Cherokee County grand jury warns residents on HOST referendum
The grand jury made the surprising move in its latest presentments.
A Cherokee County grand jury is warning residents to take caution on the upcoming referendum to impose a one-percent sales tax to roll back property taxes.
According to the Cherokee Tribune, the grand jury asked voters to consider the ramifications of approving the HOST.
“The tax is revenue neutral to the county,” according to the document. “However, be aware the new provision is a permanent tax unless repealed and does not put in place any restrictions on changing in the millage rate or assessment value for property.”
The presentment went onto encourage residents to research the proposal and to make sure they understand the two questions on the ballot before heading to the polls on Nov. 6.
If approved, it would impose a one percent sales tax, which would be used to rollback the county’s M&O property taxes. It does not apply to the school, fire district taxes and parks bond imposed by the county. Nor does it apply to city property taxes.
Georgia law requires two questions to be placed on the ballots and residents have to vote yes on both in order for it to pass. Once enacted, the HOST does not have a sunset provision; it can only be terminated by referendum.
The law allows the county to use up to 20 percent of the funds for capital purposes. However, the Cherokee County Commission approved a resolution stating the board will use 100 percent of the proceeds to roll back property taxes as long as a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax program is in place.
The tax is expected to generate around $30 million in revenue per year and county officials estimate that number would offset 100 percent of the county's M&O portion of the tax bill on homesteaded properties. It would offset roughly 70 percent of M&O taxes on other properties.
If voters approve the HOST, the tax would be officially implemented in April 2013. The state allows the county to collect revenue from the tax for a partial year and then a full calendar year before applying the credits.
However, the county commission in a resolution stipulated it would start applying the offsets immediately and would use all funds collected through 30 days before the county commission sets its millage rate during those first two years of collections.
County leaders have reached out to various groups and implemented several mechanisms to inform voters about the proposal. County Commission Chairman Buzz Ahrens participated in two forums to inform voters about the proposal on the ballot.
He's also spoken at city council meetings to educate city leaders and residents about the HOST. He will speak tonight at 7 p.m. with the Ball Ground City Council about the proposal.
Phil McCall
12:41 pm on Thursday, October 11, 2012
2 of the BOC that passed the non-binding resolution will not be on the BOC in January. A non-binding resolution is intent, & folks replacing BOC members that passed the resolution now and in the future have the ability to change the resolution.
HOST would replace about 18.9% of current home owner property taxes. The first year, we will be taxed the ~ almost 19% M&O property tax AND pay the additional 1 cent per dollar new tax on everything we now pay county tax on now plus the addition of county tax on groceries. So for property owners, it is a double tax the first year. The county must prove it can take in $30 million in the 1 cent tax each year before we can do away with M&O property tax assessment, that equates to $3 billion dollars in commerce; a big number in this economy especially considering almost all taxes will escalate in 2013.
For property owners that file a 1040 and a State 500 tax forms, doing away with the M&O property tax assessment and transferring to a consumption tax means less ad valorum to be able to take off your Federal and State returns [raises effective tax rates]. That may not be a huge number, but most of us do take that off our gross to arrive at our effective tax rate so we should understand the change.
I'm not advocating either to vote for or against the new tax structure - I agree with the Grand Jury that we need to vote based on knowing and not just what we are told; that includes folks thinking through and researching my comments.
Frank Jones
3:35 pm on Thursday, October 11, 2012
It's interesting that the new Grand Jury has issues with the HOST tax being pushed by the Board of Commissioners, especially since the last Grand Jury nailed them to the wall!
As Phil indicated, the BOC passed a resolution stating that the "current" BOC commits to using 100% of the HOST revenue to offset the county portion of M&O vs. the 80% required by law. Further, the current BOC commits to accelerating the M&O offset in 2013 vs. the legally required offset in 2015. The key issue is that the resolution is non-binding and is only a promise of the "current" board of commissioners. The current board will changes January 1, 2012. Any and all subsequant boards can change their minds without breaking their "commitment".
As Phil pointed out, the HOST tax will remain forever unless removed by referendum. Before your vote "Yes" or "NO", think long & hard and do your research.
The BOC is currently stating that the HOST tax will offset 100% of the current M&O portion of homestead properties (primary residences). However, the BOC can increase the millage rate at any time to re-implement the M&O. That's exactly what other counties did.
One must ask...If HOST simply offsets M&O, why do we need it? Why make the change? The answer is...Someone benefits. Someone loses.
I'm not a tea-partier, but I say NO. Vote NO on HOST.
See patch thread: http://canton-ga.patch.com/articles/county-continues-host-information-push#comments
Georgia Moderate
7:39 pm on Thursday, October 18, 2012
This is an extremely disturbing development. One would hope that the BOC would move to have this presentment expunged. If a grand jury cannot remain impartial in its civic presentments, how can we expect them to be impartial in criminal indictments? I've lost complete faith now in this grand jury, and the judiciary in Cherokee. There should be a full investigation by the State AG of the insanity around here.