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o o 24 PAGES 2 SECTIONS PLUS INSERTS The Commerce News JEFFERSON, JACKSON COUNTY GEORGIA 30549 $1.00 COPY Commentary Picture emerges on this year’s property taxation By Mike Buffington mike@mainstreetnews. com As the dust begins to set tle on the 2023 property tax season, a clearer picture is starting to emerge on how local governments dealt with a large jump in proper ty assessments this year. Most local governments rolled their millage rates back at least some as an offset to the higher assess ments, but only two govern ments did a “full rollback rate” based on state guide lines. Both the Jackson County government and the City of Jefferson adopted full rollback rates this year. At the other end of the spectrum, two local govern ments kept their 2023 mill- age rates the same as 2022 rates. The City of Com merce and City of Pender grass both kept their millage rates the same. Despite that, both towns have the lowest per capita net tax levy dollars of any local government studied for this article (the City of Maysville isn’t calculated since it overlaps two coun ties which would make such a comparison unfair. The towns of Talmo, Braselton, Arcade and Nicholson don’t levy any property tax.) It’s important to note that property taxes are only one source of revenue for lo cal governments. They are critical for local school sys tems, however, since school systems don’t have any oth er source of local revenues to supplement state funding. By contrast, city and county governments do have a variety of other reve nue sources, including sales taxes, fines, fees, service charges, among others. A few notes about the fol lowing property tax chart: • The county govern ment’s higher per capital amount reflects its broad reach across the county, in cluding being responsible for the largest public safety departments (sheriff, jail, EMS, etc.) and the fact that is is responsible for the larg est geographic area, a situa tion that affects road main tenance, among other items. • While the Commerce City School System has the highest school millage rate this year, on a per-stu- dent basis it nets the lowest amount. That’s in part be cause of the town’s lower tax digest relative to the number of students in the system and the fact that the SK Battery PILOT payment isn’t included in the to tal. If that PILOT payment See Taxes, page 2A Millage & Property Taxation Jackson County — 2023 Location District 2022 Mills 2023 Mills Tax Amt. 2023 Tax$ Per Capita* 2023 Dollars Uninc. JC 7.8 6.171 $39.6 mill. $476 Inc. JC 9.138 7.748 (Uninc & Inc. combined) Municipal Jefferson 5.262 4.522 $5.5 mill. $370 Commerce 4.36 4.36 $1.88 mill. $248 Hoschton 3.5 2.954 $1 mill. $257 Pendergrass 3.0 3.0 $642,000 $212 School Systems JCSS 16.576 15.495 $60.5 mill. $5,707 Jeff. SS 14.549 13.549 $17.1 mill. $4,275 Comm. SS 16.928 15,.5 $6.6 mill. $3,473 *(Per capita is based on population, except for school systems which is based on student population in that system.) Election Homecoming Jefferson Bob Carter Carter wins Pendergrass special election Bob Carter will take a seat on the Pendergrass City Council following a special election on Sept. 19. Carter defeated Mallory Danner in the race with 61 votes to Danner’s 34. Voter turnout was low at 5.81%. Meanwhile, the town is gearing up for its Nov. 7 municipal election. Four people have qualified for three council seats in that race, including Gabriel Go mez (incumbent), Joshua Auten, Tara Bonner (in cumbent) and Sylvia Basak. The mayoral race is un contested with Nick Gei- man as the lone qualifier. MAILING LABEL Photo by Amy Flint CHS HOMECOMING QUEEN Commerce High School crowned its 2023 homecoming queen last Friday night. Shown are: (L to R) Miss Freshman Jasmine Diaz-Aguirre; Miss Ju nior Sarah English; Miss CHS Homecoming Queen Carli Fowler; and Miss Sophomore Jayla Collins. See a photo of the CHS King and Queen on page 2A. Jefferson approves zoning changes, tax rate, budget The Jefferson City Council gave a green light Sept. 25 to modi fy some conditions for a townhome development between Storey Ln. and Business Hwy. 129 North. The controversial proj ect drew a slew of neigh bors at the council’s meet ing earlier in September, most opposed to modify ing various aspects of the project. Since that meeting, members of the council, nearby citizens and the de velopers have reportedly met to hammer out a deal for the project. “A significant compro mise has been made,” said Mayor Jon Howell at Monday night’s council meeting. The council approved lifting a 55+ resident age condition that had been put on the property years ago, but limited the town- homes to two stories and banned the units as rental property. The developers had also agreed to com pensate nearby homeown ers where a natural buffer See Jefferson, page 2A JCHS HOMECOMING QUEEN Chandler Blake was named Jackson County High School’s Homecom ing Queen during halftime of the Panther football team’s 35-17 win over Apalachee Friday (Sept. 22). See photo of JCHS Homecoming King on 2A. Education Commerce, East Jackson below state average on SAT Commerce and East Jackson Comprehensive high schools scored below the state average on the SAT. The Georgia Depart ment of Education re leased the graduating class of 2023 SAT results on Sept. 25. Commerce students scored far below the state average with a mean score of 1005, compared to the state average of 1045. Commerce straggled in both evidence-based read ing/writing and in math, falling below the state average in both catego ries. Commerce was only slightly higher than the national average mean score of 1003. East Jackson Compre hensive High School was just below the state aver age at 1044. EJCHS fell below the state only in the math category. Details for each school include: See SAT, page 2A piggly wiggly HOME OF THE SLUSHEES n M \