Ad Valorem Tax Issue to be Repaid to BOE

A clerical error was brought forth at Monday Night’s, August 10, Board of Education Work Session pointing out $926,708 being distributed incorrectly over the last 3 years.

During the meeting, Dr. Shanna Wilkes spoke of an error made in the TAVT (Title Ad Valorem Tax) Distribution. This error, which has persisted since the change in the Ad Valorem Taxes 3 years ago, was discovered in early July by Tax Commissioner Rebecca “Becky” Marshall after it ended up sending the Board of Education’s portion of the TAVT to the Board of Commissioners and the Ellijay and East Ellijay city governments.

With the error discovered and corrected, each entity is now receiving their correct portions. Marshall is also setting up plans to repay the previous money back to the BOE from the other governments. According to Tax Commissioner records, in total, the Board of Commissioners owes $843,169.36, Ellijay owes $67,700.44, and East Ellijay owes $15,910.23.

The stark difference in money owed, according to Marshall, comes from the amount mis-distributed to each entity. When normally distributed between the BOC, Ellijay, and East Ellijay, this distribution mirrors the LOST and SPLOST percentages.

Though it’s unclear at this time exactly how all the payments will be handled as FYN spoke with different representatives from each government. Marshall suggests the payments should be made through a partial withholding from the future TAVT distributions until the balances are equalized. Such a method would fluctuate month to month, based on the breakdown of distribution for each entity, while allowing each government to still receive parts of its TAVT Distribution. This plan could calculate out to 14 moths for the BOC, 9 months for Ellijay, and 4 months for East Ellijay to pay off their respective amounts.

But with each government well into their fiscal years, it stands to question if the budgets can sustain this drop in funding.

Chairman Paris has indicated a desire to meet with Becky Marshall and Superintendent Dr. Shanna Wilkes in efforts to speak on the issue and set up a plan for repayment. He has also suggested two members of the Board of Education and Financial Officers of each entity to be present.

Marshall also states discussions with the Department of Revenue suggests that Gilmer is not the only county facing these issues with the changes to Ad Valorem.