White County Commissioners Will Advertise Millage Increase

CLEVELAND, Ga. — The White County Board of Commissioners voted 3-2 during a called meeting Tuesday to advertise a millage rate increase to 9.998 mils to support the Fy 2017 budget. Public hearings are scheduled for Aug. 1st and Aug. 4th at 8 a.m. and Aug. 8th at 6 p.m.

The advertised rate represents an increase of .89 mills.  The proposed tax increase for a home  with a fair market value of $160,000.00 is approximately $56.96 and the proposed tax increase for non- homestead property with a fair market value of $130,000.00 is approximately $46.28.

Commissioners had projected a tax digest of $863,623,546 when they approved the FY 2017 budget but on Thursday they received the bad news that the digest was about $3 million below that projection.

As a result, commissioners were faced with the difficult decision to raise the millage rate or lower the county’s fund balance in order to balance the budget. The Association County Commissioners of Georgia recommends that counties keep at least a three-month fund balance in case of emergencies.

Reluctantly, Commissioner Terry Goodger proposed a millage rate of 10.108 in order to preserve a three-month fund balance.

“This Board has worked hard and been frugal with the taxpayers money,” he said. “This will be the first time in my six years on the board we’ve needed to raise taxes. But I’ve looked at the future and I don’t see the tax digest getting any better in the next two or three years. So I think we need to step forward and take care of this now.”

The motion failed 2-3 with Chairman Travis Turner voting with Goodger.
After a lengthy discussion, Goodger motioned for a millage rate of 0.966 which would have balanced the budget, but kept only about two-and-a-half months in the fund balance. That motion also failed 2-3.

Lyn Holcomb finally made a motion to advertise for a 9.998 millage rate and that was approved 3-2 with Craig Bryant and Edwin Nix opposed.