Newspaper Page Text
2A
-FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS-SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1987
TAXcontinued from page 1
because a property tax increase is re
quired to repay them, officials said.
Bonds must be approved by city and
county voters in a referendum similar
to the sales tax vote, and officials say
that voters would be more reluctant to
approve the former than the latter.
A straight tax increase through
raising the city and county millage
rate is also out of the question, city
and county officials said. The in
crease required to pay for the $22 mil
lion system would more than double
the current millage rate for county
maintenence and operation.
“If you went on the straight millage
rate, you’d have an increase in the
neighborhood of seven to eight mills,”
said County Administrator Ralph
Roberts, who is on a three-week leave
of absence to promote the sales tax.
“If you go straight general obligation
bond, there’d be an increase of about
two mills for the 20-year repayment
period.”
Roberts added that local residents
would be responsible for the full $22
million under either property tax
measure, but that the total bill would
be divided between residents and visi
tors under the sales tax program, with
non-locals picking up $8 million of the
tab.
A third funding source available to
Georgia county governments is reve
nue bonds, but local officials say this
alternative is logistically impossible
for the water sytem.
Revenue bonds are sold to investors
who pay for installation of a system
and hope for eventual profits when us
ers hook up. But because the county
water system has few customers and
isn’t yet netting a profit, investors
would be uninterested, according to
Roberts and City Manager Gerald
Blackburn, who is also on leave of ab
sence to promote passage of the sales
tax.
Raising user fees to yield a profit
attractive to investors would cause a
consumer backlash, Blackburn said,
“and run us completely out of the wa
ter business because rates would run
so high, no one would tap on.”
In the absence of local fundng, the
only water lines put in the ground
would be those installed by develop
ers, officials said. Currently, develop
ers are required to run water lines
through sites they construct, deed
those lines to the county, then recoup
up to 70 percent of their expenses by
collecting a portion of tap-on fees for
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Officials caution that water lines in
stalled by developers are only re
quired to supply the development site,
not existing neighborhoods around it.
Another drawback cited by devel
opers is that their attention, and
therefore their water lines, are con
centrated in the southern part of the
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county where growth is most rapid.
The time span required before differ
ent developers string water lines into
the northern portion could mean a
long wait with no guarantee where the
lines will provide service.
“The county has guidelines for us,
but if those guidelines call for a 12-
inch line, that’s probably what the de-
veloper will put in,” said local resi
dent and developer Carol McGregor.
“He’s not likely to go beyond that re
quirement and put in a 30-inch line be
cause that much water will be needed
in a few years. The developer simply
isn’t going to do it for what may be the
use of someone else tying in years
down the road.”
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opponents who say they know of no
organized campaign against the sales
tax measure.
Residents say they are afraid that
stretching 200 miles of water mains
across the county and pushing mil
lions of gallons of water through those
lines with a system of hydraulics and
pumping stations will lure more peo
ple and industry to the county. The
ensuing growth would destroy the
small town lifestyle of the county,
those opposed say.
Part of the concern is over the ac
tions of developers. W.P. Warren,
who lives in the growth-oriented
southern portion of the county, said he
feels developers will manipulate the
placement of water lines to their
advantage.
Lines installed by developers in the
absence of a county water system
have bypassed Warren’s road en
route to other subdivisions or industri
al developments on two occasions, he
said. He suspects political favoritism
influenced where those lines went,
and he fears the same will occur with
the $22 million water system local offi
cials have proposed.
Warren isn’t without company. Lo
cal attorney Lynwood Jordan said his
opposition to the water system isn’t
over need or financing, but over
management.
“I would be in favor of the sales tax
and water system, but $22 million is a
lot of money to play games and poli
tics with,” Jordan said. “Unless it’s
done in an evenhanded, orderly, open
manner, it would be dangerous.”
Citing manpower shortages in the
tax assessors and tax commissioners
offices that have resulted in underas
sessed property and backlogs of un
paid taxes, Jordan said city and coun
ty officials would have to “set their
everyday affairs in order” before he
would support a water system that
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would bring with it even mol
responsibility.
Jordan said a master plan outlini™
current and future land use woufl
keep water lines from being installed
for inappropriate reasons. He su9
gested that withholding sales tax re\l
enues, if the measure passes, until thl
master plan is in place would makl
the issue more palatable.
But officials disagree. Engineering
plans for the water system werl
based on data that the Georgia Moun
tains Area Planning and Develop
ment Commission will include in th<
master plan expected out this spring
a fact officials cite as evidence that
water lines will follow the plan.
Officials also point out that an even
distribution of water across the coun
ty would balance growth and prevent
it from overrunning a particular area.
Property values, too, would be more
even, preventing tax dichotomies, of
ficials said.
Though developers have remained
professionally aloof from the sales tax
issue, their private sentiments bristle
at allegations that the measure was
devised with them in mind.
“In the past developers have been
able to use laying water lines as the
carrot to get unreasonable zonings,”
said Carol McGregor of Outdoor De
velopment. “That’s why it’s so much
better if the county is in charge of the
water line infrastructure than if de
velopers are in charge of it. If the
county is laying the lines, the county
has control.”
McGregor and other developers
who work in Forsyth County say they
would feel little financial impact from
a positive sale tax vote. Developers
will still be responsible for running
water lines into their developments
and for tying those lines into the coun
ty system.
887-3126