It looks like Baldwin property owners will get that promised tax break. At Tuesday night’s Baldwin City Council meeting, Chief Administrative Officer Emily Woodmaster presented a new, proposed rollback rate for the council to consider.
If the council adopts Woodmaster’s proposal, the millage rate for Baldwin residents on the Habersham County side of the city would be 8.481 mills and 2.662 mills on the Banks County side. Those figures effectively negate any property tax increase on homes that may have been reassessed without any additions or renovations made last year.
The city anticipates collecting approximately $860,676 in property taxes for 2023 using the updated millage rate. That is nearly a $51,000 increase in property tax collections over last year. Woodmaster attributes the increase to the $6.6 million in growth the city experienced in 2022 that was added to the tax digest.
The council did not vote on the proposed millage rate at Tuesday night’s meeting. Acting Mayor Alice Venter said they would certify the 2023 tax rate at a special called meeting on Friday, October 27.
Change in direction
Baldwin’s soon-to-be adopted millage rate represents a significant change in direction from where the council was headed last week.
At their October 3 work session, council members came to a consensus on a partial rollback. They opted for a full rollback only after Now Habersham questioned the numbers.
On October 4, Now Habersham discovered an error in the Department of Revenue document used to calculate Baldwin’s rollback rate. The PT 32.1 form, which Woodmaster compiled, indicated a negative growth in the tax base.
Venter blamed the Habersham County Tax Assessor’s Office for supplying faulty numbers. Now Habersham confirmed that the digest numbers emailed to Woodmaster on August 16 were wrong; however, what Venter failed to mention, and may not have known, is that the tax assessor’s office promptly corrected its mistake and emailed Woodmaster a corrected digest the next day, on August 17.
Corrected tax digest
It appears Woodmaster overlooked the corrected digest and based her tax calculations on the faulty data. She did not catch the error until Now Habersham questioned the numbers in an email delivered the night of October 4. Within hours, Woodmaster emailed the tax assessor’s office, seeking answers.
“During our millage rate discussions, it was asked why our homestead exemptions jumped $8.5 million from the year prior? Do you mind expounding on the EL7F and ESF exemptions and what may have caused that increase?”
Several hours later, Habersham’s Deputy Chief Appraiser Amy Garmon responded. She sent Woodmaster another copy of the updated digest and stated, “You shouldn’t have any EL7F and ESF [codes denoting exemptions] on this one.”
Using the corrected tax digest, Woodmaster identified a net digest value increase of $7,094,660 in Baldwin’s 2023 digest. When she provided Now Habersham with the corrected figures, we asked if there would be a full rollback. She replied, “The council has been made aware and have agreed to propose a full rollback. Mayor Venter will be making a statement very soon.”
Soon after, Venter posted a video to the City of Baldwin’s Facebook page announcing plans for a full rollback.
On October 10, Woodmaster and the council reaffirmed their change of heart.
“As you all are aware, made aware last week, that we were using (the) incorrect digest summary from Habersham County.” She added, “After taking that into consideration, the true exemption rate is $2.261 million in exempted property, not $10.5 (million).”
By opting for a full millage rollback, Baldwin will, in effect, negate a tax increase on reassessed property that has not been considerably altered within the past year.
