As Gretchen noted, “There was no work session for this meeting. Shockingly there was discussion.”
The Commissioners and even the County Attorney and County Manager were quite chatty in the
Lowndes County Commission Regular Session, Tuesday, October 22, 2024,
about hurricane debris, and especially about their upcoming $2 million purchase.
They also heard from two citizens.
In
5.b. Purchase of VSU South Campus Property
they revealed that the likely future occupant is
is the Board of Elections.
They discussed this one item for ten minutes! Unheard of.
Good, though.
In
6. Reports – County Manager
Paige Dukes estimated about $1.5 million in property damage to Lowndes County assets.
Not counting VLPRA, Hospital, and other authorities with their own budgets.
7. CWTBH: John S. Quarterman, speaking for WWALS Watershed Coalition as Suwannee Riverkeeper,
talked about the Georgia House Study Committee on Navigability
and recommended Commissioners contact statehouse members.
See separate post.
Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item,
with a few notes by Gretchen Quarterman,
followed by a LAKE video playlist.
Despite the longest Millage Public Hearing ever,
people are still very confused by why, how, and how much taxes are going up.
This may be partly because most Lowndes County officials (elected, appointed, or employee) are not willing to say in public how we got here.
Lowndes County Chief Appraiser Lisa Bryant did make a long presentation at the Historic Courthouse about that, but many people did not attend.
Plus there are a few further wrinkles.
For many years, the Tax Appraisers were not keeping up with valuations as they changed due to increased sale prices of comparable properties.
When the appointed Tax Assessors first came in, many of their staff (the Appraisers) left,
and the remaining staff are busily catching up.
The appointed Tax Assessors spent a great deal of time at the office
for the first year, getting this changeover started.
So valuations are going up.
This pass they got to commercial valuations, which went up.
Also, they’re applying the law about what is a business, which includes
for example that some church properties being used for non-church purposes are not exempt.
Property owners do get a letter from the Tax Assessors saying what the new valuation is and saying how the owner can appeal.
Many appeals are successful.
Some the Tax Assessors appeal to court, and some of those they win.
But remember, taxes are actually valuation (adjusted by homestead exemptions, conservation easements, LOST, etc.) times millage.
Commissioner Clay Griner tried to explain that.
Finance Director Stephanie Black showed where the money goes:
mostly to schools, Sheriff’s Department, and courts.
After her presentation, Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter said that the Lowndes County Commissioners had no intent to raise the millage.
Instead, they intended to roll back the millage to a lower number.
This was already hinted
in the agenda for the Lowndes County Commission meetings:
The Board of Commissioners is required to set the millage rate for 2024. The county-wide millage for 2024 was advertised at 7.804 mills, requiring advertisement of a tax increase of 6.09% and three public hearings. The rollback millage for 2024 is 7.356 mills. The 2023 millage rate was 8.778.
So that’s a 16.2% decrease in the millage rate since last year.
Which means very few people are going to see the 20% tax increase they fear.
Really, more like 3 or 4%.
Or, as Clay Griner said about the Unincorporated tax example, 5% over two years.
In many cases, the increase is due to no valuation change in many years.
[The Georgia Department of Revenue]
is ordering McIntosh to make equitable and uniform assessments or face a $63,070 penalty.
The county must provide its Board of Assessors with the equipment, personnel, supplies, transportation and software necessary to ensure that 2025 assessments can pass the state’s review, according to one of the top points in a consent order signed by the county and the state last month.
The order refers back to the 2022 tax year, when the state found deficiencies in McIntosh’s treatment of homes and public utilities and noted that the county had failed to correct prior problems.
I can’t say that the county is supplying the Lowndes County Tax Assessors all the
“equipment, personnel, supplies, transportation and software necessary”
to do their job.
The Lowndes County Commissioners, the Chamber, the Development Authority, etc., keep pushing development northwards, into agricultural and forestry areas.
I wish I could say the Tax Appraisers were no longer helping with that, but I cannot.
Also, the county could put the presentation slides on their own website.
Along with the board packets.
Finally, people are rightly distressed over having to work two jobs to make ends meet.
But the source of that problem lies way higher up, in price gouging by big corporations disguised as inflation.
Below are LAKE videos of each agenda item,
followed by a LAKE video playlist.
Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!
http://www.l-a-k-e.org/blog/donate
Here is the letter Gretchen Quarterman sent on behalf of Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE)
to the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) before their meeting of Monday, August 28, 2023.
As you can see in the
LAKE videos of that meeting,
GLPC recommended denial by 7:1 of REZ-2023-04 on Quarterman Road.
Thanks to everyone who signed the petition: a table of signatories and images of the petition sheets are included.
Thanks to everyone who spoke at the GLPC meeting.
The final decision will be at the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session of Tuesday, September 12, 2023.
More petition signatures would help, and more calls and letters to Lowndes County Commissioners, and more speakers in the Public Hearing on September 12th.
The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) voted 7:1 to recommend denial
of the proposed E-A 2.5-acre-lot rezoning on Quarterman Road,
in an agricultural and forestry area.
They unanimously voted to recommend approval of the R-21 half-acre-lot rezoning on Mt. Zion Church Road that is among numerous existing small lots.
In the first rezoning item, REZ-2023-04 on Quarterman Road,
the County Planner mentioned that county staff had been unable to find any record of the previous (1980s) rezoning of the existing subdivision on Emily Lane west of Quarterman Road. Continue reading →
It took a pandemic to impress upon the county that fast Internet access for everyone really is necessary,
and Windstream volunteering, plus state funding,
but something is apparently finally happening.
Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter thanked state Senator Russ Goodman for helping.
Slaughter also made it clear that Windstream would be making all the decisions about deployment.
Slaughter emphasized that the county would be working closely with windstream,
but apparently the county’s role is mostly telling people about it.
Slaughter said information about this program would be available on the county’s website,
but I can’t find anything on lowndescounty.com.
Two presentations the Lowndes County Commission will hear tomorrow morning:
on Broadband and Fire Prevention.
That’s at the Work Session.
Tomorrow evening there will be a Proclamation on Operation Greenlight, whatever that is.
Most of the board packet consists of details on Enhanced and Basic Decorative Lighting Districts
and bids for aspects of renovation of the historic Lowndes County Courthouse.
There are also items on repairing lightning damage to the Public Safety Radio System,
a grant acceptance, and a service provider. Continue reading →
The good news:
Wells Road and Folsom Bridge Landing remain open,
after the Commissioners unanimously denied the road closure.
Thanks to Commissioner Clay Griner for making the motion,
saying that the request met none of the criteria.
A road abandonment apparently had not taken into account people who live farther
north up Wells Road, this morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session.
Nor that closing that road would close one of only two public
access points to the Little River in Lowndes County.
Nor that the Mary Turner Lynching monument is on that road.
Of the $5 million for utilities, $1 million is for
a water main to promote more subdivisions northwest in the county.
To their credit, two Commissioners asked about that.
They breezed through
seven rezonings, three of them for subdivisions,
one so far out of place their own staff recommend against it,
with no comments nor questions.
There was a question about some improvements to the historic Carnegie Library Museum.
They vote tomorrow, Tuesday, evening at 5:30 PM.
Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item with some notes, followed by a
LAKE video playlist.
See also the
agenda and board packet.
Five and a half million dollars on the agenda for the Lowndes County Commission
Monday morning, for voting Tuesday evening.
Most of it is for sewer system improvements, but $1 million is to run another water main in the north side of the county to promote more subdivisions, such as the three on the same agenda.
For one of
the rezonings on Val Del Road
staff cite
“Current growth trends in the area.”
Well, here’s who is setting those growth trends: the Lowndes County Commission and staff,
plus the Chamber and Development Authority.
![[Collage @ LCC 23 October 2024]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2024-10-23--lcc-regular-videos/many.jpg)
![[Collage @ LCC 15 October 2024]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2024-10-15--lcc-millage-videos/many.jpg)
![[Property Tax Example]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2024-10-15--lcc-millage-videos/2024-10-15--property-tax-example.jpg)
![[Unincorporated Property Tax Example]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2024-10-15--lcc-millage-videos/2024-10-15--unincorporated-property-tax-example.jpg)
![[Millage Calculation]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2024-10-15--lcc-millage-videos/2024-10-15--millage-calculation.jpg)
![[LAKE letter and map]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/glpc/2023-08-28--glpc-lake-letter/many.jpg)
![[Collage @ LCC 28 August 2023]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/glpc/2023-08-28--glpc-videos/many.jpg)
![[Collage @ LCC 7 November 2022]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2022-11-07--lcc-videos/many.jpg)
![[Windstream presenter, map, Lowndes County officials]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2022-11-07--lcc-broadband/sddefault.jpg)
![[Collage @ LCC Packet 2022-11-07]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2022-11-07--lcc-packet/many.jpg)
![[Subdivision too far north on Val Del approved, audience reaction, Wells Road stays open, un-needed $million water main approved]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2021-10-12--lcc-videos/many.jpg)
![[Beaver Run, GW Farms, Villages subdivisions, Wells Road abandonment]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2021-10-11--lcc-videos/many.jpg)
![[Seven rezonings and a road abandonment]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2021-10-11--lcc-packet/many.jpg)