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Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Governor’s land worth millions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Gov. Sonny Perdue filed his personal financial report for the year Tuesday afternoon and it shows the Houston County agribusinessman continues to hold an impressive land portfolio.
Perdue lists owning personal property in Houston County and in Florida near Disney World, and his businesses own land in Burke, Gordon, Peach and Washington counties in Georgia.
A check of tax commissioner records in those counties put the combined values at about $4.3 million, meaning the governor is paying a lot of property taxes these days. Many of the properties have not been revalued in the past year, including the Osceola, Fla. property that brought the governor such grief in 2006 when he was running for re-election.
Perdue bought the land from politically-connected developer Stan Thomas for $2 million in 2004, but it was only valued at $185,000 by the Osceola tax commissioner. Osceola County officials more than tripled the appraisal for tax purposes last year, and it’s now valued at $642,000.
— James Salzer
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