In a break with tradition, the incumbent was not reappointed as a
Tax Assessor.
Gretchen Quarterman, the incumbent (although technically not, since
the County Commission did not do reappointments before her term expired at the end of 2024)
got a nomination and two votes.
James Michael (Mike) Tanner also got a nommination and two votes.
Commissioner Scottie Orenstein was not present for that item,
since he came in late.
That left Chairman Bill Slaughter to break the tie, and he voted for Tanner.
The previous morning,
Commissioner Demarcus Marshall said he wanted to ask questions of
the applicants for 6.a. Appointment to
the Board of Tax Assessors. Chairman Bill Slaughter said they
weren’t doing that in the Work Session because both applications
were not there, but they can do it in the Regular Session Tuesday.
Mike Tanner did not attend the Regular Session.
Gretchen Quarterman was there as usual, videoing the meeting.
Lowndes County Commission staff has discovered that
The Crescent
has its own 1975 local constitutional amendment and 1978 resolution by the County Commission making it tax exempt.
Monday morning the County Commission will review and Tuesday evening it will decide
the
Bethany Drive rezoning
for which the Planning Commission recommended denial 8:1
and the
River Run Road rezoning near the Alapaha River
for which GLPC recommended approval with a condition 6:3,
as well as the other two rezonings.
The Lowndes County Commission board packet, received in response to a LAKE open records request, is
on the LAKE website.
Images of each page are below.
Finally received on February 6, 2025, the board packet materials are
on the LAKE website
for the January 27 and 28, 2025, Lowndes County Commission meetings.
At this morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session,
Commissioner Demarcus Marshall said he wants to ask questions of the applications for
6.a. Appointment to the Board of Tax Assessors.
Chairman Bill Slaughter said they weren’t doing that in the Work Session
because both applications were not there,
but they can do it in the Regular Session Tuesday evening.
The Chairman
asked to add an agenda item:
Consideration for discussion of opting out of new homestead exemption law. Deadline to decide and paperwork to Department of Revenue is March 1, 2025.
He noted he voted for this law, but he isn’t sure he completely understood it.
For the county consider opting out, they first need to announce that possibility
and ask the public for input.
They discussed this for almost eight minutes.
Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item,
with a few comments by Gretchen Quarterman,
followed by a LAKE video playlist.
For discussion Monday morning and for voting Tuesday evening,
the Lowndes County Commission will consider appointments to two boards:
Tax Assessors (reappoint Gretchen Quarterman or appoint James Michael Tanner)
and Land Bank Authority (reappoint Commissioner Joyce Evans).
They will also hear a change-of-ownership beer, wine, and liquor license application,
set the special assessment rate to 9.5%,
and probably approve purchasing cards for Tax Commission Clay Guess and Probate Judge H. Burke Sherwood.
Plus they will consider $26,371.00 in cash match
while the Solicitor-General’s Office applies for $79,112.00
in federal funding related to the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JANUARY 27, 2025, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2025, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
The
TXT-2024-03 ULDC Text Amendments
are quite long and detailed.
The county still has not published them for the tax-paying and voting public to see.
You can see them now, because LAKE got them with an open records request, and
now they are
on the LAKE website.
The
Fire District Millage Rate
is continuing at 2.5 mil. The commission plans to continue this rate for 5 years from the start date.
This is probably year 3, so apparently 2 more years.
There was quite a bit of discussion between Commissioners and Lowndes County Manager Paige Dukes and Utilities Director Steve Stalvey about the
Sprayfield Expansion. Continue reading →
Despite the longest Millage Public Hearing ever,
people are still very confused by why, how, and how much taxes are going up.
This may be partly because most Lowndes County officials (elected, appointed, or employee) are not willing to say in public how we got here.
Lowndes County Chief Appraiser Lisa Bryant did make a long presentation at the Historic Courthouse about that, but many people did not attend.
Plus there are a few further wrinkles.
For many years, the Tax Appraisers were not keeping up with valuations as they changed due to increased sale prices of comparable properties.
When the appointed Tax Assessors first came in, many of their staff (the Appraisers) left,
and the remaining staff are busily catching up.
The appointed Tax Assessors spent a great deal of time at the office
for the first year, getting this changeover started.
So valuations are going up.
This pass they got to commercial valuations, which went up.
Also, they’re applying the law about what is a business, which includes
for example that some church properties being used for non-church purposes are not exempt.
Property owners do get a letter from the Tax Assessors saying what the new valuation is and saying how the owner can appeal.
Many appeals are successful.
Some the Tax Assessors appeal to court, and some of those they win.
But remember, taxes are actually valuation (adjusted by homestead exemptions, conservation easements, LOST, etc.) times millage.
Commissioner Clay Griner tried to explain that.
Finance Director Stephanie Black showed where the money goes:
mostly to schools, Sheriff’s Department, and courts.
After her presentation, Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter said that the Lowndes County Commissioners had no intent to raise the millage.
Instead, they intended to roll back the millage to a lower number.
This was already hinted
in the agenda for the Lowndes County Commission meetings:
The 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.
So that’s a 16.2% decrease in the millage rate since last year.
Which means very few people are going to see the 20% tax increase they fear.
Really, more like 3 or 4%.
Or, as Clay Griner said about the Unincorporated tax example, 5% over two years.
In many cases, the increase is due to no valuation change in many years.
[The Georgia Department of Revenue]
is ordering McIntosh to make equitable and uniform assessments or face a $63,070 penalty.
The 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’s review, according to one of the top points in a consent order signed by the county and the state last month.
The order refers back to the 2022 tax year, when the state found deficiencies in McIntosh’s treatment of homes and public utilities and noted that the county had failed to correct prior problems.
I can’t say that the county is supplying the Lowndes County Tax Assessors all the
“equipment, personnel, supplies, transportation and software necessary”
to do their job.
The Lowndes County Commissioners, the Chamber, the Development Authority, etc., keep pushing development northwards, into agricultural and forestry areas.
I wish I could say the Tax Appraisers were no longer helping with that, but I cannot.
Also, the county could put the presentation slides on their own website.
Along with the board packets.
Finally, people are rightly distressed over having to work two jobs to make ends meet.
But the source of that problem lies way higher up, in price gouging by big corporations disguised as inflation.
Below are LAKE videos of each agenda item,
followed by a LAKE video playlist.
Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!
http://www.l-a-k-e.org/blog/donate
In regular items,
County Planner JD Dillard recommended tabling the
ULDC Text Amendments until stakeholders have more time to comment.
He referred to the copy Commissioners had in their packet.
We the taxpayers and voters do not have a copy.
He also recommended tabling
5.b. REZ-2024-15 Loch Laurel – Carroll Ulmer
until the Planning Commission can review it.
Which indicates that GLPC did not meet last month,
even though there was no announcement that it had been cancelled.
Finance Director Stephanie Black said there would be a
Millage Public Hearing
at 5PM tomorrow, Tuesday, October 15, before the 5:30 PM Regular Session.
The long-quorum-and-hurricane–delayed
REZ-2024-15 Loch Winn LTD rezoning will probably be decided Tuesday evening by the Lowndes County Commission.
Before that, it will be heard at the Work Session Monday morning 8:30 AM,
along with suprise ULDC text amendments, two millage rates, river gauges, sprayfield, and watermain interconnection between two northside subdivisions.
![[Collage @ LCC 28 January 2025]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2025-01-28--lcc-regular-videos/many.jpg)
![[Collage @ LCC Packet 2025-02-10]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2025-02-10--lcc-packet/many.jpg)
![[Packet: Collage @ LCC 2025-01-27]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2025-01-27--lcc-packet/many.jpg)
![[Collage @ LCC 27 January 2025]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2025-01-27--lcc-work-videos/many.jpg)
![[Tax Assessor appointment, Land Bank Appointment, Special assessment rate, VAWA, alcohol @ LCC 2025-01-27]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2025-01-27--lcc-agenda/many.jpg)
![[Packet: ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn rezoning, millage rates, river gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection: Grove Pointe, Nelson Hill @ LCC 2024-10-14]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2024-10-14--lcc-packet/many.jpg)
![[Collage @ LCC 15 October 2024]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2024-10-15--lcc-regular-videos/many.jpg)
![[Collage @ LCC 15 October 2024]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2024-10-15--lcc-millage-videos/many.jpg)
![[Property Tax Example]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2024-10-15--lcc-millage-videos/2024-10-15--property-tax-example.jpg)
![[Unincorporated Property Tax Example]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2024-10-15--lcc-millage-videos/2024-10-15--unincorporated-property-tax-example.jpg)
![[Millage Calculation]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2024-10-15--lcc-millage-videos/2024-10-15--millage-calculation.jpg)
![[Collage @ LCC Regular 14 October 2024]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2024-10-14--lcc-work-videos/many.jpg)
![[ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn rezoning, millage rates, river gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection: Grove Pointe, Nelson Hill @ LCC 2024-10-14]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2024-10-14--lcc-agenda/many.jpg)