Bulloch County Commissioners heard proposals on possible tax relief for some property owners who suffered major damage or destruction from natural disasters in 2024.
The idea stems from legislation approved by the Georgia legislature in 2023 in House Bill 311. It takes effect when a county is in a federally-declared disaster area.
County Attorney Jeff Akins presented background on the statute to commissioners and provided an overview of the parameters for the relief.
Statutory requirements to implement the temporary relief:
- Requires local emergency management director to identify buildings that have incurred “major” damage or complete destruction as a result of disaster that is declared a ‘federal disaster area,’ and provide a report to the tax commissioner; and
- Tax Commissioner must then use report to provide tax parcels and other related data to governing authorities – County Commissioners and Board of Education
The County Commissioners can (but is not required to) then adopt a resolution to provide temporary relief for the taxable year that the disaster occurred. Much of the specifics on implementation is left to the counties. Commissioners can decide to:
- include damaged and destroyed parcels OR just destroyed parcels in the relief resolution,
- Offer relief in a specific dollar amount relief can come by way of a dollar amount or a reduction of the millage rate for temporary relief to the eligible parcels,
- would only apply to year disaster occurred (2024)
Akins offered his own opinion on the optimal option, saying a millage rate reduction would be the best for a few reasons. Specifically: 1) Using a flat dollar amount would require the county to make sure the dollar amount did not exceed the lowest amount of tax liability out of all eligible parcels; 2) a millage rate reduction would receive different relief based on property tax values, meaning people with higher assessed values would receive more relief.
With regard to manufactured homes, there is no reference to them in statute, Akins said. Only references “buildings,” parcels, and real property. Still, Bulloch County EMA Director Corey Kemp included manufactured homes in his inspections and final report.
Some manufactured homes are considered real property or are homesteaded. The others are considered ‘personal property,’ so some manufactured homes are included and others are not.
Kemp said he evaluated 400 homes in the county based on a number of factors.
Flooding:
Single Family/Multi-Family Homes
Length of time, velocity, clean/dirty or contaminated water
Affected– may have affected carports, utility rooms or wicked some water inside
Minor – few inches of water, may have affected electrical and insulation
Major – few inches of water, may require on site visit later
Destroyed – home is damaged beyond repair and is not economically feasible to repair
Mobile Homes
Affected – water underneath mobile homes, may have affected AC or insulation
Minor – ground level to bottom of home, may only have wicked some water to bottom board
Major – Bottom board to several inches inside a home (consider time)
Destroyed – Home is damaged beyond repair
Tax Commissioner Leslie Akins also presented to commissioners and noted that she worked with Kemp to determine which manufactured homes did not qualify.
She also showed a comparison of a damaged home versus a destroyed home with consideration of millage rate-based relief.
- The damaged home at 40% of the assessed value is $75,560 x .002 (2 mills) = $145.12 in relief.
- The destroyed home at 40% of the assessed value is $72,560 x .004 (4 mills) =$290.24 in relief.
Akins said she has asked other counties what they’re doing with regard to the legislation and none have implemented the tax relief. She noted that if the commissioners would like to take action, ideally it would all happen before the end of this fiscal year (June 30) so that any refunds can be issued.
Commissioner Nick Newkirk asked what the total refund amount calculated was based on the information presented, which Akins said was approximately $6,940.06. The number excludes the pre-build mobile homes they don’t believe qualify for the relief and would apply to approximately 36 taxpayers.
Akins said some refunds were as low as $20 while the highest was in the range of $500.
Chairman Bennett asked Kemp if it was clear if these individuals received state or federal assistance as well, to which Kemp said staff did not have that information.
The topic was for ‘discussion only’ so no action was taken by Commissioners. Akins said commissioners should mull it over and, if they want to act, they will need to direct him to draft a resolution.
