Dougherty County Commission tentatively OKs tax millage rollback

ALBANY — Dougherty County commissioners tentatively agreed Monday to roll back the county’s millage rate by .017-mill to account for a drop in the county’s 2016 tax digest.

By rolling back the millage rate, the county avoids having to advertise a tax increase by the amount that would be needed to match the previous year’s digest. If the board votes at its next business meeting to approve the rollback, the county’s millage rate will decrease from 12.594 to 12.577 mills.

County Administrator Richard Crowdis recommended the rollback.

“If we roll the millage rate back, we won’t have to do three advertisements of a tax increase and hold three public hearings,” Crowdis said. “The amount we’re talking about is around $34,000, and we have that covered in the budget.”

Oddly enough, the digest in the county’s special services district would require a .002-mill increase in the digest to balance with the previous year’s digest, an amount, Crowdis said, that would equal $1,000. He recommended not changing the district’s millage rate.

Tax Director Shonna Colley told the board the county’s net tax digest for 2016 on 37,675 parcels was $1,975,895,588, a 1.79 percent decrease from 2015. The special services district, which has a millage rate of 9.186 mills, had a net digest of $511,544,586.

Colley’s discussion came during a commission work session, which immediately followed a business meeting. The board held two meetings to catch up with the one that was cancelled because it coincided with the Independence Day holiday. Also at the work meeting, Hugh Mills Stadium Authority Secretary-Treasurer Johnny Seabrooks asked the board to approve a reallocation of SPLOST VI funds for an emergency overhaul of the stadium’s track surface.

“The track comes with a warranty of 10 years, and we’ve had the current track for 18,” Seabrooks told the commission. “If we don’t replace the track this year, we stand to lose the GHSA and GISA state track meets. The GHSA event has been here for the past 31 years, and the GISA event the past 30.

“We had 21 state records set on our track last year, but the rapid deterioration puts us in jeopardy of losing these very important events.”

Crowdis said the county could, if the commission agrees, use $218,841 in remaining SPLOST VI stadium improvement funds to get a portion of the $650,000 needed to replace the track. He suggested using road improvement and storm drainage funds from SPLOST VI to account for the other $431,159 needed to complete the project.

“We would alter the Stadium Authority’s SPLOST VII requests to account for the funding used to complete the track, if that referendum passes,” Crowdis said. “I think we would be fine reallocating funding from the storm drainage funds because we’d still have over a million dollars in that account.”

During Monday’s business meeting, the commission voted to approve a resolution that will allow the county to recoup $59,171.75 from the state Department of Natural Resources Environmental Protection Division for landfill cleanup, voted to accept a Juvenile Justice Incentive Grant in the amount of $319,988 and OK’d a resolution recommended by the county’s Greenspace Committee to purchase 5.37 acres of land along the Flint River for preservation purposes.

County Attorney Spencer Lee said the tract is one of three that the county hopes to acquire to complete an uninterrupted swath of greenspace from downtown Albany to the Boy Scout property at the southern end of the county. Lee said the Joshua Street purchase approved by the board has been appraised at $21,000. The county will pay $10,000 for the property.