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^0 A salute to 4-H ^0 Inside this week ™e Wiregrass Farmer Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008 ASHBURN, GA, 31714 VOL 106 - No. 41 • 500 /Around Town \ Subscribe to The Wiregrass Farmer Delivered in your mail every week. Call 567-3655 for information. Love Offering Colony Bank has a love offering set up for Eddie Joe & Triscilla Bryan, who were involved in a car acci dent, you can contact Jean Daniel or Diane Wideman if you are interested in helping. Case of Cokes Turner Co. Special Services is selling cases of cokes. $20 per case. Fest Yard Sale November Fest will be on Nov. 1 10 a.m.-l p.m. The Yard Sale is in con junction with the November Fest will be from 7 a.m. - 1 p.m. Ribbon Cutting Thursday, Oct. 9 - 4:00 p.m. there will be a Ribbon Cutting and Open House for GreenTree Teaming Center, located at 767 Teresa Ave. Building B. Community Band Starting up a communi ty band under the direction Philip Fyons. Need all band type instrument play ers. For more info contact Nancy Stevenson @ 567- 3706 or email fancy64 @ alltel .net Cow patty bingo Cow Patty Bingo, pro ceeds to benefit the Turner Co. Chamber, tickets $10, cash prize is $500,drawing Oct. 10th directly after the TCHS football game. Buy tickets from any Chamber board member or at the Chamber office. Legion meeting The American Fegion Post 98 will hold its month ly meeting at 7 pm on Oct. 14 in the Bubba Akins Memorial Building. All veterans are invited. Story time The Victoria Evans Memorial Fibrary hosts a Community Story Time the third Friday of each month from 10-11 a.m. Children of all ages are invited to attend. Sessions include a variety of stories, songs and crafts. The next Story Time is Oct. 17. For more info call 567- 4027. Obituaries Cora Lee R. Pate, 84 Ashburn Perelee Wynn Ferrell, 90, Sycamore Clarence A. Cleghorn, Sr., 90, Ocilla Alvin Junior Scoggins, 83, Chula Complete obituary \information is on Page 5 ; Serving Turner County Since 1902 — Digest jumps $44 million DIGEST County 08 - 220,438,495 07 - 176,463,431 24.9 percent increase School Board 08 - 219,870,110 07 - 176,087,142 24.8 percent increase Ashburn 08- 61,716,182 07 -47,155,618 30.8 percent increase Sycamore 08 - 12,027,890 07 - 10,091,042 19.1 percent increase Rebecca 08 - 3,956,287 07 - 3,438,220 15% percent increase by Ben Baker, editor The net tax digest across Turner County rose $43,975,064, a jump of 25 percent, according to figures released by the Tax Assessor’s office. This is the net digest, or 40 percent of the gross digest. Taxes are computed in Georgia using the net digest. A mil is one-tenth of one percent, or in property values terms, $1 for every $1,000 of taxable value. Various exemptions can lower a property’s taxable value. The digest is not what will be collected in taxes. Taxes have not been set by the County Commission, School Board and the three cities. This digest is also not 100 percent complete as some appeals are still pending, said Tax Assessor Sylvia Famb. But the number of appeals is less than 5 percent of the total number of parcels. Mrs. Famb said since there are only a few appeals still pending, the Tax Assessor’s office felt comfortable in sending the digest to Atlanta for review and approval from state officials. “We’re getting close value-wise,” she said. The re-assessment was done according to state law which required the Assessor’s office to review past property sales end ing Jan. 1, 2008. Sales after Jan. 1 of this year were not consid ered for setting property values “Sales right now are crazy,” Mrs. Famb said. “This Digest is for ‘07 sales which is what we had to compare to. Things were (See DIGEST Page 3) TAX AND MILLAGE Q&A Q. What does this mean for my taxes? A. No one knows. The County, School Board and the Cities must set the mill rate. This will decide what your taxes will be. Q. Are my taxes going up? A. No one knows. Until the final millage is set, there’s no way to know if your taxes will go up. Q. Are my taxes going down? A. No one knows. Until the final millage is set, there’s no way to know if your taxes will go down. Q. Has anyone set a final millage rate? A. No. The County, School Board and Cities are still discussing this. Q. Is my appeal still valid? A. If you filed an appeal on time and it has not been settled, your appeal is still valid and active. Q. Will my appeal affect my taxes? A. It can. It depends on if your appeal sees your prop erty value changed from the original assessment. Q. Can I still file an appeal? A. No. The deadline is long past. Ashburn 10 mills by Ben Baker Editor The Ashburn City Council set a tentative 10 mil rate at the Council meeting last week. That is a one mil rollback from last year’s millage The final mil rate will be set at a meeting Oct. 23. Before making the millage final, the City must hold public hearings to gather input from citizens. WILL MY TAXES GO UP? For purposes of this article, taxes are the amount of money you pay in ad valorem taxes. This millage is over the rollback rate. This means the taxes collected by the City will be more than last year. However, whether or not your taxes will go up depends on the value of your property. If your property value stayed the same or went down, you will pay less taxes. If your property value rose only slightly, you may pay about the same or less taxes than last year. If your property value rose a good bit, you likely will pay more in taxes this year. WHEN WILL I KNOW WHAT MY TAXES WILL BE? When the final millage is set later this month, City Hall will be able to tell you what your taxes will be. Public hearings are planned at City Hall: 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Oct. 16. and Oct. 23 at 10a.m. The millage-setting meeting is 7 p.m. Oct. 23. REBEL ROYALTY 2008 HOMECOMING QUEEN JENNA KICKLIGHTER receives her crowning tiara from last year’s queen Marley Myers. Homecoming salute inside. Photos Trish Mathes No mil change for BoE by Ben Baker Editor The Board of Education is planning to leave the millage at 14. Several public hearings are planned before the Board offi cially sets the mil rate. This means if your property value stayed the same during the recent re-assessment, your School Board taxes will be the same as last year. If your prop erty value dropped, your taxes will go down. If your property value went up, your taxes will go up. “The issue with leaving the millage rate where it is, is a combination of several things,” said Superintendent Ray Jordan. First is a lack of reserves. “In past years, we used the fund balance to avoid raising the tax rate. That fund balance is depleted. We no longer have a large enough fund balance to continue that. We've had to do a balanced budget,” he said. Add to that lower reserves, a lack of money from the state level and the School Board had to borrow money this year to meet operating expenses until property tax money starts com ing in. A reduction in state funding is another reason the School Board is looking at leaving the millage at 14. Over the past few years the General Assembly has reduced money it gives to school systems (See BOE Page 3) QUEEN JENNA KICKLIGHTER (c) and her court Breanna Hall, Ashley Whiddon, Jessica Holton, Sydney Saylor, T'Keyah Chevers, Marlena Smith, Heather McGuire, Sara Day, Jasmine Bateman, Kenyota Carithers, Mallory Myers, Ashley Wheeler and Diamond Green. When you come back for Homecoming, you get an incredible feeling. The game is really something you miss and can't wait to be a part of. Corey Chambers,