Despite plenty of opposition from residents at a packed meeting, Clayton County commissioners voted 3-2 on Tuesday night to raise their property taxes 34 percent.
The three commissioners who voted for the tax hike -- Wole Ralph, Sonna Singleton and Gail Hambrick -- quickly left the room following the meeting as residents moved toward them to ask questions. Chairman Eldrin Bell and Commissioner Michael Edmondson, who opposed the increase, stayed to field inquiries from many of the more than 150 people in attendance.
Approved was an increase of 5 mills to offset a $22-million budget deficit. Edmondson proposed a last-minute solution to the tax hike that would have saved the county about $3 million and shaved a small amount off the millage rate, but his offer to remove the funding for dozens of vacant county jobs, an idea seconded by Bell, was defeated.
The public hearing was limited to 30 minutes, so only about a dozen people who signed up to speak were heard. All opposed the tax hike, pleading with the board to find other ways to finance the $167.4 million fiscal 2012 budget.
Terrence Martin, a resident, said he couldn't see how the county could pass a "30-percent increase when 20 percent of the residents are out of work or underemployed; that is problematic."
Some promised to vote the commissioners out of office. “If this millage rate passes, I’ll remember that next year at the polls,” said Virgil Traywick, another resident, prompting a round of applause from the crowd. The audience was admonished several times during the public hearing for applauding.
Yet even with the tax increase, finance director Angela Jackson told the crowd the average Clayton homeowner will pay $89 less than he or she did in in 2009, when the last tax increase was approved. The average bill will be about $444.
Wayne Madden, a resident who signed up to speak but didn’t get a chance, said he supported the tax increase.
“It’s necessary to run this county,” Madden said. “My biggest concern is public safety.”
Among metro Atlanta counties, Clayton’s tax hike surpassed DeKalb’s recent 26-percent increase and Cobb's proposed 16-percent tax hike that was up for vote Tuesday night.
Similar to other counties, Clayton's property values have nosedived. On top of that, the county was hit this year with a record 8,700 property tax appeals, creating a potential budget shortfall that was significant.
Chief appraiser Rodney McDaniel was called before the commissioners Tuesday night to tell the crowd that few homeowners would feel the impact of the increase. In fact, considering the average home in Clayton is worth about $80,000, he said, many homeowners would wind up paying fewer taxes than before.
Homeowners in stable neighborhoods, where home values were relatively intact, would experience increases. For instance, a home in Lake Spiveyworth $816,000 in 2009 had a tax bill of $11,300. Today, that home is worth about $745,700 and the homeowner can expect the tax bill to go up $300.
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