Columbia County government has held its second public hearing regarding opting in or opting out of House Bill 581.
While some of the same information was given from the first meeting, the county did have some new information to provide. County Manager Scott Johnson said there are three pieces to the law: the floating homestead exemption, the optional sales tax and property tax reforms.
The optional sales tax can only be used if the entity opts in to House Bill 581 but must be voted on by citizens in November. All the funds from that sales tax must be used to offset property taxes. However, Johnson informed commissioners that all entities, so the county and two cities, must opt in to be eligible for the optional sales tax.
“Additionally, the only way for us to get the sales tax…is for us to even be able to put the sales tax on the ballot in November, the City of Grovetown and City of Harlem would have to opt in and do the same,” Johnson said. “My understanding is if one of them opts out, then it opts out all of us out.”
Johnson added that once the county opts in, they can’t opt out later on.
District 2 Commissioner Trey Allen pointed out again how complex the legislation is.
“(It’s) more convoluted than anything I’ve seen and I’ve been studying government for about 25 years…they haven’t even calculated in Atlanta how they’re going to calculate these numbers that we already passed a constitutional amendment as citizens to implement. They don’t even have the details down themselves,” Allen said.
The auditorium was filled with community members who wanted to learn about the bill, with several speaking for opting in and several for opting out.
Doug DeAnoloph asked what the vote for and against House Bill 581 was in Columbia County. Commission Chairman Doug Duncan said it was 60 to 70% in favor.
“I would say your citizens would want you to opt in by vote,” he said.
Bob Willis, however, feels the commission should opt out after learning more, especially since the bill takes away control from the county and gives it to the state.
“I feel that most of the people…voted for this without the background and knowledge and without being able to research what the unintended consequences might be,” Willis said. “As we dig into this more and more, I just think it’s ill advised to go into something where you can never opt out no matter what negative effect it has.”
A decision on opting in or opting out must be made by March 1.The full hearing can be found on the Columbia County – GA government YouTube page. The next two hearings will be held Tuesday, Feb. 4 at 6 p.m. and Tuesday, Feb. 18 at 6 p.m. All will be held in the auditorium at the Evans Government Center Complex located at 630 Ronald Reagan Drive, Building A in Evans.
