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DEL.ICIO.USThe doozey of ‘06 and what now may be the world’s richest animal rights charity
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Legislature’s mad dash for the exit this week will end with a flurry of bills and money thrown hither and yon.
Somewhere in that chaos will be at least one unintended consequence — a good deed gone bad. It happens, like clockwork, every year.
Today, in point of fact, the Senate will be asked to fix the doozey from last year.
It was admirable legislation. Goodwill Industries wanted relief from property taxes on its facilities in Savannah. The Legislature was happy to oblige with an exemption for “charitable institutions.”
The bill, passed overwhelmingly by both chambers and approved in a statewide referendum last November, resulted in a loophole big enough for several hundred lumber trucks to pass through.
Over the last few months, timber baron Holland M. Ware of Hogansville has donated 67,000 acres in Georgia to his favorite do-good entity, the Fayetteville-based Holland M. Ware Charitable Foundation, dedicated to animal rights and anti-cruelty movements.
The charity’s last tax statement, signed by Ware a year ago, put its assets at about $300,000. Ware’s spokesman at the state Capitol said the value of the new round of gifts was “maybe $100 million.”
Consequently, the foundation — controlled by Ware, his wife and a third party — has also applied for nearly $700,000 in property-tax exemptions for land it now owns in 18 of the poorest counties in South Georgia.
These are counties that already struggle to fund schools and the bare essentials of government.
State and county officials fear a stampede of timberland into the protective arms of similar charities.
“It could be devastating statewide if this continues to happen,” state Rep. Richard Royal (R-Camilla) told members of the Senate Finance Committee last week, during a hearing that brought the issue into public view.
Royal has introduced H.B. 445, to close the loophole.
At the hearing, everyone agreed that Royal’s bill is necessary. The question was whether the foundation of the animal-loving timber baron should be allowed to keep its tax break.
The charity is real, argued Pete Robinson, Ware’s lawyer-lobbyist. “It gives money to the Auburn University school of veterinary medicine. [Ware] built the LaGrange animal shelter,” he said.
And the donation? “It was done legally, it was done honestly, it was done charitably, and it was done because of the passage of this law by the General Assembly and its people,” Robinson said.
State Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock), chairman of the committee, agreed. “I’m prepared to state for the record that [Ware] did operate within the bounds of the law we passed.”
Rogers proposed to “grandfather” Ware’s tax breaks into law, which prompted a near-snort from Royal. “It rewards somebody for finding a loophole in some legislation. I don’t think it’s right, and I don’t think it’s fair to these counties,” Royal said.
As for legalities, Royal said he had an opinion from Attorney General Thurbert Baker that “raises some questions of whether [Ware is] acting within the law.”
At which point Bart Graham, commissioner of the state Department of Revenue, stood up from his seat in the audience to add his doubts.
“This foundation was set up for the protection of abandoned animals. You hardly need 65,000 acres to do that,” Graham said.
Dave Wills, chairman of the Webster County Commission, was among the last to testify. The Holland foundation has 2,733 acres in Webster, worth $20,000 in taxes to the county government.
That exemption alone would mean a half-mill property tax increase for the 2,400 residents of Webster, he said.
In the end, the Senate committee sided with Royal and the 18 rural counties. Holland Ware and his foundation lost. The full Senate is scheduled to vote on the bill today.
Don’t think that you’ve seen the end of this unintended consequence. A lawsuit is certain.
Elsewhere, good intentions may pave the road to hell. In the Legislature, they’ve built an interstate leading to the courthouse.
So much for critics who say the General Assembly doesn’t care about transportation.
Comments
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By Bill Kecskes
April 15, 2007 7:18 PM | Link to this
Tom - Jim: your piece lists Rep. Richard Royal as a Democrat. The confusion is understood since Rep. Royal’s own web site lists him as a Democrat in one spot and a Republican in another. Sounds like a few others in the House. I guess politically expedient partisan conversions can do that. I guess Rep. Royal has been too busy to make the complete conversion from Democrat to Republican.
By DanTana
April 16, 2007 10:48 AM | Link to this
best local take on this was over at www.voic.us . Our legislature has really shaken down the suits this season. Its was a profitable season indeed. I’d say the Ga legislature as a whole has “got its limit”. We continue to have the best legislature money can buy.