Brantley County Millage Rate Set

The Brantley County Commission met in a public hearing and then in a regular business meeting to approve the millage rates for next year. Once again, the Commission lowered the millage rate. This year, the millage rate was lowered by 1.28 mills. See the “Millage Rate Summary Sheet” on the left column of this page for details. The Tax Commissioner will work tomorrow to get the documents out to the State. With the current timeline, the bills could go out around the week of the 29th. This would give taxpayers the opportunity to pay their bills prior to the end of the year for the income tax advantage in 2010, if they so desire. The final due date will likely be some time in January 2011 and will depend on when the bills are actually distributed.

One common question is why the County millage rate is higher in the cities of Nahunta and Hoboken than the County millage rate in the unincorporated County area. The County receives insurance premium tax money only for residences in the unincorporated areas of the County of about $658,000 annually. This revenue has to be “backed out of” or “rolled back from” the millage rate in the unincorporated areas where those funds are collected. That is the law. Since the cities get the insurance premium tax money for homes and businesses inside the cities, the County has no control over those revenues and no legal right to roll those millage rates back. The cities are not bound by the same “roll back legislation” that the County is. The local option sales tax revenue is collected and “backed out” of both the cities and the unincorporated millage rates.

The County Commission local effort, which is the funds needed to operate above expected revenues and amount of money requested from the local tax payers, totaled $5,498,472 for 2011. The millage value was $268,935, which came to a millage rate of 20.45 in the County areas outside the cities. When you add the insurance premium roll back of 2.28 to the base millage of 20.45, the incorporated millage rate totals 22.73. The Board of Education local effort totaled about $4,100,000 based on last week’s paper. With a Board of Education millage value of about $305,000, this yielded their millage rate of 13.53. The difference in the millage values has to do with exemptions that the County has to use, which the school board does not. The fire tax millage rates were all kept at 1.25 mills to fund the volunteer fire departments throughout the County.

When this group of elected officials joined those in office two years ago, they pledged to pay down the debt, keep the millage rate steady, or lower it if possible, and to make progress leveraging SPLOST and grant dollars. The millage rate has been lowered for two years in a row, up to this point the County has borrowed no money to operate in 2010, there are currently eight roads being paved with SPLOST and GaDOT dollars for a total of 12-13 miles in the paving process and the new recreation park built almost exclusively with SPLOST and capital outlay dollars will launch in the spring. These considerable achievements have and will continue to take the consistent effort and cooperation of the entire Brantley County Management Team. This team consists of the County Commissioners, Constitutional Officers, Department Heads and all County staff. With God’s continued blessing, Brantley County will continue to improve.

Ronald E. Ham
Chairman – Brantley County Commission

Brantley County Commission November Regular Meeting

In the regular meeting of the Commission, the Development Authority Executive Director, Jeannie Boland, and a representative of the Southern Regional Commission presented a project to define opportunity zones in Brantley County. In the latest assessment from the Department of Community Affairs (DCA), Brantley County went from a tier 1 to a tier 2 county. When manufacturing companies come calling on counties in South Georgia, the tier status defines what type of State employment tax credit per new job created those companies receive. By process the opportunity zone project, there is a very high likelihood that Brantley County could return to tier 1 status. This yields the companies an increase from $2,500 per job to $3,500 per job. After the presentation and some discussion, the Commission approved a draft contract with the Regional Commission to complete the application process subject to the attorney’s review. By getting the application filed by December 31st, any jobs created next year may benefit from the increased State employment tax credit. The bottom line is that this process will help level the playing field with surrounding counties and bring jobs to Brantley County.

The Commission discussed Raybon Road East next. During public participation, a resident on that road who had reached out to the Chairman and met with the County Manager also addressed this item. The Commission was cautious to not over commit SPLOST funds with so many road projects currently under way, but a motion was passed by the Commission unanimously to have the road department take on the Raybon Road East project after they complete Boots Harrison. The route was modified so that it passes through Gilman Road and to Satilla Church Road coming out on Highway 82 near Goose Hill. The project would be completed with a minimum of right of way as the road has sufficient width and drainage, with a few exceptions. Once the dirt work is completed on the road, it will be let for base and paving. In a separate motion, the Commission voted to put Britt Still Road back on the paving list. No work will be done on the road until it comes back before the board. Petty Crossing was also discussed. With the logging that has taken place on that road, there are bushes and small trees leaning out on the road. It is so bad that 2 cars have difficulty passing on what is normally a very wide thoroughfare. The County Manager will get the road department to trim this road. If there are issues with the road bed itself, the logging company needs to return the road to the state it was in prior to logging.

The Commission next took up the issue of missing E911 payments. The EMA director, the County manager and the Chairman have each worked diligently to get the funds that are due Brantley County coming to Brantley County. Based on Georgia law, any cell phone that has a billing address within Brantley County should have all sales tax and E911 fees assigned to Brantley County. Yet daily the Commission hears from citizens that explain that their E911 fees and sales tax dollars are going to one of the surrounding counties. Many report that it takes A GREAT EFFORT to get the cell phone company to correct their error. The Chairman explained his personal experience with this process in a piece in the papers a few months ago where he was given the run around by his provider. The Commission passed a motion to have the County attorney review the code sections and bring back all alternatives up to and including litigation against cell phone companies to ensure that all of Brantley County E911 fees and sales taxes are received retroactively to the point where the County should have been receiving them.

In other items, the Commission advertised for a new dog control officer. This officer is only called into action when a person is bitten by a dog. The Commission also appointed Barry Chesser to the library Board; approved the development of a new sign for the “Satilla Fields” Recreation complex near Lulaton; approved the annual contract for the Clerk of Court for municipal and court records scanning services; approved new board of equalization software that the Clerk of Court needs as that office now manages that board; bids for Exterminating Services, Fire Extinguishers & HVAC maintenance and approved the execution of a resolution for a coastal incentive grant via Jennifer Kline, subject to legal review, that will provide extensive tributary and floodwater information.

Now that the digest information is available, the budgets for each of the individual fire tax districts were rescinded and adopted at the appropriate levels based on the 1.25 mill rate previously set by the Commission and the digest figures provided by the Tax Assessor/Tax Commissioner. These values were Nahunta $86,904.53, Nahunta – City $26,285.94, Hortense $35,267.85, Hoboken $56,836, Waynesville $117,118.64 and Calvary $39,479.35. The County also set the budget for the County wide fire tax district as there are 84 commercial and residential properties that the Tax Assessor was unable to isolate to an individual fire tax district. This was set at $20,415, based on the digest and the 1.25 mills.

Finally, the Commission approved Task Order number 5 on the airport project to be funded from grant dollars provided through the Air Georgia grant. Mary Gibson, airport authority executive director, reported that the airport is at the appropriate elevation and the contractors are working with DOT to define the finishing specifications. The airport and taxi way will be completed in coming months.

BTC Video by Robby Thomas