By Tara DeRock Mahoney
Senior Staff Writer

The next several years could be lean ones for Morgan County as actions by state legislators come home to roost.
County Finance Director Mia Wilson and County Manager Michael Lamar painted a potentially grim picture for the county at the commissioners' regular meeting Tuesday, telling elected officials that revenues from ad valorem taxes after this year will be frozen. At the same time, the state of Georgia has not specified in its budget when and from where county reimbursement funds for the new Forest Land Protection Act (FLPA)-an estimated $900,000 the county was expecting to receive from the state-will appear.

"I think to assume that we'll have that revenue, with the state not saying where it's going to come from...is optimistic," said Lamar.

Lamar and Wilson are concerned about revenue from property taxes within the county. The state legislature has put a 3-year moratorium on property-tax increases, say local officials.

"[State legislators] have frozen property value increases across the board," said Morgan County Chief Appraiser Chuck Anglin in a telephone interview on Tuesday. "We've had to delay sending out notices for almost a month [because of the legislative actions]. They'll go out this Friday," said Anglin.

It's possible that because Morgan County was undergoing a full re-evaluation of property values in 2008, that moratorium may begin Jan.1, 2010, instead of immediately. But however local officials slice it, the future for local revenue is grim.

"This year's going to be bad, and next year's going to be worse," said Lamar.

County officials had already planned to roll back the millage rate slightly to make up for the state's removal of the Homeowner's Tax Relief Grant, a $170 tax credit given to property owners in the state that has been repealed by the state. Now the county is facing a potential $1 million shortfall created by the unfunded state refunds through the FLPA.
The FLPA is a relatively new program designed along the lines of the state's Conservation Use Assessment program (CUVA). The FLPA is a tax-abatement program for farms or contiguous land consortiums of 200 acres or more; CUVA is for farms of 25 acres or more. But counties encouraged property owners to change to FLPA where possible because the state had pledged to reimburse any lost tax revenues from parcels in those programs to the county. Now, say county officials, the state's budget has no provision for reimbursing those funds, meaning Georgia counties--including Morgan--could be left holding the FLPA bag.

"I think it's going to hurt, big time," said commission Chairman Mack Bohlen.

At this time, commissioners expect to hold the line on a proposed millage rate roll-back to 8.2 mills, expected to help homeowners offset the loss of the Homeowners Tax Relief Grant. But further than that the county will not go this year.
"If we roll back any further, we could be in trouble," said Lamar. "And then next year, when we've lost any property tax increases, we could see an increase in the millage rate...we don't want people to go into sticker shock."