Local tax revolt in Hancock County

There have been emotional public meetings, threats to withhold taxes and calls for a state investigation.

“This county is in a mess,” said Robert Hattaway, who owns Hattaway Furniture on Broad Street, Sparta’s main drag. “There aren’t many people left here now, and they’re going to run them off with these taxes. People aren’t going to put up with it.”

Residents agree the county had plenty of problems before this year’s reassessment. Its small hospital is shuttered, even though taxpayers are still paying off the bonds that financed it. The school board is trying to shed a $1.7 million deficit, and boarded-up or collapsing buildings dot Broad Street.

Hattaway recently saw the assessment on his store jump from $27,000 to about $186,000. He quickly appealed and got it reduced by $48,000. “The tax man said, ‘Are you satisfied?’ ” Hattaway recalled. “And I said, ‘Hell no, I ain’t satisfied.’ ”

Anger and appeals

Hattaway’s story has been repeated hundreds of times in the small county, whose population fell from 10,076 in 2000 to 9,568 by 2007. Per capita income is about $10,900, a third of the state average. Hancock consistently ranks as one of the poorest counties in the United States.

The controversy is also marked by a racial divide. The county’s population is more than 77 percent black, and most of its elected officials are African-American. Tax protesters have been of both races, but most of the land in the county is owned by whites, and the majority of the protesters are white.

“The state ought to come in here and lock down the books and do an audit,” said Hal Butts, a retired resident who said people on fixed incomes are being hit hardest. “But let’s face it — we’re just a poor, black county in the middle of nowhere, and nobody will touch this mess politically.”

Property owners have vented most of their anger at the board of commissioners and, most recently, the board of education. About 200 people jammed a recent BOE meeting to discuss the tax jumps, and most plan to reappear at the next session Nov. 28. The board is required to hold three meetings before passing on any tax increase.

Steve Hill was elected to the board of commissioners a year ago, the only white member of the governing body. Hill said there have been 2,000 appeals on 10,000 parcels of reassessed property.

“It’s a little unfair,” Hill said of the reassessments. “The economy is down. The prices of houses are down.”

High millage rate

The county historically had a high millage rate, but very low property assessments. Hill said the assessments are now in line with surrounding counties, but with the high millage rate, taxes have soared.

Protesters want the county and the school board to roll back the millage. The commissioners have tentatively shaved five mills, but the school board has not voted.

Hill attributed the outcry to the fact that most property had not been reassessed since 2002 and perhaps earlier— even though state law advises local governments to reassess every three years. That meant a huge jump in property values with the new appraisals, he said.

State Revenue Commissioner Bart Graham said the county has been hit with $45,000 in fines over the past two years because assessments were far out of line. In 2008, he said, the county’s tax digest was assessed at about 24 percent of fair market value, while state law requires the 36-44 percent range.

The new assessments also came just as huge chunks of land were taken off the tax digest and put in a conservation program. That put an even bigger tax burden on homeowners.

Asked if he thought there were inherent problems with the county’s government, Hill said: “There are things that could be done differently. I hate to say too much publicly, being the new guy. I’m trying to work with the board.”

‘Bigger issues’ in play

This is not the first time the county has generated headlines. A decade ago, a former city clerk of Sparta was convicted of conspiracy to steal public funds and received an 18-month prison sentence. Federal agents swarmed the town, seizing records from city and county agencies.

And for a time there was talk of an Oklahoma-based Native American tribe establishing a reservation in Hancock County and ultimately opening a gambling casino and resort. It never happened.

Atlanta resident Tom Landrus and his family split their time between the metro area and their house two hours away along 15,000-acre Lake Sinclair. Landrus, a consultant, said a lot of outsiders have moved to the lake in the past two decades, even as longtime locals have moved away from Sparta, about 20 miles away.

This “new blood,” he said, has brought a new activism to a county that he believes has long tolerated corruption and inefficient government.

“The issues are a lot deeper than the current tax issue,” he said. “It’s much bigger than that. We’re not sure the county or the BOE are fiscally responsible. They act like they don’t have to pay any attention to the taxpayers. It seems like the tail is wagging the dog.”

Landrus said the latest assessment quadrupled the land value of his lake lot from $42,000 to $165,000. He has filed an appeal. Landrus said many part-time lake residents are threatening to change their official residency to Hancock County to try to vote officials out. Protesters have accused the county, the local board of education and school administrators of bloated administrative costs and reckless spending.

The protesters contend current projections indicate the school board plans to increase its budget by 34 percent this year, to $6.9 million.

Hancock County Schools Superintendent Awanna Leslie disputed the administrative costs protesters cite, saying they misread budget numbers and income projections and lumped categories together to make the costs seem much higher.

“District expenditures are managed very well,” Leslie said. “We manage every penny spent. It’s easy to stand on the outside and look in and make all these allegations.”

Uncollected taxes

Most of the protesters, she said, do not have children in the local school system. Many are retired, she said, and many have a primary residence out of the county.

“They are looking for anyone they can pick on,” Leslie said. “And we are the most visible.”

Leslie said the state has cut funding to her district by $2.7 million since 2002 and about $1.4 million has been lost over the past four years in “uncollected taxes.”

Last year, she said, 12 percent of Hancock County property owners did not pay their taxes, and county tax collectors did not seize and sell the properties to collect the money owed.

“I really wish someone would come in here and find out where that money is,” she said. “We have documentation to show the money we have received. Where is the [rest of the] money?”

Despite the problems, Leslie said, the district’s graduation rate is about 87.5 percent, or 10 percentage points higher than the overall state rate.

Asked about her own tax assessment, Leslie said: “I didn’t look. I didn’t want to have any bad news before I had to pay it.”

Julia Thomas, a local real estate agent, saw her tax bill jump from $700 to $1,700 a year. She has become a leader in the protest movement, posting meeting notices at her realty office near Lake Sinclair.

The tax dispute, she said, is cutting the legs out from under an already struggling real estate market. Thomas said she has 60 lake properties listed she will not be able to move if the current tax levies stand.

Thomas said residents can’t get straight answers from government officials. The BOE, she said, blames the board of commissioners, and the commissioners blame the BOE.

“We have a very dysfunctional government,” she said.