Surprise, Surprise…

Opinion

Well, it’s here! The Gilmer County Board of Commissioners is set to vote on a “bond millage rate.” What that means exactly is that there will be a special line item on your property tax bill this year of 1 mil (currently proposed) dedicated to paying for the courthouse. Why? Because sales tax revenues have declined over the last few years to the point they will no longer service the bonded debt the county has. Personally, I would rather have them give the courthouse back to the Gilmer County Building Authority and let them figure out how to pay for it, but I also realize that isn’t practical.
I feel it is only fair for the public to understand how we got to this point. In November, 2002, Gilmer County voters (myself included) approved 8 million dollars for a new courthouse. No one argues that it wasn’t needed. By the time plans were drawn and approved in 2004 the Board of Commissioners ( Rayburn Smith, Charles Fowler, and Steve Ralston) decided to let the next Board build it since they wouldn’t have time to see it through.

Randy Bell at the last Gilmer County Board of Commissioners meeting

In January, 2005, Jerry Farist, Ken Bailey, and Mark Chastain took office and by unanimous vote asked the State Legislature to charter the Gilmer County Building Authority. The Board of Commissioners were bound by the 8 million dollar limit set by the voters, but, by the way the Building Authority was chartered, they could approve it blowing the budget all to pieces. Max Holstien, Ken Bailey, and Hubert Parker were appointed to the Gilmer County Building Authority. They apparently very quickly decided that 8 million dollars wasn’t enough. They chose to ignore the fact that the economy has always gone up and down and decided we would grow forever! Who knows, maybe they just got all excited standing around the County check book but they turned an architect loose and let him design the “monster” with all the grandest of finishes that we wound up with at a cost of about 30 million dollars. The Gilmer County Building Authority asked the Gilmer County Board of Commissioners to approve the additional bonds to pay for it and the vote was a unanimous YES. At no point in this process did I see where common sense was applied. All the while we were told the “sales tax would pay for it”.

About this time, they decided we needed to spend another 30 million dollars on capital improvements ( giving credit where credit is due Mark Chastain did vote against it). It was placed on the ballot and once again, the sales tax would pay for it. The reason for this was that “ we needed to prepare for the tremendous growth coming our way”. You see, these folks thought they knew everything we would need for the next 20 years and wanted to build it in just a couple of years. It was voted on and passed by Gilmer County, though in hindsight I can only find very few that will admit to voting for it. Well, we borrowed the money, it’s been blown, and all that is left is to pay the bill for the next 20 years!

In 2005, when all this was going on, sales tax revenues were 5+ million dollars/year. So payments were set up for 4.2- 4.4 million dollars/year. A large portion of these revenues were from building materials being sold for all the new homes being built through that period. Then in late 2007 things started turning south, and while I am not surprised that they did, I am surprised by the depth the economy sank and is still sinking. Current sales tax revenues are now about 3.1 million dollars/year. The housing market is still cluttered with unsold and foreclosed homes and these revenues will probably not come back in my lifetime, if ever. This bunch did more financial damage to Gilmer County than I ever thought possible.

Moral of the story is a lesson I learned in my early 20s: Never buy something because you can afford the payments, only buy something if you can afford to pay for it. Had we built an 8 million dollar courthouse it would have been adequate and, best of all, PAID FOR! We would also be spending about $500,000/year less to maintain it and keep the lights on.

Just one more thing. Many people that have land under a conservation covenant have asked me if “CUVA” will apply to this millage rate. The answer is no. While “CUVA” will still apply to the general fund millage rate, you will pay the full one mil for the courthouse as if you weren’t in conservation.

People have asked me how long the property owners will be penalized for this. I guess until the courthouse is paid for or the economy rebounds. As far as Gilmer’s economy rebounding, we will be behind Pickens and Fannin for some time. They didn’t “MAX” out their credit cards and didn’t have to raise their millage rate.This is not a decision I would want to make. But in reality, J.C. Sanford, Will Beattie, and Danny Hall are not making it. This is a decision that was made back in 2005, this Board is just stuck dealing with it.

Sincerely,
Randy Bell

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