With two years left in his term, Cherokee County Tax Commissioner David Fields walked off the job last February because he worried the pressures of the job — the ulcers, the constant nausea, the depression and sleepless nights — just might kill him.
All the foreclosures and a collapsing tax base in a county that had been booming like most of metro Atlanta has created a crucible of tax angst. Five months later, Fields has recovered nicely but not a whole lot else has changed in Cherokee.
It’s as if the deficit-tax cut war in Washington caught a bus south and hopped off in Canton. The noise, as in Washington, seems at times disproportionate to the actual divide over the role and size of government and how to pay for it.
Cherokee has reduced its general operating budget by almost $9 million in the last four years while shrinking county staff by 75 employees, from 1,345 to 1,270. This year, the cuts weren’t enough. Last month, for the first time in 15 years, the County Commission voted 4-1 vote to raise the millage rate. That will result in about a $20 increase in this year’s property tax on a $200,000 home.
It’s been hell to pay ever since, Commissioner Jim Hubbard said last week.
“I would say the level of anger here over our millage rate increase, if our group opposing it in this county was in one of these other counties where they raised the millage rate a lot more, they’d be rioting in the streets,” Hubbard said after meeting with angry taxpayers.
“They want cut, cut, cut. I told them, we’ve cut the fat out over the last three years. We’ve done our job. The cuts we make now won’t be fat. They’ll be to the quick. They’ll have an impact on the level of service and public safety. And I’m not going to do that.”
It’s easy to understand the tax aversion in the county, said Sonya Little, who replaced Fields as tax commissioner. She doesn’t set the rates. But she sends out the bills — they go out in September — and deals with taxpayers and foreclosures that continue to climb.
“A lot of people moved up here because of the low taxes. They did their homework,” Little said. “Cherokee at one time had the lowest taxes in the metro area. I’m not sure if it’s still the lowest, but it’s among the lowest.”
Cherokee has the third-lowest millage rate (8.29) in the metro area, behind Fayette County (7.3), which is considering an increase, and Forsyth County (7.65), which plans no hike this year. But the battle isn’t entirely over taxes, said Carolyn Cosby, a member of the Canton Tea Party Patriots, one of three chapters of the group in Cherokee. She’s a vocal regular at commission meetings.
“This is about changing the paradigm of government,” she said last week.
To that end, she and tea party members went to the commission and last week struck an agreement: A nine-member residents’ committee, composed of tea party members and called the Group Research and Recommendations Committee to Assist County Government, will begin poring over the county’s budgets this month looking for places to cut and places to curb government’s role.
“It will take time and a lot of work because one of the things we need to figure out is how much are the demands of federal government on local government,” Cosby said. “The federal government through programs is in your neighborhood. It makes you serfs on the land.”
If it feels like a feudal system to some, county officials say it’s at least a frugal system and there are only so many cuts they can make. The county continues to build parks and that has drawn sharp criticism at commission meetings. Commissioners said they’re bound by a $90 million park bond passed by public vote in 2008.
“There’s an education process that’s going on about the budget,” Cherokee County Commission Chairman L. B. “Buzz” Ahrens Jr. said. “Some people don’t understand we can’t just combine [different] funds. But would I say that people in Cherokee are more upset about taxes than people in other places? No. You only hear from the vocal ones. But those groups do serve a good purpose.”
Ahrens said that in his mind, public safety, police, fire and EMS are inviolate. Not only do they protect residents, they also enhance the appeal of the county to companies and people considering moving to Cherokee, he said. If the county cuts back on its fire department, that might result in a lower I.S.O. [Insurance Services Offices] rating.
“That could raise your homeowners insurance by $200,” Ahrens said . “Versus a $20 increase in your tax bill? Which makes more sense to you?”
County officials said they hear the outcry and will continue to listen and look for places to economize as the commission and finance department begin work on the 2012 budget this fall. Over at tax commissioner Little’s office, her staff, which has shrunk from 43 to 29 over the last 10 years, is doing its part, folding, and stuffing about 100,000 taxes bills by hand.
“We’re about the only county of our size that prepares property bills in-house,” Little said. “It saves the county about $20,000 a year.” She smiles.
“I’m working my girls hard, but they’re up for it. I’ve got a good team. That’s what the public expects.”
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