{"id":24585,"date":"2024-10-18T09:16:03","date_gmt":"2024-10-18T13:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=24585"},"modified":"2024-10-21T08:26:20","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T12:26:20","slug":"videos-millage-public-hearing-lcc-2024-10-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2024\/10\/videos-millage-public-hearing-lcc-2024-10-15.html","title":{"rendered":"Videos: Millage Public Hearing @ LCC 2024-10-15"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update 2024-10-17<\/strong>:\r\nVideos: ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn LTD rezoning, adoption of millage rates, USGS stream gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection @ LCC Regular 2024-10-15<\/a>.\r\n

\r\nDespite the longest Millage Public Hearing ever,\r\npeople are still very confused by why, how, and how much taxes are going up.\r\n

\r\nThis may be partly because most Lowndes County officials (elected, appointed, or employee) are not willing to say in public how we got here.\r\nLowndes County Chief Appraiser Lisa Bryant did make a long presentation at the Historic Courthouse about that, but many people did not attend.\r\nPlus there are a few further wrinkles.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Collage<\/a>\r\n
Collage @ LCC 15 October 2024<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\nFor many years, the Tax Appraisers were not keeping up with valuations as they changed due to increased sale prices of comparable properties.\r\n

\r\nWhen the appointed Tax Assessors first came in, many of their staff (the Appraisers) left,\r\nand the remaining staff are busily catching up.\r\nThe appointed Tax Assessors spent a great deal of time at the office\r\nfor the first year, getting this changeover started.\r\n

\r\nSo valuations are going up.\r\nThis pass they got to commercial valuations, which went up.\r\nAlso, they’re applying the law about what is a business, which includes\r\nfor example that some church properties being used for non-church purposes are not exempt.\r\nProperty owners do get a letter from the Tax Assessors saying what the new valuation is and saying how the owner can appeal.\r\nMany appeals are successful.\r\nSome the Tax Assessors appeal to court, and some of those they win.\r\n

\r\nBut remember, taxes are actually valuation (adjusted by homestead exemptions, conservation easements, LOST, etc.) times millage.\r\nCommissioner Clay Griner tried to explain that.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Property<\/a>\r\n
Property Tax Example<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nFinance Director Stephanie Black showed where the money goes:\r\nmostly to schools, Sheriff’s Department, and courts.\r\n

\r\nAfter her presentation, Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter said that the Lowndes County Commissioners had no intent to raise the millage.\r\nInstead, they intended to roll back the millage to a lower number.\r\n

\r\nThis was already hinted\r\n\r\nin the agenda<\/a> for the Lowndes County Commission meetings:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nThe 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.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nSo that’s a 16.2% decrease in the millage rate since last year.\r\nWhich means very few people are going to see the 20% tax increase they fear.\r\nReally, more like 3 or 4%.\r\nOr, as Clay Griner said about the Unincorporated tax example, 5% over two years.\r\nIn many cases, the increase is due to no valuation change in many years.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Unincorporated<\/a>\r\n
Unincorporated Property Tax Example<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe actual taxes collected with the rollback millage will be 1.86% more than last year.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Millage<\/a>\r\n
Millage Calculation<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nMeanwhile, the Board of Tax Assessors and the Tax Appraisers\r\nactually following state law has avoided what has happened in some other counties.\r\nMcIntosh County, for example,\r\nMaggie Lee, The Current, July 15, 2024,\r\n\r\nMcIntosh County must pay penalty or fix assessments:\r\nTax audit for 2022 found deficiencies in taxation for homes, public utilities.<\/a>\r\n

\r\n

\r\n[The Georgia Department of Revenue]\r\nis ordering McIntosh to make equitable and uniform assessments or face a $63,070 penalty.\r\n

\r\nThe 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\u2019s review, according to one of the top points in a consent order signed by the county and the state last month. \r\n

\r\nThe order refers back to the 2022 tax year, when the state found deficiencies in McIntosh\u2019s treatment of homes and public utilities and noted that the county had failed to correct prior problems. \r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nWare County is also under a Consent Order<\/a>.\r\n

\r\nThere is room for further improvement.\r\n

\r\nI can’t say that the county is supplying the Lowndes County Tax Assessors all the\r\n“equipment, personnel, supplies, transportation and software necessary”\r\nto do their job.\r\n

\r\nThe Lowndes County Commissioners, the Chamber, the Development Authority, etc., keep pushing development northwards, into agricultural and forestry areas.\r\nI wish I could say the Tax Appraisers were no longer helping with that, but I cannot.\r\n

\r\nAlso, the county could put the presentation slides on their own website.\r\nAlong with the board packets.\r\n

\r\nFinally, people are rightly distressed over having to work two jobs to make ends meet.\r\nBut the source of that problem lies way higher up, in price gouging by big corporations disguised as inflation.\r\n

\r\nBelow are LAKE videos of each agenda item,\r\nfollowed by a LAKE video playlist.\r\n\r\n