A mil here, a mil there; soon we’re into real money!
Can the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)
commit we the local taxpayers to a $150 million bond issue
for a private company like the
Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority just did?
Maybe.
VLCIA has already issued $15 million in bonds for which apparently
the Lowndes County Commission has committed the county,
that is, we the taxpayers, to pay the debt service.
That comes out of VLCIA’s one mil of dedicated tax income.
But according to the
intergovernmental contract,
it’s actually not even just from VLCIA’s current millage:
Section 4.4 Security for Contract Payments and for Bonds.
(a) The obligation of the County to make the payments required pursuant
to Section 4.1(a) hereof shall be a general obligation of the County for
which its full faith and credit is pledged, and shall be payable from any
lafully available funds, subject to the Tax Funding Limit. In particular,
the County agrees to levy an annual tax on all taxable property located
within its boundaries, as now existent and as the same may be extended,
at such rate or rates, as limited by the Tax Funding Limit, as and when
it may be necessary to provide the County with sufficient revenues to
make all payments required to be made by the County under this Contract.
The current VLCIA millage is one mil, or about $3 million a year,
collected by the county in property taxes and handed over to VLCIA.
But VLCIA’s charter says (in
Section 5):
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