’s Report for Initial LOST Negotiations: April 9, 2012, at that first LOST meeting yesterday. When I spoke to her later, I mentioned that I thought it was the very model of how to write such a document: clear, complete, pithy, and easily understandable. She did not have a readily-accessible electronic copy, so I’ve posted these scanned images on the LAKE website.

The document includes a summary of the negotiation procedure (60 days to negotiate, after which it goes to mediation, then Superior Court “baseball arbitration”), plus how and how much LOST can reduce property taxes.

The rest of the document is the county’s position, which includes that the county provides services such as sheriff, courts, public health, and animal control that benefit the entire county, and the county could claim 72% of LOST. However, the county is only asking for the same 58% as negotiated in 2002.

A few things I did not know include that the dedicated millage for Parks and Rec (VLPRA 1.5mil) and the Industrial Authority (VLCIA 1 mil) come out of county property taxes, not out of any city property taxes. Also VLCIA’s millage started since 2002, before which VLCIA was funded out of hotel-motel taxes, including Valdosta hotel-motel taxes.

I also remarked to Paige Dukes that I wished the cities had prepared similar position statements. She said they may be depending on LOST negotiating documents by the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA), and that there were similar documents by the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG), both which you can find linked in on the LAKE website.

The ACCG guidelines include this interesting passage:

Continue reading →