Columbia County is looking into the possibility of incorporating the unincorporated areas of the county.
During the Management and Internal Services Committee meeting on Tuesday, March 14, County Manager Scott Johnson spoke to members about the county doing a government efficiency and functionally study. He said Columbia County is the biggest unincorporated county in the state and this study would help determine funding the county would need and if any money is being “left on the table.”
“As you know municipalities are subject to additional grant monies,” Johnson said. “They get franchise fees that we don’t get and when I say that, for example, every Georgia Power customer in Columbia County is paying a franchise fee every month. That money, you’re paying it regardless, Columbia County doesn’t get a penny of that money. That money is collected and then distributed back to the cities based on a consumption rate. That’s the formula used by Georgia Power. That’s millions and millions of dollars that Columbia County citizens are paying that Columbia County is not getting. We look at it as an opportunity to potentially offset our millage rate. But those are the kind of things you may see in the study.”
Johnson reiterated that the county is not looking to have any legislative action taken at this time, they would just like a study to be done to determine the pros and cons. If any legislative action is required at some point in the future, the decision could go before the voters.
“The second thing I really want to make sure we stress is, this would not be any change to government in Columbia County,” Johnson said. “Our county commission would still be the governor body, our sheriff’s office would still provide all of our law enforcement, our fire department would still provide all of our fire services. So there would be no changes, no additional layers of government. Like you see, sometimes you see cities pop up, and they have their own police department, their own fire department, their own public works. I don’t think Columbia County is interested in doing that, but this will allow us the opportunity to at least do the study.”
Commissioner and committee member Connie Melear asked if the study had to be done externally or could be done internally. Johnson said it has to be done externally and will require an expert on the topic to conduct the study. He added that he has started reaching out organizations about it.
Johnson said the study takes a while, and if approved, the county would have until Dec. 31. He was asking for approval to be able to spend $100,000 on the study. The committee approved moving the topic to the debate agenda for the county commissioners to discuss at the meeting on Tuesday, March 21.
