Industries to get tax refunds
Rome, Floyd County and the school systems will pay back $1.1 million to honor the 100-percent Freeport exemption.
More than two dozen local industries will share in a $1.1 million tax refund that will come out of the Rome, Floyd County and school board coffers.
At issue is a 100-percent Freeport exemption local voters approved as an economic development incentive. It eliminates the property tax on inventory in the process of being manufactured or shipped out to market.
A reporting penalty levied last year resulted in partial exemptions for some companies. When one challenged the penalty, the County Commission decided to refund it all.
“I hate that this happened, but we’re doing the right thing,” Commissioner Scotty Hancock said. “We don’t just police our taxpayers, we police ourselves.”
The county’s share is just under $350,000, with the bulk of it coming from the general fund. About $35,000 will be paid back from the fire and solid waste funds.
County Manager Jamie McCord said he doesn’t foresee a significant impact on the budget because it was money they hadn’t expected in the first place.
“We’re in the middle of our 2017 audit right now, but we can absorb this,” he said.
The Floyd County Schools system is on the hook for about $266,000. Rome will be refunding about $190,000 out of its general and capital funds, and the city school system’s share is estimated at just over $328,000. City Manager Sammy Rich said the budget adjustments have already been made.
“We were suspicious early on. What we were getting from Freeport didn’t look right, so we weren’t really shocked,” he said. “What could have been a windfall has to go back.”
Chief Appraiser Danny Womack said the penalty stemmed from a state tax assessors training seminar that included a look at options for reviewing Freeport exemptions.
Industries make their claims annually, based on their inventory as of Dec. 31, but often don’t provide any documentation to back it up. That creates problems for local boards of tax assessors charged with granting the exemptions.
“Some around the state believe you can set a penalty for late reporting if they don’t provide all the information you need,” Womack said. “Our board decided to do that, but we found out from the county attorney that it may or may not hold up in court.”
Thirty-three entities saw their exemptions reduced last year, and most paid all or part of their bill. Womack said that, although the penalty is being refunded,
the board’s action may have had a positive result.
“This year everyone has complied, so it may be that they understand we need the list of inventory,” he said. “Without that list, we don’t know what (exemption) we can approve.”
Floyd County Tax Commissioner Kevin Payne said he expects to collect and disburse the refunds later this month. His office distributes property tax payments on the 5th and the 20th each month.
“If this had happened in November, we could have subtracted it from what was coming in,” he said. “But, at this time of year, we’ll actually have to get money from the city and the county and the school boards.”
While most property taxes are paid when they’re due in the fall, some entities make partial payments throughout the year. Payne said the March 20 payout totaled about $220,000, divided among the governments and schools. A similar amount is expected this month.
Over 60 percent of Georgia cities and counties have adopted Freeport exemptions of at least 20 percent, according to the state Department of Revenue.