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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCalled Commission Meeting August 2, 2012 CALLED MEETING COMMISSION CHAMBER August 2, 2012 Augusta Richmond County Commission convened at 4:00 p.m., Thursday, August 2, 2012, the Honorable Deke Copenhaver, Mayor, presiding. PRESENT: Hons. Lockett, Guilfoyle, Hatney, Aitken, Johnson, Jackson, Bowles and Brigham, members of Augusta Richmond County Commission. ABSENT: Hons. Mason and Smith, members of Augusta Richmond County Commission. Mr. Mayor: I’ll call the meeting to order. Mr. Russell. Mr. Russell: Mr. Mayor and members of the Commission, as you know, two weeks ago we passed the initial, the proposed tax rate based on the rollback rates that were computed by our Tax Commissioner and everybody else that does all that. We’ve advertised it in the paper as appropriate. The only issue that we would have is we’ve talked about at some length is the insurance premium tax in the Fire Department which has generated an increase recommendation from us to increase that rate appropriately. If you can put the chart up there please so that we can look at what we’re doing. Those rates for 2012 would be the rollback rates except for the fire and the fire is a .55 increase and that pretty much makes up the difference in the loss of the insurance premium tax. Mr. Brigham: I’m going to make a motion that we approve the millage rate as it is recommended by staff. Mr. Lockett: Second. Mr. Mayor: We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Commissioner Bowles. Mr. Bowles: Can we go back to the screen on 2011 versus 12? Mr. Russell: Yes, sir. Mr. Bowles: I had read somewhere where it stated we were only raising the fire tax on county, the old county and not the old city. Is there any validity to that? Mr. Russell: There’s not, in the urban services there is not a separate fire tax. It’s all wrapped into the urban services tax bill. So the fire tax in the county would go up to cover that. It’s covered in the urban services district bill. You can see the difference there. The difference in the county on a $100,000 house is $19.64. Of that the majority goes towards the fire tax. In the city, the urban area, the difference is only $1.23 and that’s the rollback rate in there basically. 1 It just continues to emphasize your concern that we need to at some point equalize those rates or figure out a way to make that equal. Mr. Mayor: You good with that, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, or are you ciphering in your head? Mr. Bowles: It just rubs me kind of wrong to tell some people well, hey, we’re going to raise your taxes $19.00 and we’re going to raise others $1.23 but – Mr. Russell: If you look at the line above that I think the issue that you have there is countywide tax for that $100,000 house is $385.77, urban services tax for that same house is $591.36. Mr. Bowles: Trust me, I realize that because I live in the urban services and it’s not a $100,000 house. Okay, I rest my case. Mr. Mayor: Okay, Commissioner Hatney and then Commissioner Guilfoyle. Mr. Hatney: Thank you. Mr. Administrator, two things. One, why is it so difficult to just charge everybody the same taxes throughout the county? That’s the first question. Why is it so difficult? Mr. Russell: The issue becomes the amount of dollars you end up with at the end of the day. We’ve been looking at that internally for several years now. This year we were charged to bring in a consultant for the Carl Vinson Institute. He came in. He looked at it for about a day and a half and threw his hands up and left. The issue becomes how do you roll all that together between the districts and the cost in the urban services area and then end up coming up in a fair way at the end of the day with a similar amount of money. If you reduce the urban service district, what you pay, and stop me if I trespass on anything, if you reduce the urban services county tax to what you pay in the county, you lose a fairly substantial amount of dollars. If you raise the countywide tax to what the urban services tax is, you increase that on that $100,000 house by almost $200 of a, $100,000. So we’ve yet to come up with a fair way that accomplishes that and we continually base this on what they did in the consolidation when they set up the districts. Mr. Hatney: My concern is that after twelve years now, 1996 all the way through today – Mr. Mayor: Sixteen. Mr. Hatney: Sixteen years then and we have not, because you keep saying countywide then city, it ain’t but one government. So if everybody paid $19.64 or if everybody paid $1.23 I don’t see how that’s so difficult. Mr. Russell: At that level I agree with you fully but when you start looking at the mechanisms to making it work it becomes a task that we as a staff, the gentleman from the Carl Vinson Institute and other people we looked at have not been able to come up with an answer 2 too. That’s why we continue to fall back on what they did back in ’96. The issue becomes again the tax cap. As you well know we’re the only locality with a tax cap. You start pushing up the countywide rates you end up coming up against the cap. It should be simple but in this case it’s nowhere near that, sir. I wish I had an answer. Mr. Hatney: So as they suggested when they merged, there wouldn’t be no more of this and here we are sixteen years later still doing it. The other question I’ve got is what is the actual millage we’re going to be working on. I don’t see that. Mr. Russell: If you’d look at the total mills on the columns in the countywide, it’s 11.22. In the urban it’s 16.896. A mill in the county brings you approximately $4 million dollars, a mill in the urban area brings you approximately $900,000. Mr. Hatney: There’s no doubt in my mind, I think everybody might agree to this, we need to develop a means by which we can get more policemen on the street. Somehow or another we need to do that. We had a fit because of what happened down here but that’s been going on all the time. It didn’t alarm no bells though until it happened on Broad Street. Thirty nine, thirty eight homicides last year and it may be more than that this year and the Sheriff’s Department has been working, what, 40 men short, 40 or 50 men short – Mr. Russell: They have not filled all the vacancies that they currently have. That’s an issue there but I don’t disagree with anything you’re saying. I’m just saying that in theory it sounds reasonable in practice. Like some things it gets pretty complex. Mr. Mayor: Commissioner Guilfoyle. Mr. Guilfoyle: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Russell, as far as this fire tax that we voted on, I thought I had asked the right questions. Apparently I did not and nor was it disclosed when Mayor Pro Tem was talking about suing the city. It should have been spoken at that moment that the urban areas does not get a tax increase for the fire and that would have raised an eyebrow for the rest of us that’s sitting up here on the floor. It just, it’s kind of embarrassing for us when we find out after the fact through the media that it’s just hitting the suburban areas and then I’ve got to go and find out the reason why and as a matter of fact I had to lean on Mr. Brigham on this one to find out the answer for it, but I notice on here and I’m sorry for being late, gentlemen, on the countywide I see that you’re going up from 1.602 to 2.152 but in the fire, Blythe, you’re going from 2.808 to 3.358. What is the reason for that because I represent Blythe as well? Ms. Williams: Same amount of increase is .55 mills. The reason is Blythe retained its status as an incorporated city. As such it is not allowed to benefit from the receipt of the insurance premium tax which we get and they get theirs directly. So there have always been two separate mill rates for fire, one for the Blythe district which excludes the calculation of the income from the insurance premium tax and the other for the regular fire district which is unincorporated and can benefit directly from the insurance premium tax. I’m sorry, but that’s the explanation. 3 Mr. Guilfoyle: What about the big city of Hephzibah? Ms. Williams: Hephzibah charges no – Mr. Guilfoyle: City. Ms. Williams: Fire, city, yeah, city tax so the calculation of the insurance premium tax does not enter into that. I think the fire tax for Blythe began in the middle eighties, I’d have to go back and look specifically, but I know the reason why there’s two different ones. Mr. Guilfoyle: It would be nice as this problem has been going on for sixteen years since consolidation is to try to find an equalization on fair tax from one part of the county to the other. I know it’s a difficult task. They should have addressed this no different than they should have addressed a lot of the other issues that’s currently, we’re facing. Thank you, Miss Donna. Thank you, Mr. Russell. Mr. Russell: Thank you, sir. Mr. Mayor: Okay, we have a motion that’s been properly seconded. If there’s no further discussion Commissioners will now vote by the usual sign of voting. Mr. Bowles and Mr. Guilfoyle vote No. Motion carries 6-2. Mr. Mayor: With no further business to come before the body, we stand adjourned. Lena J. Bonner Clerk of Commission CERTIFICATION: I, Lena J. Bonner, Clerk of Commission, hereby certify that the above is a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Called Meeting of the Augusta Richmond County Commission held on August 2, 2012. ______________________________ Clerk of Commission 4