Officials in Twiggs County say a long-serving county commissioner used a relative in the tax office to make his son's new home exempt from property taxes.
County Commissioner Tommie Lee Bryant has not paid taxes on his home in Jeffersonville, a town just southeast of Macon, for decades thanks to a generous local tax exemption for disabled veterans. Walter Ashby, chairman of the county tax assessor's board, said records show one of Bryant's relatives who works in the tax office moved that exemption to a new house jointly owned by Bryant and his son.
That same employee, who has since been fired, then gave Bryant another tax break on his primary home, one reserved for low-income senior citizens.
“Shame on him,” Ashby said of Bryant. “We have people out here trying to live and raise and family on $12,000 to $15,000 a year.”
Ashby has informed the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that Bryant may have violated several Georgia laws, including his oath of office. The GBI is investigating.
Bryant may have implicated himself further during a long, angry rant in a recent county commission meeting. In the tantrum, which was caught on tape, Bryant declares he is 60 percent disabled, but Twiggs County requires residents to be 100 percent disabled to receive the tax break.
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