Wednesday, July 7, 2010

“Catoosa weighs property tax hike” plus 3 more

“Catoosa weighs property tax hike” plus 3 more

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Catoosa weighs property tax hike

Posted: 06 Jul 2010 10:54 PM PDT

RINGGOLD, Ga. -- Catoosa County property owners will see a tax increase of $9 for every $100,000 of property value if a budget presented Tuesday is passed.

The proposed 2010-11 budget, which would go into effect Oct. 1, shows expenses up $1 million from $22.9 million to $23.9 million. The Catoosa County Commission scheduled a public hearing to discuss the budget on July 20 at 9 a.m.

In a summary, county Financial Officer Carl Henson said most of the new expense comes from staffing a new fire station, two new sheriff's office employees and rising health insurance costs.

The proposed budget says the gross millage rate for property tax would remain the same at 9.239 mills, but the effective rate would increase nearly a quarter-mill to 5.614.

Effective millage rates, or net millage, is set by an equation balancing property tax and sales tax to reach the total needed to run the government. Because sales tax income is expected to come in $473,000 lower next year, the property side of the scale must swing up, Mr. Henson explained. That translates to an increase of $9.12 cents on a $100,000 home.

"We're essentially in the same situation we were last year," Mr. Greene said. "We're not getting the sales tax."

Commissioner Ken Marks said the possible tax increase is small, but that it still will anger some residents.

"An increase is an increase," he said.

He predicted the proposed budget would not pass and everyone would be headed back to the drawing board.

"That (budget) is not going to ride," Mr. Marks said.

Mr. Marks said the commission and staff would look deeper into the budget to try and find ways to eliminate the gap so they could roll back the tax.

Mr. Henson said he's already dug into the county's finances to tighten things up.

"Should it be rolled back, we're going to have to find $400,000 from some other source," he said.

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Property tax hike looms for PTC

Posted: 06 Jul 2010 02:38 PM PDT

Remaining issue: How much? From 0.5 to 1.25 mills on table

At 6:30 Thursday night, the Peachtree City Council will take a look at potentially raising the city's property tax rate by 1.25 mills.

Three council members — Eric Imker, Kim Learnard and Vanessa Fleisch — have said they would at least like to look at those figures as the city is trying to make up a projected $18 million shortfall over the next five years. A 1.25 mill increase would potentially wipe out $10 million of the shortfall.

Mayor Don Haddix and Councilman Doug Sturbaum have said the most they would support is a 0.5 mill hike, which would cost an additional $43 a year for residents who own the median priced city home valued at $272,000.

The 1.25 mill increase would cost that same homeowner an additional $108 on this year's tax bill.

Council is expected to give staff direction at Thursday's meeting in terms of which millage rate the majority will support. Staff is recommending a $26.7 million budget that includes no new employees and no pay raises of any kind for the second year in a row.

The projected $18 million shortfall is due in large part to the expiration of the county's transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, whose dollars will be stretched out over the next two years. Without the SPLOST money, the city will be needing a projected $1.5 million a year to handle street and cart path resurfacing and repair.

Another large looming factor in the shortfall is the near-future renegotiation of the county's regular Local Option Sales Tax, which is distributed to the county and municipalities based on population figures. The city is projecting an associated $1 million a year hit to its sales tax revenues.

City leaders are expecting the latest U.S. Census results will show a larger population growth in the county and in other cities while Peachtree City's growth slows down. That trend will ultimately result in fewer sales tax dollars for the city.

Further complicating the budget talks, Haddix and Sturbaum have said they would not vote for any city budget that lacked an increase in funding for the Development Authority of Peachtree City. Their proposed increase would bring the DAPC budget up from $35,000 a year to $150,000 as part of a transition from a fully-volunteer board to one that has a staffer to help with the mission of recruiting office, retail and industrial businesses to the city.

Haddix and Sturbaum have argued that the funding is crucial to help attract new jobs and the type of retail operations residents want here.

Yet the other three council members: Learnard, Imker and Fleisch, have said they oppose such an increase for this budget year, though they would consider it next year.

The DAPC is charged with helping fill vacant retail spaces and also attracting employers to the community. It also has worked on opening a dialog with leaders of existing industry.

Haddix maintains that the Fayette County Development Authority doesn't seek office projects or smaller employers that would help the city.

The past two budget years have been painful for the city as it has dealt with lower sales tax revenue. The city has eliminated 28 full-time positions and last year outsourced landscaping services to save $900,000.

The cuts also reduced the number of mowings per year on city rights of way, and the city also abandoned upkeep of 73 areas that had been mowed in prior years.

Also last year, the city increased employees' insurance premiums by $600 a year, and those employees with take-home cars, most of whom are in the fire and police departments, now have to pay a fee for the privilege.

This year, the city abolished its building department and is using pay-as-you-go building inspection services from a private company.

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State waives property tax cap for Roseland budget

Posted: 07 Jul 2010 03:05 AM PDT



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Christie conditionally vetoes property-tax-cap bill

Posted: 06 Jul 2010 05:01 PM PDT

TRENTON - Gov. Christie issued a conditional veto of a property-tax-cap bill Tuesday, paving the way for the Legislature to approve a compromise worked out between the governor and the Senate president.

Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver said in an interview that while she was "blindsided" by the announcement Saturday of the deal between Christie and Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester), she intended to post the legislation for a floor vote "as soon as possible," within weeks.

"I would not not put a bill up for a vote," Oliver said. "I think the objective here is that citizens want some immediate assurance that their property taxes - the growth of their property taxes - will be restrained."

Oliver (D., Essex) said that she expressed her concerns about the compromise legislation to the governor by phone Tuesday, but that she expected those issues could be addressed after the bill was voted on.

Christie originally proposed a 2.5 percent annual cap on property taxes, to be adopted through a constitutional amendment, with an exception only for debt service. Voters in any town could override the cap with a 60 percent majority.

Sweeney countered with a proposal for a statutory 2.9 percent cap with several exceptions, including debt service, health-care costs, pensions and reductions in state aid. His proposal would not have allowed voters to override the cap. The bill was approved by both houses of the Legislature and sent to the governor, prompting the conditional veto.

The existing cap is at 4 percent, with 14 exceptions that Christie has said rendered it virtually meaningless.

Under the compromise announced Saturday, which must still receive the approval of both houses of the Legislature, a statutory cap would be set at 2 percent. Exceptions would be allowed for capital expenditures including debt service; pension benefits; health-care benefits up to the average cost increase in the state Health Benefits Plan; and expenses incurred because of an emergency, to be defined by regulations. Voters could override the cap with a simple majority.

"Over the years, as property taxes have continued to go up, it has become apparent that Trenton politicians of all political stripes have repeatedly failed to fix the system," Christie said in a statement Tuesday. "Today, we can act to ensure that 10 years from now, young families won't be struggling to own a home because they can't afford the property taxes and that our seniors aren't forced to move out of state by wild tax increases year after year."

The Senate is scheduled to vote Thursday on the governor's conditional veto. Budget committees in the Assembly are scheduled to meet Wednesday and in the Senate on July 19.

Oliver said she was not informed ahead of time of the news conference Saturday in the Capitol to announce the compromise agreement, although she was in the building earlier that day.

"I believe this is a three-legged horse here," Oliver said. "For the Senate to announce a compromise - they left off one very significant part of the equation, and that is the General Assembly. No law gets enacted in this state [without the Assembly] and we were not apprised of a compromise by the Senate president and the governor. The word I would use was blindsided.

"I felt that as speaker of the Assembly, I should have been included in any discussion about a cap compromise," she added.

Oliver said her concerns included a current law requiring towns to keep a reserve for uncollected taxes that she said particularly hurts cities, and the costs of special education.

Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak said the administration had sought the speaker's participation throughout the negotiations, but had focused on the Senate because Sweeney sponsored the bill in question.

"We always want speakers involved in such matters where we're looking for a bipartisan effort, which we've received to date," Drewniak said.

Christie's property-tax-cap proposal was the centerpiece of a 33-bill legislative "tool kit" to address the issue of property taxes in New Jersey, the highest in the nation.

Lawmakers in both houses have announced plans to meet throughout the summer, when they typically take a break, to review the governor's proposals and study the issue of property taxes.

Contact staff writer Adrienne Lu at 609-989-8990 or alu@phillynews.com.

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