Could residential property taxes in Columbia County be coming to an end?
In a recent interview on The Austin Rhodes radio show, Columbia County Board of Commissioners Chairman Doug Duncan said for the past four years, the county has been working to get a data center here. With the proposed data center and the anticipated revenue from it, the county could get rid of property taxes for the county only, not the school board.
“The data center will produce more revenue when built and fleshed out,” Duncan said. “It’s going to take a couple of years, (but) it’ll produce more tax revenue than the homestead that comes from taxes in Columbia County. Our long-term objective with this is to eliminate the homestead tax. So that can happen, anything else you hear about it, that is the reason…we are focused on eliminating the property tax.”
The county purchased 1,600 to 1,900 acres near the Amazon Facility at the White Oak Industrial Park for the proposed data center, Duncan said. He added there would be multiple 200,000 square foot buildings on the property. The county would receive tax revenue from the equipment used to the power used and more.
Duncan said it’s a long-term plan, but the Columbia County Development Authority is working on getting companies to come to the property.
“This is going to happen, (but) it’ll take a couple of years,” Duncan said. “You’re building buildings, you’re bringing in, could be Google, whoever knows, you bring them in. It’s going to take a couple of years to build out. But property managed (that is) properly run, it’s going to generate more sales tax than all the homes in Columbia County.”
If this happens, Duncan said that to his knowledge, Columbia County would be the first county in Georgia to eliminate residential property taxes.
“In speaking with the speaker of the house, the challenge has been, projects like this, the Development Authority gives incentives for the people to come,” Duncan said. “We are not going to do that. We are not going to give tax incentives to these folks to come in. The project is there to offset property taxes, end of story.”
Duncan added that this would only be for residential properties, and the county would still receive taxes from motorhomes, timber, heavy duty equipment, etc.
“Those revenues would still come in,” Duncan said. “Again, the data center, the tax revenue it can generate pales in comparison…somebody told me $400 million, which boggles my mind because we have a $100 million general fund. It’s hard for me to believe it’s that much.”
He said they are hoping the first deal will be signed by the end of this year, but this is a long-term project that will take several years.
