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6A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com
Wednesday, August 22,2018
'I think if somebody comes in here and they
really impact things that the citizens shouldn't
have to pay for it, whoever comes in here
should have to pay for what they do.'
Sharon Fausett
District 1 Commissioner
FROM 1A
Impact
To help determine what fees
the county could potentially
charge, the board hired Bill
Ross of Ross & Associates
back in June 2017 to update the
county’s fee schedule, which
was suspended in 2009.
Ross researched the projected
growth of the county (50,000
county residents by 2040, com
pared to 24,000 currently) and
how much new demand the
growth will place on services.
The cost of capital projects that
county staff have determined
necessary to fit that demand is
used to create the impact fee
schedule.
Maximum impact fees for a
single family home are $3,372
per dwelling; $1,860 per 1,000
square feet for a specialty retail
center; $1,039 per 1,000 square
feet for an office building; $680
per 1,000 square feet for a man
ufacturing building; $8,050 per
1,000 square feet for a fast food
restaurant and $461 per room
for a hotel. These are just six
out of a around 70 land use cat
egories listed.
The board held the second of
two required public hearings on
the maximum fee schedule
Aug. 16, the first having been
held Aug. 2.
Dawson County Chamber of
Commerce President Christie
Haynes Moore spoke during
the hearing and asked the board
to consider adopting the fees at
25 percent or less of the maxi
mum amount for at least the
first year.
“The chamber exists to be a
champion of business,” Moore
said. “Tonight I am speaking to
you directly about the fees that
we’re looking at for the busi
ness sector. Our chamber is
very concerned that a move
from zero impact fees to the
maximum impact fees will have
an overnight change in our
community into one that is per
ceived as anti-business.”
Moore said that she had
heard the board mention many
times over the past few years a
wish for a diversification in the
local economy, with higher
paying jobs in technology,
medical and light industry, and
that the chamber agrees with
that desire.
However Moore said that the
chamber believes levying max
impact fees will add one more
barrier of difficulty to attracting
those higher paying jobs.
“Adding large impact fees on
incoming businesses will give
companies one more reason to
choose to locate somewhere
else,” Moore said. “While the
intention of these fees may be
to help slow some of the
national chain growth, the com
panies that it will impact the
worst are the small businesses-
the family owned stores who
have dreamed their whole lives
of opening a business. It will
affect all of them regardless of
where their home base is.”
Adopting the 25 percent of
the maximum allowable fees
will put Dawson County much
more in line with neighboring
counties that currently levy
impact fees, Moore said.
According to numbers col
lected by Moore, the fees are
higher than those currently
enacted in Hall County,
Gainesville, Forsyth County
and Cherokee in every category
except for single family resi
dences in Forsyth County,
which are about $500 more per
dwelling compared to Dawson
County, and office buildings in
Cherokee County, which are
$41 more per 1,000 square feet.
Pickens, Gilmer, Lumpkin
and Fannin counties, the other
counties that touch Dawson, do
not currently charge impact
fees.
“In fact, all three counties
that do charge impact fees,
Hall, Forsyth and Cherokee, all
have a population that exceeds
190,000 in comparison to our
population between 23,000 and
24,000,” Moore said.
After Moore spoke, District 1
Commissioner Sharon Fausett
made a motion to adopt the
proposed impact fees at the
maximum rate. District 4
Commissioner Julie Hughes
Nix seconded the motion.
District 2 Commissioner
Chris Gaines said he was in
favor of adopting the fees at 25
percent.
“I’m very cautious about this,
one single decision can have a
ripple effect across our commu
nity in multiple different ways,”
Gaines said. “This year alone
we’ve had over a $1 million
increase in LOST revenue that
is driven by the businesses that
are on Ga. 400. We have said
over and over again that we
want to attract higher paying
wages, this is simply putting
another roadblock.
“I agree that we need to have
them on some level, but to me,
for a medical dental office in
Forsyth to be $227 per 1,000
square feet and we’re proposing
going to $2,420? It’s a major
difference and that will be a
game changer for any develop
er looking to bring a high-qual
ity business to Dawson
County.”
District 3 Commissioner
Jimmy Hamby asked if the
board could start at the top, or
adopt the maximum fee now
and work down to smaller fees,
as the board could vote to
change the schedule at any
time.
Gaines said it could be done,
but didn’t advise it.
“I think the danger with that
is it sends a message immedi
ately that we are anti-business
and then not only are we hav
ing to work our way back down
from the top we’re also trying
to work out way out of a PR
situation that in the region peo
ple say ‘Dawson County is not
interested in business,”’ Gaines
said.
Fausett said she didn’t think
that was the message that
would be relayed.
“I think if somebody comes
in here and they really impact
things that the citizens
shouldn’t have to pay for it,
whoever comes in here should
have to pay for what they do,
that’s how I see it,” she said. “I
don’t think we should shift it to
somebody else, it should be on
those businesses that come in
and impact things.”
Thurmond said he agreed
with Gaines and Moore.
“I think it would be in the
best interest to start the busi
ness categories at 25 percent
and we have that opportunity if
we see there is not impact, to
raise those because we do want
to diversity our business,”
Thurmond said.
Gaines tried one last time to
argue his case.
“I think it’s a known fact that
residential is where our true
service costs lie,” he said. “The
ability to apply a 25 percentage
on fire and roads and 100 per
cent on library and parks, we
still are collecting on residen
tial a substantial amount of
money that we’re not collecting
in the past, because residential
is the one that relies on most of
our services. The business is
what’s generating the LOST
revenue that we all appreciate
that helps keep our taxes down.
Without them here our property
millage rate would be twice
what it is.”
Nix said she had hoped for
more feedback from the public
on the proposed fees.
“I would just like to say
we’ve been working on this
process a year and this is the
first time we’ve had this type of
discussion,” she said. “It’s a lot,
I just wish there had been more
feedback, we’ve had this a
month and people have had
time to call, to look.”
The board voted 3-1 with
Gaines opposed to adopt the
fees at the maximum amount.
FROM 1A
Millage
Property owners will
receive a higher tax bill if
their assessment
increased or remained the
same compared to 2017.
By law the county must
also calculate a rollback
rate. A complete rollback
to 7.393 mills would gen
erate the same amount of
revenue from property
taxes as in 2017, which
was $10.6 million.
One person spoke dur
ing the third and final
hearing August 16. Tony
Passarello, who despite
being an active member
of the Development
Authority of Dawson
County and other local
groups, spoke to the com
mission as a resident and
concerned citizen and not
on behalf of any organi
zation.
Passarello said he had
thought a lot about the
millage rate and thought
for many months that the
rate should stay the same,
but after reviewing the
public budget hearings
that the county has been
conducting over the past
two weeks, started to feel
differently.
“Over the course of the
last two weeks, what
we’ve heard, with only
one minor exception, is
the need to not only...
operate but to catch up
from some of the things
that we’ve ignored, that
we’ve had to ignore from
a fiscal responsibility
standpoint,” Passarello
said. “I’ve also been
studying some of the rev
enue from the county that
we have... (and) we have
watched with interest the
reassessment of the prop
erty that was commis
sioned by the county to
go back and look at the
residential properties, it
was much needed, it was
overdue.”
Passarello asked the
board to compromise and
roll the rate back a little
to allow the county to
still provide a high level
of service as well as be
responsible with taxpayer
money.
“We have the opportu
nity to perhaps be fiscally
responsible in these good
times and prepare our
reserve for the work that
needs to be done, to pre
pare the infrastructure
and staffing that we’re
going to need to serve the
increase and get ahead of
that because of the
increase in population
that we’re all expecting,
but at the same time send
a message to the property
owners in Dawson
County that we under
stand and we appreciate
the fact that we’re trying
to be good stewards,”
Passarello said.
Following Passarello’s
remarks, District 2
Commissioner Chris
Gaines motioned to roll
the rate back to 8.0635, a
10 percent rollback that
would amount to around
a $105,000 difference in
the amount of taxes the
county could collect
compared to the current
rate.
“It’s not as much as I
would like but it’s a com
promise and it’s a way to
take steps with this
thing,” Gaines said. “We
do have a lot of needs
and I think that we show
that we are trying to be
responsible over the bud
get and I think that we’re
responsible that we’re not
giving it back to the citi
zens, it’s just simply that
we’re not asking for that
much out of their pockets
because it’s theirs to
begin with.”
District 4
Commissioner Julie
Hughes Nix and District
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3 Commissioner Jimmy
Hamby asked how much
each taxpayer would save
by Gaines’ proposed roll
back.
“I did a quick calcula
tion and on a home of a
$250,000 value, that
would be a savings of
about $7.45,” said Chief
Financial Officer Vickie
Neikirk.
Chairman Billy
Thurmond seconded the
motion for discussion
purposes, but it was
voted down 3-1, with
commissioners Nix,
Hamby and Sharon
Fausett voting against the
rollback.
Nix’s subsequent
motion to maintain the
current rate was approved
3-1, with Gaines voting
against setting the rate at
8.138.
The commission will
consider the approxi
mately $2.3 million com
bined increase in proper
ty and sales taxes when
setting the county’s 2019
budget. Open budget
hearings wrapped up
Aug. 16, and Thurmond
should be ready to pres
ent a proposed budget in
mid-September.
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