No one comes to a millage rate hearing to praise a tax increase. When Monday’s crowd was far more robust than usual for a non-pickleball commission meeting, the board had to know it was in for a long night.
In summation, folks are upset that their taxes are going up. Who wouldn’t be?
But as it was referenced several times during the three-hour meeting Monday night, the can has been kicked down the road for too long.
Because even though Habersham County taxes are about to go up 1 mill on top of increases based on higher home values, we still are not positioned to solve some of our county’s biggest problems.
We still don’t have enough money to fix roads. We can’t afford to properly staff our fire stations. We don’t have a plan to pay our hospital debt after the facility transfers to Northeast Georgia Health Systems. We have no idea how we are going to build a new jail.
So even with this tax increase that is not sitting well with anyone, we still have miles to go before we sleep, as the old proverb says.
Monday’s hearing devolved into folks shouting things out from the crowd, rather than coming forward, and one gentleman asked the commissioners where they stood on their impending vote Monday, July 18, about whether to officially raise the millage rate.
Clerk Brandalin Carnes interjected, informing the citizen that the commissioners could not comment on their votes until they voted. Fair enough, but an even better question was whether they had an alternative if they say no.
If they vote next week against raising the millage rate, there will have to be another $1.5 million in cuts made to the budget to balance it. County leaders have already trimmed $3.6 million from what was requested, and still, there is a shortfall.
Some residents made the point Monday that they don’t need county services to get through daily lives. Some said they did not want to pay school tax, something the commission has no direct control over. Others said the monies paid to the Boys & Girls Club and Habersham Food 2 Kids were luxuries we could not afford.
This is a difficult time for everyone as we try to find the right way forward. The only way to turn this around for our county taxpayers is to help our existing business and industry grow while recruiting complementary business and industry. Too much of the tax burden is on our homeowners. If we continue the trend toward being a bedroom community, our tax base will continue to be upside down.
And then we’ll find ourselves stepping backward rather than forward.