By Dan Pool

 Despite the common perception that whatever county you live in charges the most outrageous taxes possible, there is actually very little variance in North Georgia property taxes.

 In Pickens, Gilmer and Fannin counties, the owners of $100,000 homes all pay property tax bills within $50 of each other when school and county taxes are combined and no special exemptions are taken into account.

 The taxes on a $100,000 home (with no exemptions)  run $843.60 in Pickens County; $806.76 in Fannin County and $797.72 in Gilmer County. Homeowners in Dawson County, which has seen the most rapid commercial development, pay more than the owners of identically valued homes in the other counties. The owner of the $100,000 home in Dawson County would pay $911.36.

 Comparisons are made more complicated as each county has differing exemptions for older and low income residents and in other special cases.

 For example, Pickens County offers a standard “homeowners exemption” for every property owner, while not all the other counties offer this.

 Each county does use the standard state formula of assessing taxes on 40 percent of estimated fair market value.

 The counties also have differences in their sales tax and how it is allocated. All the counties generally charge the seven percent sales tax including county and school SPLOST taxes. Gilmer’s sales tax has dropped to six percent as the county’s SPLOST has run out temporarily, but will be picked up again on January 1 after being approved by voters for another five years.

 Pickens, Gilmer and Fannin counties are all holding millage rates at near the same amount this year as last and taking in extra revenue which comes from the growth in the tax digest to meet rising prices.

 In Pickens County this growth allowed a very slight rollback in the millage from 6.08 mills down to the current 5.95 mills. However the new homes, subdivided lots and other growth on the digest allows the county to project collecting 6.19 percent more in revenue, even with the lower millage.

 Both Gilmer and Fannin counties are holding their county millage rates exactly the same. In Gilmer the tax office is projecting a 12 percent

increase in revenue, which will be collected from its 4.293 mills.

 Fannin County expects to collect an additional 5.93 percent in revenue with its 5.969 mills, which remain constant from 2002.

 Pickens, Fannin and Gilmer counties’ governing authorities proposed budgets with very little change from the past year, using the additional revenue to cover higher operating expenses such as manpower and fuel, according to news reports from each county.

 All the counties are relying on special sales tax collections for major projects. Pickens has numerous items on its SPLOST budget, including a new jail. Gilmer has a very similar SPLOST plan, but includes a new courthouse, rather than the jail.

 Dawson County, however, had to make substantial cuts in its budget. Dawson County Commissioners lowered the budget in eight of its county’s departments including taking $70,000, or 21 percent, from the tax assessor’s office budget and $65,000 in the tax commissioner’s budget.

 The cutbacks in Dawson also eliminate any raises for county employees.

 Pickens County Economic Developer Larry Toney said his office found Dawson’s higher property taxes perplexing and have been researching how that county, who he described as “one step ahead of us in commercial and high end residential development,” still charges more in property taxes.

 It may be a matter of efficiency with Pickens having a larger population but still getting by on less, he said.

 Toney said he remains convinced that the commercial development will lower property taxes.

 “The commercial establishments are desirable,” he said. “They generate a lot of school taxes without sending any new students.”

 A store with $300 million in sales, which a large retailer such as Home Depot has, will certainly pay far more in property taxes than it will require in services. Furthermore Toney noted that  infrastructure improvements, such as increasing water pressure, more fire protection, or road improvements,  made to accommodate a commercial operation will benefit everyone.

 Toney said both Pickens and Dawson would do well to shift more of their taxes to

commercial payers instead of homeowners. He said both Pickens and Dawson depend on homeowners for about 80 percent of their budgets; “Dropping this ratio to 60 percent would be a good goal for Pickens,” he said.

 Dawson County Commissioner Bill Saling said there were problems in some of the county’s previous accounting which explains some of the higher taxes and severe cutbacks.

  But two other prominent reasons for the higher taxes are a slowdown in the sales tax collections at the commercial places and the need to perform additional services and make infrastructure improvements to meet the expectations of the expanding population.

 He said Dawson County is investing in major overhauls of infrastructure, new technology and spending on zoning and planning in response to the current growth and projected growth.

 “You try to stay ahead of it, or you play catch-up the rest of your life,” he said.

 He said the taxes may be higher  in Dawson than Pickens, but the county is doing more for the residents including additional public protection and zoning/planning.

 Saling said lower than projected sales tax collections had added to the county budget pinch.

 He said they had allocated funds and already made purchases based on projections for sales tax revenue which didn’t materialize.

 He said a slowdown in sales at the outlet malls on Georgia 400 had really affected the county’s budget.

 While commercial growth generates additional revenue, it also requires additional expenditure.

 Saling said Dawson County had to increase spending in some departments, particularly law enforcement, as the outlet stores opened. He said between 30 and 40 percent of calls for law enforcement involve the outlet malls.

 For schools, the millage rates around North Georgia are again fairly similar. Of the surrounding counties Dawson has the lowest millage rate going to their schools at 13.646 while Gilmer has the highest at 15.40.

 Pickens, which has the highest enrollment of any of the four systems has the second highest millage.  

 At the most recent tally, Pickens had 4,141 students with a millage of 14.89; Gilmer had 4,061 students at their most recent count with a millage of 15.40. Fannin had 3,166 students with a millage of 13.950 and Dawson had both the fewest students and lowest school tax rate at 3,138 students and 13.646 mills.