After an aborted plan to get the city of Columbus to pay $80,000 more in fees for ad valorem tax collection, Lowndes County officials are now willing to work with the city to find another way.
County Tax Collector/Assessor Greg Andrews publicly addressed the criticism he received for not adequately communicating the issue with city leaders before asking supervisors on July 16 to impose the fee hike. He even apologized to supervisors during Tuesday morning’s meeting for the fallout that came from that decision before indicating he wants to meet together with City Attorney Jeff Turnage and County Attorney Tim Hudson to hammer out a compromise. Andrews is hoping a new agreement could come by the end of the calendar year.
“I think it was wrong for me to bring it up the way I brought it up on July 16 without talking to the city officials and county officials beforehand,” Andrews said. “I’m going to abide by the (existing) agreement.”
On July 16, supervisors voted to raise the fee it charges Columbus to collect its ad valorem taxes from $120,000 — what it’s been since the agreement took effect in 2002 — to $200,000, effective in Fiscal Year 2019, which begins Oct. 1. However, as Turnage later pointed out, the agreement requires a nine-month notice to change or terminate, meaning, at minimum, the fee hike could not go into effect until Fiscal Year 2020.
County officials, at first, believed they only had to give the city 90 days notice. City officials, after the July 16 decision, claimed they had been “blindsided.”
Per Andrews’ discussion with supervisors Tuesday, he sees the county leaving the $120,000 ad valorem fee as it is and instead focusing on agreeing to raise the percentage the city pays the county for vehicle tag collections.
The original agreement from 2002 stipulated the city would pay the county 5 percent of total vehicle tag revenue collections — which, on average, amounted to another $120,000.
At the July 16 meeting, the county proposed raising the property tax collection fee from $120,000, a number it has been at since 2002, to $200,000, in order to make up for lost revenue from car tag collection.
Now, Andrews says he wants he, Board Attorney Tim Hudson and City Attorney Jeff Turnage to form a committee to discuss the car tag collection percentage.
“I recommend we keep (the property tax) at $120,000 at this time. However, I would like to consult (with the city) and amend the car tag collection agreement,” Andrews told the board Monday. But, in 2009, the city and county both agreed to reduce that fee to 2 percent, which cut those annual revenues to $55,000.
While the county would like to see the tag fee raised back to 5 percent, Andrews indicated there could be negotiating room.
Board of Supervisors President Harry Sanders, however, told The Dispatch the figure is not negotiable.
“That’s the stance we have right now, we are asking for it to raise to what it originally was (before 2009),” he said.
Columbus Mayor Robert Smith said he is open to the discussion of raising the vehicle tag collection percentage, but he wants to make sure it is at least a five-year deal.
“It wouldn’t be a one year deal that could change next year,” he said. “But I would like to see what recommendation they could come up with. It should have been done like this from the beginning, but I am open.”
Smith added the city is still looking at the other options for tax collection, including collecting its own property taxes without the county’s involvement.
“We are still looking at other avenues for tax collection and seeing what it would look like for us to collect our own,” Smith said.
Before 2002, the city paid more than $350,000 annually to collect its ad valorem taxes. Smith, in a previous interview with The Dispatch, estimated it would take a similar investment to do that now.
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