“If I knew what I know now when we bought our home, I would not have bought,” Eilene Tate told the Baldwin City Council. Tate and her husband Robert live on Highland Point Drive. She explained to the council they bought the land to build on knowing that when they did their taxes would go up, which they did.
Now, four years in, the Tates are worried about another tax increase.
“(The taxes) has gone up half again as much already,” Tate told the council. “We are senior citizens…but we are on a limited income.”
Tate says she understands current economic conditions are having an impact and the city needs to pay its employees because they’re hurting too. She doesn’t take issue with the need for a millage rate hike, just the size of the increase proposed.
Tate told the council, “You may fix your budget, but you’re hurting everybody else’s.”
Hefty increase
If Baldwin’s proposed millage rate is approved, property owners on the Habersham side of the city would see their rate rise from 6.793 to 9.342 mills. Residents on the Banks County side would see their millage rate increase from 1.608 to 3.465 mills. With higher millage on top of higher property valuations, that will translate into hundreds more dollars in property taxes for many Baldwin residents this year.
“What I don’t understand is the percentage of increase,” said Tate. “People have said, ‘Well, you know the last few years it hasn’t increased.’ That’s not my mistake and that’s not my fault,” she said.
Last year, all of the current council members unanimously voted to roll back Baldwin’s millage rate. At the time they said they would work to open up new revenue streams.
Councilwoman Alice Venter told Now Habersham in 2021: “The easiest and least time-consuming method is to collect revenue from taxpayers. I think, for now, it’s best to roll up our sleeves and try to find those alternatives.”
Tate calls the council’s proposed 37.5% increase on the Habersham side “ridiculous.”
“Rome wasn’t built in a day, and you don’t change a budget that much in one year. It makes no sense to me.”
The retired nurse says it’s coming down to “are we going to pay our taxes, pay our electric bill, pay our water bill or pay for our food?”
Moving out. Moving in.
During Baldwin’s first millage rate hearing on August 29, another resident, Debbie Satterfield, warned people would move out of the city if the Baldwin council approves the proposed millage rate increase. Tate offered her own spin on that saying she will tell others not to move in.
“My daughter just moved up here and I will tell her not to buy a house in Baldwin because of this,” she said, adding she will also tell her friends not to move to Baldwin because they couldn’t afford the taxes.
“I would say, “Forget Baldwin, go back to Habersham County.”
“That’s pretty drastic for a citizen to say, but that would be my recommendation.”
Foreshadowing
Councilwoman Venter asked the Tates if they attended the town hall meeting in April during which the city discussed its budget needs. The Tates said they were unable to attend.
Councilman Maarten Venter then spoke up about needing proper police, fire, and public works departments. While she agreed with him that those things are important, Tate said, “that’s too big [an increase] at one time.” She added, “it’s going to hit a lot of other people worse than it’s going to hit us.”
Councilwoman Venter foreshadowed this type of millage rate hike in September 2020 as the city tried to figure out how to extend services to new housing developments.
“We have an aging infrastructure that needs to be updated and if we can’t do it through an increase in our tax digest we have to do it through the people who are already here,” Venter said.
During Tuesday’s hearing, she defended the impending rate hike saying, “It has taken us a couple of years to sort out our budget that was allocated incorrectly, and we have been working on it for a couple of years.”
Interrupting, Mrs. Tate said, “Excuse me. When I was a nursing supervisor, if I took a couple of years, I would have a lot of dead bodies around.”
Venter continued, saying the town hall meeting changed some citizens’ minds about the pending tax increase.
“We had all of our department heads available. We had explanations and we talked about the things that were going on with the city that helped educate and answer the questions that you have.”
Speeding tickets to pay for fire truck
Keith Freeman, who lives in Banks County and owns 15 acres inside city limits, told the council he felt the increase was steep, but supports plans to expand fire service.
“The increases in the fire department and the personnel is definitely needed. We need more of them, honestly, because volunteers, you don’t have volunteers nowadays. It’s just the world we live in.” However, Freeman said he would like to see money go to buy a new fire truck before adding additional personnel.
“I also work in a fire department that is not too far from here and I understand the personnel, if we had three people on a shift, that would be awesome,” he said. “That’s a good thing to have, but we got to have the truck that is going to get us there.”
Mayor Elam explained to Freeman that the city has committed money from its Speed Zone Camera fund to pay for a fire truck. The city collects between $17,000 and $25,000 a month in speeding fines when school is in session and from that they dedicate 10% toward a new truck.
Expanded tax base and exemptions
Picking up on last year’s theme of alternative funding, Councilman Venter stated his goal is to attract enough new businesses to Baldwin to expand its tax base. With a broader base, Baldwin could shift the tax burden away from private property owners to business owners.
Councilwoman Almagno laid some of the blame for the Habersham tax burden on the lack of local option sales tax funding. Banks County uses its LOST funds to help offset property taxes; Habersham County’s LOST revenue goes strictly to schools.
Baldwin does offer tax exemptions. City clerk Emily Woodmaster says affidavit forms are now being accepted at City Hall until September 30. The deadline was extended from April 1 so that taxpayers who might be impacted by the pending increase would still have time to apply. The following exemptions are available:
- Homestead exemption. Standard exemption is $5,000
- Over 65 years of age. Will go up to $10,000
- Disabled Veterans. Exemption is 100% of their property tax up to a certain value set by the state every year.
- Disabled Veterans widow. Exemption $10,000
- Seniors that are disabled. Exemption $10,000
The Baldwin City Council has one more public hearing left before voting on the proposed millage rate. That hearing is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on September 12 in the Baldwin Municipal Courtroom at 155 Willingham Avenue.
