County Commissioner's Office

County Talk
By
Lamar Paris - Commissioner

Q. With the anticipated tax increase this year, why is there not a better way to pay for government?
A. This has been a continuous question for years and so far no one has come up with a better way other than property taxes and sales taxes. In the case of Union County government, about a 1/3 of our revenue comes from property taxes, about 1/3 from sales taxes and about 1/3 from other revenue including fines and fees. This makes a pretty good mix. It would be nice to have an additional penny of sales tax to replace part of the property tax, but that is accomplished through the legislature and not very likely to happen.

Q. Some counties have exempted seniors from school taxes. Why can’t Union County do this?
A. While this would certainly make a lot of people in Union County happy, typically you only see counties with a large industrial and commercial tax base that can afford this. These industries can help pick up the slack. However, if seniors were exempted from school property taxes in Union County, then that only leaves the remaining property tax payers to pick up an even greater tax burden. Every time a group of tax payers is exempted from taxes, the remaining people find their share increasing.

A case in point is the Georgia sales tax. There are so many exemptions for different industries and business, it is estimated that if there were no exemptions for sales taxes of any kind, Georgia would not need income taxes at all.

Q. The governor has said that he is in favor of eliminating income tax for all seniors over 65. What do you think of this idea?
A. Well this is a loaded question. I have a lot of supporters that are senior citizens and I have a lot of friends who are senior citizens. In fact, I am not that far from being considered a senior citizen myself so I certainly do not want to make all these people mad. However, I would ask this simple question. Where is the money going to come from to make up for over $150 million dollars in state tax cuts. If the state can convince me (us) that they can make this huge cut in revenue and not cut vital services to the taxpayers of Georgia, then go for it. However, most of the time, when you see a tax cut at the state level, the chances are that within two or three years, if not sooner, that cost will be passed directly to the county property tax payers. Many of the cuts in school funding by the state are now being felt here at home. That portion of revenue has been shifted from the taxpayers of the state to the county tax payers, as we are currently seeing in this years local school tax increases.

Q. How can we afford to remain in Union County if our taxes continue to increase?
A. I have heard this question several times and there is not a good answer. Without a significant increase in industrial and business growth, homeowners will continue to pay the cost of educating our children and operating local government. It takes a home valued at over $400,000 in Union County to pay enough taxes to break even on operation cost of the county and school. Since all houses will not exceed that amount and if some other source (business/commercial) of revenue does not make up the difference, property taxes will continue to rise in the future. In other words, residential growth can not pay for itself alone.

While the property taxes in our county are increasing, there are still few counties in Georgia where you can find cheaper property taxes. That certainly does not ease the sting, but that is about all I can offer as an answer to this question. I will continue to do all that is necessary to keep our taxes are reasonable as possible and among the lowest in the state.

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