Albany, Dougherty County governments working toward May vote for new sales tax

ALBANY – A ballot initiative to allow for the imposition of a penny sales tax that would slash property taxes in Albany and Dougherty County came one step closer to fruition on Thursday with approval of the measure by the Albany City Commission.

The approval of the plan preferred by Dougherty County commissioners eased the way to place the floating local-option sales tax (FLOST) on the May Georgia General Primary ballot. The Dougherty County Commission was set to vote on the issue on Friday afternoon.

If approved, the sales tax on nearly all purchases in the county would increase from 8% to 9%, but property owners would receive a break on both city and county property taxes.

The city’s preferred option would have provided a 75% reduction in the county tax millage rate and a 25% reduction on the city’s millage rate.

Under that scenario, the city’s millage rate would have been reduced from 10.644 mills to 7.209 mills, while the county’s millage rate would have been cut from 22.069 mills to 14.718 mills.

That formula would have reduced taxes on a $150,000 home by $449 for a resident of unincorporated Dougherty County and by $643 for a city resident.

The second option, which was approved by a 5-2 vote, called for a 30.35% reduction for the city, county and county special tax district millage rates. Taxes paid for the special tax district by taxpayers outside Albany pays for services, including law enforcement, fire protection and recreation.

Under the approved version, a city resident with a home valued at $150,000 would see a $595 reduction in property taxes and a county resident’s tax burden on a house of equal value would decrease by $568.

“They have one of, if not the highest, millage rates in the state,” Albany City Manager Terrell Jacobs said of the county’s millage rate. “We thought the best approach was to try to reduce the entire millage rate.”

As part of the negotiations, Jacobs said, the county has agreed to consider discussing the service delivery strategy between the two governments as well as consider having each government earmark a total of $12  million in the next special-purpose local-option sales tax initiative to Chehaw Park & Zoo and the Flint RiverQuarium. 

Of the park funding, $4 million each from the city and county collections would go toward improvements at Chehaw and $2 million each toward the RiverQuarium.

A third request is that the county expeditiously perform a property revelation process to bring tax assessments in line with the actual true market value of properties.

“Those are the three things that really need to be looked at,” Jacobs said.

Service delivery strategy is the process whereby counties and city governments agree on which local government provides specific services.

Some of the areas where the two governments are considering looking for more efficiency are public safety and recreation. Some officials say one area the two governments could look at is combining the police services.

“The city represents 80% of the population and area,” Jacobs said. ”Currently, you have two police departments. Currently the county police serves 15% to 20% of the population. Those are the types of things that really need to be looked at.”

The option of seeking to replace property tax collections with sales tax dollars was made possible by legislation passed in 2024 by the Georgia General Assembly. Local governments that opt in are allowed to put a sales tax referendum on the ballot.

Legislators also increased the maximum amount of sales tax that can be collected to 9%.

By agreeing to the county’s proposal on Option 2, the city gave up 0.85 mills in property tax reduction for city residents, said Mayor Bo Dorough, who voted for that option along with Commissioners Vilnis Gaines, Jon Howard, Colette Jenkins and Willie Weaver. Commissioners Diane Brown and Chad Warbington voted in opposition of that option.

The two governments were working on a tight schedule, as they needed to agree this week on a proposal in order to meet requirements for placing it on the May 19 primary election ballot.

“The beneficiaries of option 2 are the people in the special (tax) district,” Dorough said.