The four candidates for chairman of the Gwinnett County Commission oppose a plan to use an expiring property tax levy to help balance the county general fund budget.
On Tuesday, commissioners unanimously approved a resolution supporting the property tax shift to help close a deficit in the county's general fund, though they must follow through with a formal vote later this year. Though the county tax rate won’t rise under the commission’s plan, it would be reduced by .23 mills if the levy were allowed to expire as scheduled next year.
The levy in question has been used to pay off general obligation bonds that voters approved in 1986. Gwinnett used the bonds to pay for various library and road construction projects. In January the county used $8.8 million in proceeds from a 2009 property tax increase to pay off the bonds.
At a forum Thursday night the candidates said Gwinnett should allow the levy to expire and let the tax rate fall.
“It would be dishonest government to shift .23 mills from bond payments to general operating funds,” said candidate Will Costa of Lilburn.
Using the levy would generate $4.8 million for the general fund this year. That and other budget-balancing measures have reduced an $18 million general fund deficit to about $2.6 million. Commissioners are expected to take further action to eliminate the deficit later this month.
County officials say reallocating the levy to the general fund does not constitute a tax increase. The county’s total property tax rate would remain at 13.25 mills if commissioners approve the levy reallocation.
“To me, this is the sensible thing to do,” Commissioner Mike Beaudreau said Tuesday.
Mike Levengood, co-chairman of the Engage Gwinnett citizen panel that reviewed the county budget last year, said other counties also have shifted property tax levies after paying off bonds. Cobb County, for example, shifted millage from debt service to its general fund in 2002 and 2003.
“It doesn’t bother me at all that they are managing to keep the tax burden the same by paying off those bonds early,” Levengood said. “There isn’t a tax increase at the end of the day.”
But the commission chairman candidates -- Costa, Larry Gause of the Tucker section of Gwinnett, Gerald Duane Kissel of Snellville and Charlotte Nash of Dacula -- said the .23-mill levy should be allowed to expire.
“That millage was designated for a specific purpose,” Nash said. “That millage rate needs to be allowed to lapse.”
If commissioners allowed the .23-mill levy to expire as scheduled next year, the property tax bill on a $200,000 house would fall by about $16.
Commissioners are expected to take a final vote on the proposed levy reallocation when they set the 2011 millage rate this summer or fall.
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