Lavonia Mayor Says “No” to Lowering Millage By Two Mils

The City of Lavonia will not be lowering their millage rate to offset the proposed T-SPLOST

At a recent meeting of the Franklin County Industrial Building Authority, IBA Chairman and Franklin Springs Mayor challenged the municipalities in the County to cut their millage rates by two mils.

Lee is quoted in the Franklin County Citizen newspaper as saying that if voters approve a T-SPLOST referendum, the County and the local municipalities should roll back their millage rates.

However, at the Lavonia City Council meeting Monday evening, Mayor Courtney Umbehant said Lavonia would not be doing that if T-SPLOST becomes a reality.

Umbehant said the City would lose too much revenue and not be able to function.

“Over the last three years, we’ve lowered our millage by one mill already,” he said. “One mill equals about $110,000. So, we would be lowering our property tax income by about  $220,000. I don’t see any way that we could responsibly lower our millage rate by one mil, much less two at this time and still be able to have a functioning government. Because of that, I will not support lowering our millage by two mils. I think that would counter-productive for us,” Umbehant said.

Umbehant noted it costs the City almost a million dollars a year just to cover paying for law enforcement, not including the cost of running the Fire Department and keeping the doors open at City Hall.

He said lowering the millage would also mean laying off employees.

Umbehant noted that if a T-SPLOST was voted in, Lavonia would receive enough revenue from their share to resurface every road in the City.

However, the mayor did say the City is considering supporting Tax Commissioner Bobby Martin’s request to raise the property tax exemption for senior citizens over the age of 65.

“We can’t go down by two mils, but I think we can look at that senior exemption. We are looking at that now and I really expect that very soon we will be able to share with you some type of plan to do that,” he said. “That will be a little bit of relief for some of those on fixed incomes that need that.”

Umbehant said if every municipality and the County lowered their millage by two mils to give the County extra revenue for roads, he questions why the County would even need a T-SPLOST.

In November, County Manager Beth Thomas explained that Franklin County would not be receiving enough funding from the Georgia Department of Transportation’s Local Maintenance Improvement Grant to repair more than three county roads in 2020.

Thomas recommended the Board consider putting a T-SPLOST referendum before the voters.