MillageRate.com

On August 10, the Paulding County Commission approved property tax rates to fund the FY-2011 budgets of the county and of the school system. While the school board held its millage rate steady, the County Commission approved a 14.3% increase in the M&O rate, from 6.65 to 7.60 mills.

On August 24, the Commission held a public hearing on the new budget; it is proposed to be approved at the Commission’s September 14 regular meeting.

“Hold on!” (I hear you, a mathematical millage rate advocate proclaim…) “You can’t know what the millage rate should be until after the portion of the budget that must be funded by property tax dollars is established! How can you approve a budget after approving the tax rate to fund it?”

You’re right. Because the correct method (generally) for calculating the millage rate is dividing the portion of the budget to be funded by tax dollars by the Net Tax Digest (`A` divided by `B` equals `C,` the millage rate), it is impossible to determine what `C` should be until you first establish what `A` is.

But what the Paulding Commission did was much, much worse. By adopting the tax rate prior to approving the budget, the County Commission denied to the taxpayers of Paulding an opportunity to influence and affect the cost of their own government.

In other words, the Paulding Commission violated the First Amendment right of the public to petition government.

The purpose of the budget hearing process is to give the citizenry an open, transparent and (hopefully) meaningful opportunity to examine and analyze the proposed cost of government for the coming year and, if necessary, to cause their elected representatives to reconsider and revise that cost.

A budget hearing is rendered meaningless if the rate at which the property owner will be taxed to pay the cost of government has already been established! At its September 14 meeting, the Paulding County Commission could vote to cut the budget by 10%, 50% or even 100% and it would not change the property owner’s tax bill by a single penny!

The county’s ordinances require the Commission to adopt a budget at its first meeting in August each year, but this year’s budget will be approved over a month later. There is no nefarious reason for the Commission’s failure to follow it’s own charter and violate a basic constitutional right.

The cause is incompetence, pure and simple.

Making excuses…  where the Paulding Commission Excels

Although totally irrelevant to the weighty issue of constitutional rights violations, the reasons offered yesterday by the Commission for its failure provide a little comedic relief.

At yesterday’s hearing, Finance Director Tabitha Pollard admitted under questioning by activist Tom Milanese that the county had missed a statutory deadline for advertising the budget public hearing. As a result, the budget could not legally be approved at the Commission’s first August meeting.

However, she continued, the setting of the millage rate had been properly advertised for the same date. Because people had planned to comment on the proposed rate that day, the decision was made to continue with the hearing and approve the millage rate, despite the fact that the budget remained unapproved.

Pollard neither accepted nor assigned any blame for the error. An apology at this point might have diffused the situation entirely, but one did not come.

Post III Commissioner Tommie Graham continued the defense of the Commission’s blunder, unknowingly admitting that the millage rate was approved on August 10 with the presumption that the Commission would approve the budget as presented later, regardless of citizen input.

“The budget is there… the budget is there for everybody’s approval. It’s a process that we went through. We set a millage rate based on what we would assume the budget… it could shift up or down… but we went ahead and set that millage rate.”

Graham justified the Commission’s act by saying that, had it not approved the millage rate on August 10, tax revenue to the government would have been delayed. In other words, it was more important for the government to get its money than it was to protect the rights of its citizens.

The most laughable comments came from County Attorney Jayson Phillips, who did what attorneys do when they have no argument… use a lot of words to say nothing.

Phillips said that when the law requires a budget hearing, the Commission is required to hold a hearing (duh). The August 24 hearing was being held because a notice was published (duh). The hearing was being held so that the budget could be voted upon (duh).

“And that’s the process that we are in at this point,” concluded Phillips.

At that point, Phillips’ slid into condescension and barely-veiled insult, in my opinion. First, Phillips set up a “straw man argument,” misrepresenting Milanese’s position and then refuting the incorrect position.

“I believe that your solution would be, if you miss a deadline then don’t pass a budget for the next year,” said Phillips. “Well, that’s a legal impossibility. We need to pass a budget for next year.”

Milanese never suggested not passing the budget. In fact, he wanted the budget to be passed earlier, according to the timetable established by the county’s own ordinances. And he certainly wanted it to be passed before the millage rate was approved.

Phillips continued, “We also need to make sure that we comply with the opportunities afforded to the public, as you are being afforded right now, in order to… so that their comments and input… on the budget process. So that’s why we’re having a hearing today that has been properly noticed as required by the county ordinance.”

Yeah, we get it, Counselor. But the taxpayers of Paulding would really appreciate the opportunity to offer that input when the comments might actually make a difference.

Someone Broke The Law | Paulding Pundit