Wednesday’s county millage rate hearings were a confluence of two unyielding positions that could not budge. It was the proverbial unstoppable force vs. the immovable object, and it could be no other way.
Folks paraded up the podium to express dismay with their taxes continuing to increase over three hours in two separate meetings. But the meetings were virtually identical, in that no amount of presentations, numbers, breakdowns or excuses were going to change people’s minds about having more money leave their wallets.
At the same time, three of the five commissioners who were elected to run this county owned their decision and lived up to it. The other two, staying on brand, voted against it, wanting to see less spending overall, even after $5 million in cuts from the original asks.
And both of those positions are just fine. Each commissioner was elected to offer their collective insight to the budget process, and they each expressed their opinions and came to a majority vote. It was democracy at work.
The county presented a slideshow at all three meetings explaining a number of factors in why taxes kept going up. One was inflation, which we have all heard ad nauseum.
Another familiar tune regarded the schools, but the spin almost came around 360 degrees on itself. In one hand, the lack of the Local Option Sales Tax goes to the school system and handcuffs the county, so we have been told many times. On the other hand, the schools rolled back their millage rate, making the total millage rate of the entire county a net drop. One wondered watching the presentation if the county and the schools are on the same team or not.
Another big factor is the huge number of homestead exemptions in the county. Habersham has the highest percentage (22) of its gross tax digest tied up in exemptions of any county in the region, and those exemptions have increased by $136 million in just the last year. Of that, $101.6 million is of the lifetime freeze variety.
The county reminded everyone that those exemptions took $1.7 million out of their coffers this year that could have offset tax increases for those whose homes went up in value.
But it’s a hard sell to say that because some of you get tax breaks, others of you are paying more, especially since if those exemptions were not there, those folks’ taxes would be up, too.
At the end of the day, both positions are fine. It’s OK to be mad about higher taxes, and it’s OK for the county to own their decisions as the duly elected officials of Habersham.
Then in 2024, the process – both electoral and budgetary – begins anew.