Commission Votes To Lower Taxes

The Jasper County Commissioners at their regular meeting Monday evening voted to lower taxes for Jasperites. Commissioners discussed setting the millage at 11.114 mills which would be the rollback rate for the tax rate to remain the same. However, commissioners clearly wanted to give residents a break, and lowered the millage another three-fourths of a point to 10.364.

The commissioners discussed that it looked like there would be about $500,000 in current year fund balance at the end of the year, so they decided rather than banking that they would basically return it to the taxpayers. County Manager Mike Benton reminded them that if they did that they may have to raise taxes next year. Commissioner Gerald Stunkel said if that happens, we’ll face it then. Commission Chairman Don Jernigan said, “We’re going to regret it next year.” They voted unanimously for the 10.364 rate.

From there, Mr. Benton went into the hospital rollback of 0.620. He states that with these two rollbacks, that there will be no tax increase. He then spoke about the money coming from the Forest Land Protection Grant, which was $243,252, a large decrease from years past.

All of these figures would roll into the projected revenue which was measured at around $13.9 million.

Mr. Benton then spoke to the current expenditures and compared them to projected expenditure cuts. He identified around $113,000 in expenditures which could be cut, with the big cut coming from the 911 Authority. This would call for the removal of one full time position and two part time positions. Those positions were all open positions.

Further discussion was made about each department and how they were compensated. Some discussion about wages with the Senior Center caused some confusion amongst the board. The Jasper County public library also requested an increase in their budget, citing overall county growth and an increase in total visits.

The action on the budget came after more than two hours of the regular meeting which ended up lasting until almost 10 p.m.

Much of the time was taken up with zoning concerns. There was a request for a rezoning, and for a Future Land Use Map amendment as well as several amendments to the code of ordinances.

The rezoning request was for 435 Seven Islands Road. The request was to rezone a two-acre portion of the tract from AG (agricultural) zoning district to RES (Residential) zoning district. The purpose of the petition is to cut out a two-acre tract of the original lot (7.72 acres) and leave the 5+ acre tract as AG.

There was much discussion, with several people speaking against allowing the rezoning and division. The 7.72 tract belongs to Robert Batchelor. He wanted to sell the smaller tract, which has a home on it to his neighbor who has a family member who would like to live in it. Speaking for Mr. Batchelor, Cathy Hooper Loyd said it would not be spot zoning as there are numerous lots around them that are zoned residential and others zoned ag that are less than the five acre minimum currently required.

Mary Patrick spoke first in opposition, stating that the rezoning of the two acres would set a “terrible precedent.” John Henderson then questioned if this rezoning would call for a change to the rezoning map. Mr. Henderson then said he didn’t have a problem with it being a hardship case, but wanted to avoid a “legal precedent” being set. Asher Gray then spoke raising similar concerns, stating that he feels this rezoning would leave room for a property flip in the way it was proposed. Rob Alexander stated that if spot-zoning existed, then there would be “no point in a land use map.” Darrel Young also spoke in opposition stating, that there should be no special circumstances regarding rezoning.

Planning and Zoning Director Judy Johnson later spoke about this matter. Mrs. Johnson clarified that consideration of rezoning without change to the future land use map is allowed. She suggested then to not amend the future land use map. The motion to change the future land use map was denied.

Mrs. Johnson then spoke about how required criteria must be met in order to consider any type of rezoning in any case. She advised that “zoning doesn’t set precedents” and that there is existing zoning in the area similar to that of the proposed change. County attorney Barry Fleming then went into the question if the proposed rezoning was setting a legal precedent. While stating it was not a simple answer, he said the situation brought forth is unique. He states that this type of situation would not likely bring forth a legal precedent unless a similar situation was brought forth and a different outcome was reached.

Commissioner Bruce Henry made the motion that passed to not change the Future Land Use Map. Then he made a motion to deny the rezoning in spite of an impassioned plea from Ms. Loyd. That motion was seconded by Seven Ledford, and Commission Chairman Jernigan, Vice-Chair Shelia Jones, and Commissioner Gerald Stunkel all abstained. Therefore two voted to deny the re-zoning and three did not vote. That effectively denied the application, which the new county attorney confirmed.

Mr. Henry commented that the commission and interested others have worked hard the last seven months to present to the county a Future Land Use Map and Comprehensive Plan that the people have said they want. The commissioners have heard from many people that they want Jasper County to remain rural, and they don’t want more density.

Kelly Fox presented the commissioners with the health insurance renewal information, saying there is no increase in premiums, and since less people are covered the total price will go down a little. He told commissioners that they currently have a $200,000 loss fund reserve, which the county will get back in six months if it is not used. But, employees still have the rest of this month, and any previous claims that haven’t yet been filed to be counted before that is a guarantee.

The commissioners approved the probation services contract from Judicial Alternatives of Georgia (JAG) for Superior, Probate and Magistrate Courts. They also approved the Georgia Indigent Defense Services Agreement.

After receiving the human resources report, commissioners discussed changing the format for agendas when public hearings are held. Going forward, the commission will vote on zoning issues immediately following the public hearing.

At about 8 p.m., they began discussing the budget. They had held a work session last Friday morning as well as numerous other work sessions and called meetings over the last two months to review budget requests, gather information and discuss needs. According to the budget calendar, they were hoping to have a consensus to advertise it in this week’s Monticello News. It still needed fine tuning.

Mr. Benton reviewed the budget numbers calculated during Friday’s discussions, and said by taking the rollback rate of 11.114 mills, the county would still be able to give three percent Cost-of-Living-Adjustment (COLA) raises to all employees, and there would be funds to also cover merit raises of three percent also if the supervisors find them needed.

During the discussion, they agreed to cut several places in the budget a little further. When the final numbers were discussed, commissioners agreed on the 10.364 millage rate.