Millage Rate Suspense Almost Over
Visited 1211 times, 3 so far today Print This! | Twitter This!
Something very interesting will happen on August 11th. At 1:30 in the afternoon, your property taxes will finally be set for 2009 – and not in the usual fashion. This year our elected officials were not able to come up with a millage rate, and so the task falls to Judge Timothy Hamil.
The County Commissioners have had a bad year, but this has to be one of the low points. Unfortunately when the Commissioners have a bad year, the taxpayers have one as well.
Moving the determination of your property tax from a public forum to a legal proceeding really leaves taxpayers in a bad spot. There will be no public hearings. We do not even get to know what the County wants as a millage rate, and residents will have absolutely no more input into the process. Writing your County Commissioner will not do any good because they can say that it is out of their hands.
But is it really out of their hands? On August 11th, someone from the County will appear before the judge and make a case as to what they believe the millage rate should be. And that someone should be receiving direction from the County Commission. We know that Chairman Bannister wants the taxes higher – in his recent letter to the citizens of Gwinnett he stated “I continue to believe [the tax increase] is necessary to meet the public needs of our county”.
So the big question we have to ask is – what millage rate is the County going to request?
They could ask for the same rate as last year. But theoretically if they decide they want to go back to the 25% increase they offered a few months ago there is no reason they couldn’t. The judge could grant the increase without any input from the public, and the Commissioners could claim that they didn’t set the rate, the judge did. I don’t see that happening – I think the most likely scenario will be a slight increase in the millage rate over 2008. But either way I am surprised how little attention is being paid to this, especially considering the tremendous press given the previous millage rate debates. After all the buildup to this moment, having a judge just come in and set a millage rate by fiat is sort of anticlimactic.
The event is currently scheduled in Courtroom 3A at Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center, which, according to Judge Hamil’s clerk, is “a tiny little room” with only two rows for spectators. Remember, this is a legal proceeding so there will be no input from any taxpayers – but it will be interesting to show up and watch the County present their case. I, for one, am planning on going.
