Oconee County commissioners on Tuesday decided to postpone a decision on the county’s 2025 millage rate pending further details on the size of the county tax digest.
As a result, the Annual Assessment Notice that goes out from the Oconee County Tax Commissioner, usually in May, will use the current millage rate in estimating property taxes for the county, as it has in the past.
Commission Chair John Daniell said the current budget before the Board--scheduled for adoption on June 3--allows for a full rollback on the millage rate based on the digest information available.
Daniell said he does not foresee a property tax increase to fund county services this year.
The commissioners agreed to postpone setting the millage rate until August at the end of their meeting on Tuesday. The Board normally sets the millage rate in August but was considering setting it before the Annual Assessment Notice goes out this year.
The Tuesday meeting began with a public hearing on the proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget that resulted in a lengthy exchange between Pam Hendrix, the only citizen who spoke at the hearing, and four of the five commissioners.
Hendrix said the commissioners were not doing what they should do as Republicans to hold down growth and suggested the county needed a Department of Government Efficiency to rein in that growth.
During the meeting that followed the hearing, the commissioners tentatively agreed to spend $105,300 and $189,135 on design work for two separate sewer expansion projects to accommodate growth in the Epps Bridge Road and the U.S. 441 corridors.
Millage Rate
Daniell told the Commissioners near the end of the meeting on Tuesday that he had anticipated recommending that they set the millage rate for tax collection for 2025.
That rate underpins property tax revenue in the county budget. Property tax revenue at $19.8 million makes up 43.5 percent of the revenue in the $45.7 million proposed Fiscal Year 2026 General Fund Budget.
Computation of the tax digest–or the value of taxable property in the county–has been complicated this year by the passage of House Bill 581, Daniell said. That bill sets up a state-wide floating homestead exemption.
It also changes the way the Tax Commissioner prepares the Annual Assessment Notices and Tax Bills.
Daniell said he had received two slightly different tax digest estimates from Tax Commissioner Jennifer Riddle. The state has struggled to implement calculation of the floating homestead exemption.
In addition, Daniell said, some appeals of assessments in the county are still not resolved.
Daniell said an “option is just to do nothing, and then they'll just put the estimated taxes on just like it's happened in the past.”
The Commissioners accepted that recommendation
Budget Hearing
The meeting on Tuesday began with the second public hearing on the Fiscal Year 2026 budget, which at $83.7 million, is an increase of 9.2 percent from the originally approved Fiscal Year 2025 budget.
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| Screen Shot Braswell 5/20/2025 |
That total budget includes the $45.7 million General Fund Budget, the budgets for the two county enterprise (self-funded) accounts (for the Civic Center and for Water Resources), and the budgets for the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax and the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
The General Fund Budget is up 12.2 percent from the original Fiscal Year 2025 budget but up only 5.5 percent from the Amended Fiscal Year 2025 Budget.
The county amends its budget each year to reflect changes in revenues and expenditures.
Melissa Braswell, Oconee County Finance Director, noted that the General Fund budget was balanced by transferring $310,000 from the county’s Fund Balance.
The total budget shows usage of $1.1 million from Fund Balance.
The General Fund Expenditures lists $1.8 million in Debt Service, down from $2.3 million in the Amended Fiscal Year 2025 Budget.
At the hearing, Braswell said, in response to a question from Commissioner Chuck Horton, that she did not have a breakdown on those debt service expenditures.
In an email to me on Wednesday (May 21), Braswell said this expenditure consists of $693,700 for payments on the Caterpillar bonds and $1,140,000 in payments for the Costco bonds.
Hendrix Initial Comments
Hendrix began her comments following Braswell’s presentation by saying “I'm just going, whew. I thought I had read that the increase in the budget was 9.3 percent but I think I just heard it's 12.2 percent. That's a one-year increase, and you know I'm just sort of in awe.”
“The problem with living in what we call a red or conservative county is that everybody says they're Republicans, but I don't see any push back,” she said.
“I have a real question of how this budget process works,” she said. “Like do you give some instruction to our financial people? I mean do you possibly say let's try to hold the line?”
When Hendrix said her “taxes are going way up,” Daniell interrupted her and said “I’ve got your home taxes right here for what you paid Oconee County since 2019 through 2024.”
“That’s amazing,” Hendrix said. “So you’ve been preparing for me to come speak. Is that true?”
“I looked this up back when you were here talking against,” Daniell said.
“That's my home,” Hendrix interrupted.
“Right, your home has gone down $31,” Daniell said.
“My rental property,” Hendrix said.
Hendrix ran unsuccessfully against Daniell in the May Republican Primary in 2024.
Exchange Continued
“What I'm trying to say to you is people are struggling out there and government is just ballooning,” Hendrix said. “I mean I would really love to see a Department of Government Efficiency at the lower levels here locally and at the state.”
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| Screen Shot Hendrix 5/20/2025 |
“I just I mean that 12.2 percent increase in one year is huge,” she said.
“I would think that you as supposed Republican conservatives would be trying to push back on that a little bit,” she said.
“I was wondering about the budget process,” Hendrix said again. “Do you just put it out to the departments, send us your wish list, or do you give them some guidance of we need to try to hold the line here?”
At that point, Hendrix left the podium and microphone and moved back to the rear of the room. What she said subsequently was not picked up by the microphone at the podium.
Commissioner Amrey Harden told Hendrix that “my instructions is that I do not want to see an increase in our millage rate. In fact I would prefer that we cut it.”
Commissioner Horton said “I'm offering you this. I'll meet with you, and I'll give you the sheets and you tell me what to cut...You don't do your homework. You just come in here and say we're bloated and we're this or that. You don't bother to go sit with anybody to ask any questions. You want to do it in public and you don't even say anything. You just chirp.”
“Your first initial question was taxpayers cannot afford to pay for this,” Commission Mark Thomas said. “Taxpayers’ property tax-- ad valorem--are not paying for this.”
Thomas said that $12.0 million of the General Fund Revenue comes from Local Option Sales Tax, compared with the $19.8 from property taxes, and “sales tax is paid by multiple people from all different counties all over the state of Georgia.”
“We're not going to fix this one for sure,” Daniell said 16 minutes after Hendrix came to the podium.
When no one else came forward to speak, Daniell closed the budget hearing.
Sewer Projects
Adam Layfield, Director of the Oconee County Water Resources Department, presented the Board with proposals from Precision Planning Inc. of Monroe for professional survey, engineering design, and permitting services for two sewer upgrade projects.
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| Screen Shot Layfield 5/20/2025 |
The first project is for replacement of a section of 8 inch gravity sewer line between the Oconee Connector and Parkway Boulevard with a 12 inch line.
That line is fed by 8 inch gravity sewer lines serving Epps Bridge Centre as well as much of the commercial development on both sides of Epps Bridge Parkway.
PPI told the county that the upgrade also can provide sewer services for Celebration Village Athens, a massive senior residential complex planned at the end of the Oconee Connector across from Home Depot.
Layfield said in an email message on Thursday that Celebration Village Athens will construct a private lift station on its property to reach an existing gravity line near Home Depot.
Larger Project
The second project is for approximately 1,930 linear feet of 8 inch force main line and approximately 4,700 linear feet of 12 inch gravity line along Hog Mountain Road and U.S. 441.
County Administrator Justin Kirouac referred to the project as "the sewer infrastructure companion piece” to the roundabout at Hog Mountain Road and Wellbrook Road approved at the May 6 Board of Commissioners meeting.
“This is the in-the-ground stuff to be able to handle the anticipated growth corridor,” he said.
The Board put on its consent agenda for approval at its June 3 meeting spending $105,300 for the upgrade in the Epps Bridge area and $189,135 for the upgrade of the infrastructure along U.S. 441.
This spending is only for design and related services.
Layfield said in his email of May 22 that his “very approximate” estimate of costs for the Epps Bridge project is $1.6 million and for the U.S. 441 project $1.9 million.
Public Comment
During the Statements and Remarks From Citizens section of the meeting on Tuesday, Terry Thompson informed the Commissioners of “a new group called Community Works.”
Thompson described Community Works as “ just a group of people that we hope to grow into a large group of diverse people from within the county that want to do volunteer work.”
She said the group’s first project is “to get community input for the superintendent search that's going on.”
“We're hoping to get as many people as we can from the community to come in and provide their input to what they would like to see in the next superintendent,” she said. She invited the commissioners to attend.
The session will be from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on May 28 at the Community Center in Oconee Veterans Park.
The program will be moderated by Margaret Holt, who has moderated programs with the National Issues Forum, a non-partisan, nationwide network of civic, educational, and other organizations and individuals interested in promoting public deliberation.
Community Works Oconee originated within the Oconee County Democratic Party.
Video
The video embedded below is on the Oconee County YouTube channel.
I was not able to attend the meeting live because of medical appointments and thus could not produce a separate video recording.
Braswell began the Budget Hearing presentation at 9:19 in the video.
Hendrix began her comments at 33:42 in the video. She returned to the rear of the room after those initial comments, and most of her comments in response to the Board are inaudible.
Thompson made her comments to the Board at 50:15 in the video.
Layfield presented the first of the sewer projects at 1:00:57 in the video.
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