Patti Dozier/Times-EnterpriseJefferson Harvard, a Thomasville resident, completes a transaction with Leitha Prince, a Thomas County Tax Commission employee.

THOMASVILLE — Neither Thomas County commissioners nor Thomas County or Thomasville City boards of education plan tax increases this year.

Grady County Commission expects a tax increase this year, potentially a .5-mill increase.

“It could be higher or slightly lower,” Grady County Administrator Carlos Tobar said. “We will know when we receive the digest. However, we do know our projected expenditures for 2018 at this moment are roughly $725,000 more than what we budgeted in 2017.”

Grady County’s 2016 millage rate is 13.653. 

The City of Thomasville has no property tax.

“The Thomasville City Council set a goal in 2009 to eliminate property tax in Thomasville by 2012,” said City Manager/Utilities Superintendent Steve Sykes. “At that time, the city was levying approximately $2 million in property taxes to support the services of Thomasville Fire/Rescue. Beginning in 2009, the city reduced this tax each year before ultimately meeting the goal in 2012. That year, the City of Thomasville ceased levying the fire tax within the Thomasville city limits and since that time, has not levied any property tax for city governmental services.”

As the levying authority for the Thomasville City School system, the city levies and collects Thomasville City School taxes on the school system’s behalf. The city transfers the school taxes collected to Thomasville City Schools. 

In 2016, Thomas County’s property tax in incorporated areas was 9.258; incorporated areas, 8.037; emergency services, 1.78; fire district 1, 3.260; fire district 2, 3.251; fire district 3, 2.378.

The last Thomas County property tax increase was in 2013 at 40 percent in incorporated and unincorporated areas.

Thomas County Commissioner Zippy Vonier thinks the county tax rate is at a level to sustain services.

County government can save money by restructuring to help taxpayers “get more for the buck,” he said.

The commissioner, serving his first year on the board, said he receives complaints about how tax money is spent.

The special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) funds 90 percent of county road work, Vonier said. Taxes should not be raised on land, since some people never own land, he added.

With SPLOST, everyone pays, Vonier pointed out.

Wiley Grady, also a Thomas County commissioner, agrees that the current millage rate sustains government.

“Thomas County is one of the best in Georgia in services and does it at far less millage rate than most counties,” Grady said.

He said people who run for office promise “magical things,” but they do not understand or take into consideration the many and varied aspects of what county government does.

Grady also thinks Thomas County is one of the best-managed counties in the state.

The district Grady represents is in the city and “different,” he said, adding that people in the district think county services are good.

In Cairo, last year’s millage rate was 8.325. At that rate, taxes on a $100,000 house would be $333.

Thomasville City Schools’ millage rate is 17.869. The rate in fiscal 2016 was 17.992.

City school taxes on a $100,00 house in the 2016 tax year were $724.93, exclusive of the homestead exemption.

Thomas County school board’s millage is 14.52. The last increase was in 2012 at 7.9 percent. County school taxes on a $100,00 house are $580.96, exclusive of the homestead exemption.

Claude Crocker has been in the real estate business in Thomasville since 1974. His son, Dan Crocker, joined the business in 1991 after college graduation.

Crocker Realty of Thomasville owns rental property stick-built houses, mobile homes, apartments, warehouses, a shopping center, single-family houses and duplexes.

“We collect rent on 90 properties we won,” the elder Crocker said.

The company pays between $32,000 and $35,000 annually in Thomas County, city and county school property taxes.

“It’s part of doing business,” Crocker said. “I get a little bit ahead occasionally.”

To take advantage of discounts, the business begins paying taxes in September and finishes in December.

Dan Crocker said his father sometimes appeals his taxes and is sometimes victorious.

“They’re very reasonable,” Claude Crocker said, to which his son added, “It’s math.”

There is room for improvements in determining the value of property, Claude Crocker said. People with more experience should be determining property values.

In reference to SPLOST revenue being spent on artificial turf on the Thomasville High School football field, Claude Crocker said, “What they want is a new football field, and what they need is an education.”