Here is the recording of the first millage rate hearing for the 2022 Sugar Hill millage rate. It is about 18 minutes long, with 10 minutes of the City's "presentation." and about 8 minutes of public comments. Both citizens asked the City Council to roll back the millage rate.
Shown in the video are (from left to right) City Manager Paul Radford, City Council Member Alvin Hicks, Mayor Brandon Hembree, Council Member Marc Cohen, Council Member Jenn Thatcher, and City Attorney Frank Hartley. Council Member Taylor Anderson did not attend.
Citizen speakers at the hearing were Andrew Schultz and Barbara Dotson.
Every taxpayer in Sugar Hill needs to see and hear this.
There was no presentation from the City, just a speech from the City Manager. Much of the speech was self-congratulatory marketing and not informative. I was disappointed (but not surprised) by the unprofessional "presentation," lack of questions from Mayor and Council, and some snappiness from the Mayor toward the public during the hearing. It all gave the distinct impression that at least some people in the City government view these hearings as a formality that they'd rather not go through because they plan to approve this no matter what.
Now, I will walk through the video and tell you what's in it, using direct quotes from the City Manager in many cases. I also include time stamps where important things start for those who want to skip around when you watch it.
1:00 - City Manager begins his speech.
1:36 - "State Law requires that local governments advertise a quote tax increase whenever the previous year's millage rate without rollback would generate more tax revenues than the previous year, which is the position we're in."
[It is not a "quote" tax increase. It IS a tax increase because the property values used to calculate your taxes with the millage rate have risen. The State of Georgia asserts this as well via O.C.G.A. 48-5-32.1]
1:46 - "In this case, to keep the millage rate the same as it has been for the past 18 years, which is at 3.8 mills, it is caculated as a 21.68% increase in the millage rate."
[He's not really clear here, but what he means is that the 3.8 mills they are proposing is 21.68% higher than the rollback rate of 3.123 mills. The rollback millage rate is the rate that would produce the same tax revenue on the current year's new digest (taxable property value) that last year's millage rate would have produced had no reassessments occurred.]
2:25 - Says the City began collecting its own property taxes in 2021.
3:05 - Brags about leaving the millage rate the same.
3:53 - Says that the net taxable value of the digest is $1.483 billion in 2022. A 31.5% increase. Says that 25% of the digest growth is new additions, while 75% is from reassessments.
[I received a table of all properties in Sugar Hill from the Gwinnett County Tax Assessor's Office, and have been speaking with them. I suspect his reassessments percentage is low.]
4:20 - "In many cases, properties have not been reassessed in over 3 to 5 years." Cites his own home as an example, and says it has not increased in value in 4 years.
[I asked the Gwinnett County Tax Assessor's Office about this last year, and they said that they appraise every property every year. Also, according to Gwinnett County's records, the fair market value of the City Manager's home increased from %520,700 last year to $666,100 this year, an increase of 27.92%. It also increased 6.53% in 2019.]
4:42 - Says that commercial and industrial now represent 18.8% of the digest. Used to be 92% residential.
5:15 - Gives numbers for the yearly increase in taxes to an individual at the proposed millage rate.
[Interesting, considering he maintains through most of the speech that this isn't a tax increase.]
5:50 - Talks about Sugar Hill's size and population growth.
6:50 - "...incorporated a wide range of programming and enhanced services to its existing budget structure without a tax increase."
[Previous years saw an increase in tax revenue, even at the same millage rate, which is an indirect tax increase.]
7:00 - Talks about cost increases for the government. Here is a direct transcription of what was said:
"Cost of fuel for our public works, public safety, gas departments, and recreation fleet has gone up on average 61% since January 2022. Other operational costs such as paper, herbicides for the golf course, pest control for our various assets, and commercial HVAC filters are just some of the items that have affected our budget.
The biggest expense the City is facing is the cost of construction. For the Greenway, our anticipated cost of cement has gone up 281% over a two-year period. Handrails for the Greenway have also gone up substantially, from $120 per linear feet [sic], flip to $225 per linear foot, and increase of 87.5% over a two-year period.
Two recent City-owned projects were put out to bid based on 12-month-old construction cost estimates from well-respected construction and engineering firms. Historic Sugar Hill Cemetery we had a cost figure estimated between $350,000 and $400,000 in our plans, in our Capital Improvement Budget, bids came back at well over a million dollars. We reduced the scope and planned to do it in phases, and some in house, but even then, the final costs will most likely double.
The bowl stormwater and flood control project again, engineering and construction permits [unintelligible] $3 million to get it done. Bids came in over $8 million to $12 million for the work. After significant value engineering and scope change, City Council approved the award at $3.9 million.
The General Fund helps leverage other funding sources for construction investments. We budgeted $800,000 in the current budget to be transferred from the General Fund to the Capital Improvement Program to leverage other funds, as I said. We expect that amountto exceed $1.5 million to complete our 2022 programming due to construction inputs.
In these markets, it is these market input fluctuations, uncertainty about [unintelligible] global pandemic, [unintelligible] economic uncertainty that lead staff to recommend maintaining the millage rate at 3.8 mills."
10:00 - Details the various assets the City pays to maintain, such as the E-Center, Eagle Theatre, The Bowl, Dawn P. Gober Plaza, the new parks (Ridge Lake Park , which is the 22 acres next to Arbor Clos, and Gold Mine Park off of Level Creek Road), greenspace near the Chattahoochee River, Sugar Hill Greenway, the new Marshal's Office, the golf course, and Gary Pirkle Park, and the City staff.
Mentions they have expanded public works to include maintenance of the entire expanse of PIB and Hwy 20 medians and right of ways.
11:00 - City Manager's speech concludes.
11:08 - Mayor asks the City Council if there are any questions, and there are none.
11:37 - Citizen Speaker Andrew Schulz opens by telling the City "thanks for closing the windows it's quite a distraction looking at that disaster out the window." Thanks City Manager Paul Radford for bringing up some good points and speaking into the microphone so he could understand him.
[The ability to hear and understand the City Manager has come up at previous meetings. He was better at this meeting, although there's clearly much room for improvement.]
12:00 - Mayor Brandon Hembree interrupts the Citizen Speaker to chastise him, saying "Let's have a little bit of respect for people."
[The Citizen Speaker was thanking the City Manager. It seems as though the Mayor was actually annoyed that the Speaker criticized the apartment construction next door to City Hall.]
12:06 - Citizen Speaker Andrew Shulz continues. Mentions the large increase in appraisals. Says that the City is getting a substantial increase. Asks what we need to do to reduce the millage rate. Says that we are in a recession, whether anyone wants to admit it on not. We're taxed by federal, state, Gwinnett County, and the City of Sugar Hill. We're being beaten down. Says that he can't even afford to fix his own home. Every time he turns around, he has to give money away. Mentions the increase in the entertainment district and high-rises, and says it's time the taxpayers get some relief.
13:49 - Citizen Speaker Barbara Dotson says that a steady millage rate doesn't mean anything when property values are increasing. Mentions that we don't get the value of the increased home value until we sell. Says that if the City is spending so much that it can't help citizens by rolling back the millage rate, something's wrong. The City should care about the citizens more than the things it's building. Asks the City Council to roll back the millage rate and give us a break.
17:15 - The Mayor closes the public hearing.
17:22 - A citizen stands up in the audience and says she wants to ask a question. Mayor tells her it's public comments, not Q&A, but that she can "leave questions" for them to "get back" to her.
[There is no law preventing the Mayor and Council from taking a question. I've seen a Mayor Pro Tem in another town allow it because it is good citizen relations. City officials in Sugar Hill clearly PREFER for answer questions in private.]
17:52 - There is sound from a citizen speaking to another citizen out in the room. (I later found out he was trying to encourage someone else to get up to speak), and the Mayor rebukes him with a sharp tone.
[The Mayor could have just ignored it. It wasn't that loud.]