There was pushback on
lowering the millage rate at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session yesterday morning.
They will decide this evening at 5:30 PM at the Regular Session.
The Commissioners, like some of the public, also wanted to know when there will be a new County Clerk.
Answer, from the former County Clerk, Paige Dukes, who is now the County Manager:
not yet; maybe next meeting (two weeks from now).
Below are links to each LAKE video with a few notes,
followed by a LAKE video playlist.
See also the
agenda and board packet,
and the
millage rate hearing at 5PM today (Tuesday).
HISTORY, FACTS AND ISSUES: The Board of Commissioners is required to set the county-wide millage rate for
2020. A public hearing was held prior to this adoption as required. The county-wide millage should be set at
10.851 mills with the County receiving 8.601 mills, the Industrial Authority receiving 1.00 mill and the Parks
and Recreation Authority receiving 1.25 mills. This represents a reduction of 0.087 mills.
According to the county’s online calendar, it hasn’t hapened yet, because it’s
5:00 PM that same Tuesday.
So if you’re going to the Regular Session, might as well show up half an hour earlier
for the Millage Rate Meeting.
Chances are, you’ll be the only member of the public there.
-jsq
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!
For the Monday morning Work session and Tuesday evening voting Regular Session,
the Lowndes County Commission has
only one item that has “BUDGET IMPACT” in its agenda sheet, but it’s a doozy:
Lowndes County solicited bids for Ridgecrest, Woodland and Glenview
Grading, Drainage, Base and Paving. The project will consist of
Grading, Drainage, Base and Paving of Ridgecrest and Woodland and
the installation of a box culvert under Glenview Drive. Vendors
present for the pre-bid meeting held on July 21, 2020, were James
Warren & Associates, Southland Contractors, Reames & Son
Construction, Rountree Construction, and The Scruggs Company. Three
bids were received on August 4, 2020.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2020, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 2020, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Maybe it was “custom fit” that caused Commissioner Clay Griner to ask for
postponement of approval of purchase of firefighting equipment until after the county’s retreat.
All five Commissioners voted for tabling.
More detail
below in the notes on that item.
Bob Dewar has discovered the county wants an 80-foot right of way to pave Clyattstone Road,
“What we do not want is a highway. It’s a quaint county road.”
Well, that’s not why the county paves roads.
More in
the item notes below.
Everything else was passed with little or no discussion.
Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, followed by a LAKE video playlist.
See also the Continue reading →
Not on the agenda, Chairman Bill Slaughter
at the end of the meeting said Utilities Director Steve Stalvey
had been testing water quality on the Withlacoochee River.
On December 31, bacterial counts were acceptable.
But on January 6, 2020, counts were quite high, so the county made and
posted some warning signs at Knights Ferry, Nankin, and State Line (GA 31) Boat Ramps.
Here is one of the county’s signs, at Knights Ferry Boat Ramp,
with a sign by WWALS Watershed Coalition (Suwannee Riverkeeper)
at the bottom of the other pole with Continue reading →
They’re setting the
Special Assessment interest rate “for all paving and utilityassessments that are not paid off within the initial 90-day phase. Unpaid assessments revert to installment agreements which are to be paid over a period of up to ten years.”
New rate: 6.75% for 2020, down from 7.50% for 2019.
They’re setting qualifying fees to run for office, primary or general election: Continue reading →
Finance Director Stephanie Black said due to the
Property Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights,
if the tax digest (total assessed property value in the county)
goes up, the county has to reduce the millage (tax per $1,000 of property value),
or announce the difference as a tax increase and hold three public hearings,
so they’re rolling back the millage rate slightly: 0.126 mills,
down from 11.064 for 2018 to 10.938 for 2019.
That’s Georgia Senate Bill 177, Act 431, signed April 30, 1999, effective January 1, 2000.
Here is the millage resolution they adopted half an hour later,
in the
board packet, which LAKE only received after this millage meeting and after the Commission voted on this millage change:
She showed some quite informative slides, which for unknown reasons do not
seem to be on
the Finance Department’s web page.
For example, she had a nice summary slide of the five chunks of sales tax these days:
4 cents to the State of Georgia,
1 cent to Local Option Sales Tax (LOST),
split between county and its cities for property tax reduction,
1 cent to Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), split between county and its cities for capital improvements,
1 cent to Educational Special Local Option Sales Tax (E-SPLOST),
split between the county and city school systems for capital improvements
1 cent to Transportation Special Local Option Sales Tax (T-SPLOST),
regionally approved, and split between the county and its cities for transportation capital improvements.
Billed on the lowndescounty.com calendar as
Millage Meeting,
5PM, Tuesday, 27 August 2019, in Commission Chambers before the voting Regular Session,
as usual almost nobody attended, and nobody from the public spoke.
Lowering the Millage Rate
Millage Meeting, Lowndes County Commission (LCC Millage),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, August 27, 2019.
-jsq
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!
County Manager Joe Pritchard said Finance Director Stephanie Black has
received a millage report from the Tax Commissioner.
He and she will prepare something from it for the Lowndes County Commissioners for a later meeting.
The board packet is
on the LAKE website,
in response to a LAKE open records request.
As Lowndes County Finance Director Stephanie Black always reminds everybody,
of
the total 8.814 county millage, 1 mil goes to the Development Authority,
and 1.25 mils to Valdosta-Lowndes Parks and Recreational Authority.
Here is a table from the
PDF of her presentation slides.
Property Tax Example
City of Valdosta Resident
Unincorporated Resident
Property Value
$200,000
$200,000
Assessed Value (40%)
$80,000
$80,000
Homestead Exemption
$(6,000)
$(6,000)
Net Taxable Base
$74,000
$74,000
Tax Calculation:
Lowndes County — 8.814 PY 8.974
$652
$652
Development Authority — 1.00
$74
$74
Parks
& Recreation Authority — 1.25
$93
$93
Lowndes County Schools — 16.541 PY 16.839
$1,224
City of Valdosta — 8.001 PY 8.001
$592
Valdosta City Schools — 16.980 PY 16.980
$1,257
Total Estimated Taxes
$2,668
$2,043
Since she made that table, Valdosta actually lowered its millage to 7.916, which in the above example would mean $50.32 less per year, for an example of how little difference
these minor millage rollbacks or increases actually mean to taxpayers.
The
Valdosta Board of Education wants to increase its tax rate (but not its millage).
Last year the Lowndes County Commission voted on the millage during a Regular Session,
Tuesday, August 22, 2017.
The added agenda item
6e. Emergency Repairs to Rocky Ford Road
got a couple of bids (unusual procedure; different from their
usual no-bid emergencies) passed.
The Chamber sent
Gary Wisenbaker to speak in Citizens Wishing to Be Heard
to ask for (after a very long preamble by John Page)
apparently money from GDOT for a long list (in a letter the taxpayers
did not get to see) of
transportation projects to help “the business community”,
apparently including the truck bypass.
They only appointed six of the seven members of the
Development Authority of Lowndes County,
although a Commissioner did ask about that.
It’s also curious they said all the terms expired right then,
since the Wayback machine has a snapshot of 4 April 2017, which shows three expiring in June 2017 and four already
expired in December 2016.
Apparently they just didn’t bother to appoint anybody to the four slots
that expired in December 2016 until eight months later,
and then they didn’t appoint anybody to one of the 2017 slots.
![[10.851 mills, 8.601 County, 1.00 VLDA, 1.25 VLPRA. reduction of 0.087 mills.]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2020-08-10--lcc-packet/August-11-2020-Meeting-Packet-0065.jpg)
![[Bids, NC-TIA 2019-04: Ridgecrest Street and Woodland Drive]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2020-08-10--lcc-packet/rwgpdp-bids-rot.jpg)
![[Google map: Ridgecrest Street & Woodland Drive]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2020-08-10--lcc-packet/google-map-ridgecrest-woodland.jpg)
![[Page 60]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2020-01-13--lcc-packet/January-13--14.-2020-Agenda-Packet-0060.jpg)
![[A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING THE 2019 AD VALOREM TAX MILLAGES FOR LOWNDES COUNTY]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2019-08-26--lcc-packet/August-26--27-Meeting-Packet-0015.jpg)
