Newspaper Page Text
"< ■ ' * tql ■ <
"tt 1 *JLjflP*''MW|g|| ■-<
' >T'J> iJirCJRI
' >\' ir iJRP* *V
Tfi /t * r
wir •*
Jn. ' {"•*«»-*■■’ “'"
H
-i’W - -*"*<” 'w"*- <* *. ’T^l
v> —J-~— - -r ■ ''-*_‘^y”Tll —
. . W »m*w '^•■hb*** k T? s .
i'W'
Spring rain
Heavy rains earlier this week swelled the water levels at High Falls state Park
and helped create this spring time picture for the Griffin Daily News readers.
Old city-county rivalry
rears head on option tax
ATLANTA (AP) — Some Georgia
counties have been collecting a sales
tax for months, but the time is coming
when they will have to pay it back in
property tax relief.
Fourteen counties and three
municipalities have been levying a one
per cent local option sales tax, a
creation of the 1975 legislature that held
out the twin promises of property tax
relief and an expanded base of revenue
for local governments.
The law specifies that property taxes
must be cut by the amount of money
collected from the sales tax. But Rich
mond County wants to give more
property tax relief and that has raised a
legal question.
Knowledgeable observers think it
may be a question for the courts to
decide.
The idea of the 1975 local option sales
tax law was to shift some of the costs of
local government off the property
owner and onto a broader class of
people — consumers.
Here’s how it works: The second year
the sales tax is collected, local
governments must reduce property
Only thing the dreams lacked was people
By The Associated Press
Some Georgia land developers had a
dream — planned communities with
golf courses, clubhouses and expensive
homes. The only thing they didn’t plan
was lack of sales.
“We literally met all our goals except
sales goals,” says developer Bob
Adams, who planned to turn 200,000
acres of Jones County woodland into a
$lO million community.
Adams expected to have sold about
half of the 800 lots by now, but has sold
only 120. The development has been
turned back to the bank.
Some cities places of fear, terror for elderly. Page 6
DAILY#NEWS
Daily Since 1872
taxes by the amount of money they
expect to receive from the sales tax
during that period.
The law does not say what must be
done with sales tax revenues collected
the first year.
Supporters said the new tax would
relieve overburdened property owners
and allow local governments to tax a
field that was more responsive to
economic growth.
But the old rivalry between city and
county governments took hold.
The issue was whether city taxpayers
would get a larger rebate than tax
payers who lived outside of a city.
Critics complained that the original
proposal would give city taxpayers a
double advantage: since they pay both
city and county taxes, they would get
two rollbacks.
The compromise split the revenue
from the new tax — with part going to
the county government and the rest to
cities within the county, on the basis of
population.
Counties are required to roll back
property taxes only for taxpayers not
living in cities. City property owners
Adams said he fought an economic
recession that left consumers wary of
making large investments, interest
rates that hit 12 per cent, runaway
energy costs and double-digit inflation
that sent building costs up 50 per cent
since the Macon-area project was
begun in 1972.
“Any quotation you got for a home
wasn’t good for over 10 days,” he said.
“It’s a whole new ball game from what
it was like in ’71.”
Developments in other areas, in
cluding Atlanta, also have problems.
“We all listened rather carefully to
GRIFFIN
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Wednesday Afternoon, March 23,1977
William Carter Co. moving
headquarters to Griffin
The William J. Carter Company is
moving its manufacturing head
quarters from Barnesville to Griffin.
Moving the headquarters will create
approximately 150 new jobs. Some 40
new jobs will be those of key executives
and 100 clerical positions. All of these
positions are presently located in
Barnesville and persons holding them
will be given an opportunity to transfer.
Many of these employees now live in
Griffin.
The relocation is expected to take
four to six months.
From the Griffin Headquarters this
staff will provide services to 11 plants of
the William Carter Company
employing in excess of 4,000 people.
Tom Roberts, vice president of
manufacturing, said, “We are happy to
become part of the industrial growth of
Griffin.”
William Carter Company manu
facturers clothing for infants and
children. A Griffin retail outlet for the
company in located in the Northgate
Shopping Center.
The move to Griffin is due to need for
additional manufacturing space in the
Barnesville complex as a result of a
projected 20 per cent increase in
business for Carter during 1977. The
company is also planning to install a
computer system at the Griffin
(Continued on page 2)
would get a break on city taxes.
In addition to the 14 counties and
three cities that levied the tax in 1976,
seven counties will begin collecting the
local sales tax in April and two others
will begin in July. Four others are
considering the measure.
The question raised by Richmond
County involves the first property tax
reduction.
Richmond County collected $3.1
million during an eight-month period in
1976. It estimates it will collect $4.7
million in 1977.
So, the county is required to reduce
property taxes by $4.7 million in 1977.
What about the $3.1 million it
collected in 1976?
Richmond County is planning to use
most of that to further reduce 1977 taxes
for taxpayers who live outside city
limits.
In fact, it would eliminate the tax
required to finance county operations.
However, the city of Augusta, the
county seat, views the rollback
requirement differently.
the public, and they wanted more
amenities, more open spaces and more
emphasis on environmental protec
tion,” said William Probst, president of
the Georgia Land Developers
Association.
Land developers say they made the
mistake of giving the public more
expensive developments than it was
ready to buy.
“I think the thing the developers were
guilty of was the thing the whole
country was guilty of — we were ex
travagant with our resources,” said
Zack Henderson, an Atlanta architect
■H W** ” “ I .. O
rS' < , • B ' ’ll
B| 'B * Jr 1 ♦ B 11
a i ' 5 t
■ |f*£L I £ - rv
B vmßt B 3 Crl ML LIB r *
1 ... W tWw' »r i
r\ t\ W R/M Hr
p*. '* , KVxjgnjfl' —j‘ .
i vtv jlßßwwa i?
/ B W V J
I ff It 1
R R* ' t W
I k \ .mSK' jMt -' W/
B B I. 8.. >
Among those present at the William Carter Plant opening this morning were:
Vester Butler, Carter Company; Bill Ramsey, Griffin Chamber; Mrs. Mildred
Sawyer, Chamber executive vice president; Willard Morrow, Carter Company;
Raymond Head, Griffin mayor; Tom Roberts, Carter vice president of
manufacturing; and Bart Searcy, Griffin Chamber.
Ik Vlt
“I like to see husbands and
wives treat each other as if they
were friends.”
People
...and things
Out of town salesman studying map
of Griffin spread on hood of his car,
finding his way around town.
Two iron horseshoes set a generation
ago in concrete floor of what once was a
horse-and-mule sales barn on Bank
Street.
Pretty office girl on pretty day
enjoying stroll to Post Office to pick up
mail.
and former president of the developer’s
association, whose membership has
dropped 25 to 30 per cent as developers
went out of business or moved out of
state.
About half of the community
developments started in the 1970 s have
been deeded back to lending in
stitutions, Henderson said.
Developers, bouyed by the im
pressive gains in new housing during
the early 19705, looked for steady ex
pansion for the next 15 years.
Because the South’s economic
progress had outstripped the nation for
Vol. 105 No. 69
Son defeats dad
in ABC election
The Griffin Chapter of American
Business Clubs (ABC) always has
enjoyed electing officers.
The Tuesday election had a little
something extra.
A father and son were two of the three
candidates for president.
Marion Godard, Griffin businessman
and pastor, as well as his son,
businessman Kerry Godard were on the
ballot. So was James Harrison,
recently retired businessman.
City gets cracking
on street, walk work
The city commissioners got moving
on some street and sidewalk resurfac
ing work at their administrative session
Tuesday.
They also pushed for lease payments
on the airport.
The commissioners also:
I—Asked for copies of police incident
reports in which officers use force in
a decade, analysts thought the region’s
growth would prevent serious reces
sion.
“In the Southeast and particularly
Georgia, we have gone through
economic downturns in the past with no
problem at all,” said Jim Green, vice
president of the Citizens and Southern
Bank. “This is the first time in many,
many years that we have really felt the
effect of an economic downturn.”
Green said lending institutions are
trying to establish better lines of
communication with each other in
order to more accurately measure
Weather
FORECAST: Frost warning tonight.
Sunny and a little warmer Thursday.
Fair and cold with frost again tonight.
EXTENDED FORECAST: Fair
Friday through Sunday with a warming
trend.
The senior Mr. Godard is a past
president.
His son was elected Tuesday to
succeed C.B. Reeves in May.
Others elected to serve with Godard
are John Seay, vice president; Jerry
Adams, second vice president; Lin
Gatlin, secretary; Mickey Virden,
treasurer; C.T. Cooper, chaplain;
Guenter Roesch, parliamentarian;
Milton Childress, sergeant-at-arms;
Brack Pound, Tom Lane, Ed Griffin
and Forrest Peterman, directors.
making arrests.
2— Filled the Police Department’s
dispatchers job with a black woman.
3— Approved a payment for the sewer
system survey.
4— Heard a woman say thanks to the
city for installing a street light she had
requested.
Read all the details on page 3.
short-term changes in the housing
market.
Some developers are developing
more lower-priced housing and building
homes without many extravagant
features and others are smaller
clusters of homes, in which groups of 30
to 100 homes can be opened at one time.
These plans may spell the end of
expensive projects such as the one
Adams developed.
“We were kind of a textbook case,”
said Adams. “I doubt we will see
another one like it in our lifetime.”