Millages and taxes are the top topics for the Lowndes County Commission this week, plus lawsuit settlements for opioids and PFAS, and a road abandonment quit-claim to the Air Force.
The property tax millage will be set at the rollback rate of 5.051 mills.
That is a reduction of 0.232 mills or about 4.4% from the 5.283 rate of 2024.
Your property taxes are a product of valuation and millage, minus various exemptions such as for homestead or conservation easements.
Since many valuations went up, your taxes may go up.
VLCIA got its rate reduced to 0.823 mills last year, but this year it will
be back to 1.00 mill like it always was before for the Valdosta Lowndes County Industrial Authority, aka the Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority (VLDA).
Same 1.25 mills as always for the Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority (VLCIA).
Same as last year: 2.50 mills for the Special District Millage for Fire Services.
That’s right, twice VLPRA’s millage, and 2.5 times VLCIA’s millage.
In November you get to vote on the SPLOST IX projects the County Commission
is approving this week for the penny Special Local Option Sales Tax.
The county has not published that project list, but LAKE already published
it more than a week ago:
http://www.l-a-k-e.org/blog/?p=25175
And those of us who are tree farmers may get some tax relief after Hurricane Helene, from the
TREES Act Resolution.
This is presumably the same
ACCG Summary of the TREES ACT
as Lowndes County put in its board packet.
Lowndes County may get some money from settlements for lawsuits about
opioids and PFAS.
The Air Force wants the county to quit-claim the right of way for Hightower Road,
which the county already abandoned in 2023.
Moody Air Force Base is directly south of it, and the Air Force now owns
the field north of it.
Included in this post are the maps from the May, 2023, board packet
from when the county abandoned that stretch of Hightower Road.
http://www.l-a-k-e.org/blog/?p=23550
We don’t have the board packet, because I forgot to send in the open records request until today.
It is still mysterious why Lowndes County does not publish its board packets on its own website, like many counties larger and smaller have done for years in Georgia and Florida.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2025, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2025, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
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
$4.2 million per mill times 2.5 mills is $10.5 million dollars a year that the county fire department is to get with no budget.
That’s up from last year’s $3.2 million per mill for $8 million,
so the county fire department is to get an extra $2.5 million.
Yet they never advertised it as a tax increase.
For what, and with what accounting, was not explained.
Chairman Bill Slaughter said it was to maintain a “healthy fund balance”
for five years since they established the fire department.
Where can citizens see this fund balance, and what it is being spent on?
Both millage rate votes passed only by 3:2.
If all three of the Lowndes County Commissioners who voted against on one or the other had
voted against both,
or if one of the other two had joined against on those votes,
the county would have had to think again.
However, for the main millage, they approved
8.778 mills, which the Chairman said is a rollback of 1.434 (from last year).
This is noticeably less than the
Department of Revenue recommendation of 8.896 mills.
Less as in 0.118 mills or $283,200.
Until Commissioner Clay Griner the previous day asked what millage would actually match the projected budget,
they seemed to be heading for the larger figure.
Still no explanation of why only one of the three beer and wine licenses got a Public Hearing.
They added an item for a change order on a Val Del Road water main for “about $180,000”.
That reminds me that in July
they approved almost $10 million
for another water main in advance of development.
Got to have sprawl.
More questions about the condition of the old dog box. Continue reading →
![[Agenda: Millages, SPLOST IX, TREES Act, Opioid Litigation, Hightower Road, PFAS Groundwater Claims @ LCC 2025-08-25]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2025-08-25--lcc-agenda/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)
![[Collage @ LCC 22 August 2023]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2023-08-22--lcc-regular-videos/many.jpg)