Upson County Tax Commissioner Andy Chastain On FLOST

As one who sees and hears; on a daily basis, the struggles of many of our property taxpayers, particularly the elderly homeowners on a fixed income, it’s discouraging and disappointing that the City and County can not come to an agreement on FLOST. This additional penny sales tax will provide $5 million of property tax relief; with some of that revenue coming from out of town shoppers. In other words, we’d have help paying our property taxes from people that don’t live in Upson County. If the FLOST is not agreed on or passed by the voters then we, as property taxpayers, will continue to foot the whole $5 million ourselves. I can assure you, there are already other counties and cities with FLOST in place and many more that will be doing so.

After hearing what each side has requested and after I’ve calculated how the math would work, I believe what the County is offering is more than fair, but I do understand the City’s concerns. An additional penny will result in more cost on non-essential items bought in Upson. For example, if someone spends $1,000 a month on non-essentials then that’s an additional $10 a month. But the amount of property tax savings will far surpass that, especially for a City taxpayer. If FLOST is applied to the current M&O tax levies for both the City & County, a City taxpayer with a homestead property value of $150,000 would save approximately $401.00 total property tax compared to an unincorporated taxpayer savings of $185.00. That’s why I believe what the County is offering is more than fair. Unincorporated taxpayers spend their money at businesses located in the City just like everyone else and they deserve a fair amount of tax relief. As far as the City’s claim that renters will be shouldering some of the tax relief given to property taxpayers; those same renters are already benefiting from services such as law enforcement, courts and other costs provided by property tax revenue, so it’s only fair they share in the cost of those services. After attending the recent FLOST discussions, I witnessed several different forms of calculations to justify each sides reason for the percentage they’re requesting and all it did was complicate matters. The numbers I just gave are real numbers calculated as it will be on a taxpayer’s bill based on the current tax levies.

Another concern of the City is that there is some uncertainty about what FLOST revenue can be used for in the future, such as Joint Projects tax. This is currently being reviewed by the Dept. of Revenue and we probably won’t have an answer until next year, but in the meantime, I see no reason why both sides can’t move forward with what we have and give relief on M&O property tax, even if it’s done through a temporary resolution. Also, as part of the negotiations the City is asking that there to be no M&O tax levy increases from both sides for the next 5 years. In my opinion that’s unrealistic considering the rising cost of essentials and services every year, mainly due to inflation. The County’s main revenue source is property tax while the City’s is electricity. Will the City be willing to not increase utility rates for the next 5 years?

Despite claims that HB581 & FLOST were passed by the State Legislature for “those wanting to get re-elected” in the future is way off base. The truth is that HB581 & FLOST were given as options for a County & municipality to help provide tax relief to those struggling to pay their property taxes due to the unprecedented real estate market value increases that occurred in

2022 & 2023 statewide and many of our elderly on fixed incomes are struggling to stay in their homes due to something they could not prevent. And even if it were passed for re-election purposes, I have no problem with it because it still results in taxpayer relief.

I’d like to encourage every local official involved in FLOST discussions to take a step back and look at the opportunity they have to help everyone in this county and realize this is not about how much revenue each side can bring in or about proving a point. It’s about providing taxpayer relief in a fair and uniform way and it needs to happen soon. If FLOST is put on the ballot this November and passes, we will not realize the tax relief until 2027. So, the longer this drags out the longer our struggling taxpayers go without property tax relief.