Taxpayers Paid for Sugar Hill`s Accolades
Visited 897 times, 4 so far today Print This! | Twitter This!
WSB-TV featured the north Gwinnett city of Sugar Hill on its 5pm and 6pm news this evening. Reporter Manuel Bojorquez interviewed several city leaders including Mayor Gary Pirkle about the city’s current financial status. It was reported that the city is debt-free with over $17 million in the bank and plans to build several parks and a new downtown.
Sugar Hill is to be commended for its current financial status, but not without understanding that the city consistently overtaxed its property owners for years, building the surplus for which it is earning bragging rights today.
In 2005 (the most recent year in which I analyzed the rates of all Gwinnett taxing authorities), the city required $1.3 million in property taxes to balance the budget. To raise that revenue, the city should have adopted a millage rate of 2.747.
Instead, the City Council adopted a rate of 3.80, the rate from the previous year. That rate raised at least $498,455 more than the city needed to fund the budget. The owner of a $150,000 Sugar Hill home paid approximately $228 in city taxes that year (not considering exemptions), $63.18 more than his fair share to fund the cost of government!
Incidentally, the Council vote split 2-2 with Council members Marc Cohen and Ron Johnson voting to adopt a lower rate. Mayor Gary Pirkle broke the tie in favor of the mathematically-incorrect rate. The actual numbers are here.
Almost every Gwinnett city overtaxed its property owners in 2005, meaning that city leaders adopted tax rates that took more from taxpayers than was required to fund their budgets. Sugar Hill was the second worst offender in 2005; only Suwanee overtaxed at a greater rate.
Overtaxation via an inflated millage rate was common practice in Gwinnett and across the state. Through Gwinnett’s boom years, cities raked in the excess tax dollars and built massive reserves. In the city of Snellville, the tax rate of 6.00 was actually written into the city’s ordinances. Prior to 1999, the year that I helped to force a tax cut, the city’s tax rate was as much as 40% too high. (The “Snellville Story“)
Sugar Hill may look good today, but no better than the robber who pocketed and saved the stolen cash rather than spent it.
