The Jones County Board of Commissioners welcomed two members of Boy Scout Troop 485 to its first August meeting to observe the adoption of the 2025 millage rate, which included an anticipated rollback of the county’s tax rate.
Board Chairman Chris Weidner called the Aug. 5 meeting to order, and the prayer and pledge were led by scout Joshua Dreher. Following the pledge, Weidner presented Dreher and scout Christian Spires with a county pin in commemoration of their visit.
Weidner posed the question to Dreher if he could see himself sitting on the board some day.
“I don’t see why not,” was the scouts response.
Keep Jones Beautiful Director Mallory Lunsford presented the first new business item. Lunsford spoke about changes needed to the agency’s upcoming contract renewal and attempted to come up with a date for the Fall Community Cleanup. The date she proposed was Sept. 27, which was met with mixed reaction by board members.
County Administrator Jason Rizner presented commissioners with a tentative millage rate. He explained the tentative rate would be used to run the required ads in the newspaper. He reminded board members the advertised rate can go down but cannot be raised without having to restart the advertisements.
The rates he proposed was to roll the tax rate for the unincorporated portion of the county by 1.737 mills to 12.983. The incorporated rate (for City of Gray) would be rolled back 1.842 mills to 14.219.
Both rollback rates would still result in additional tax revenue for the county.
The unincorporated rate in 2024 was 14.700 and incorporated 16.061.
Commissioner Daylon Martin questioned the rollback. He said his concern was with the revaluation underway, the rate could need to increase next year.
Commissioner John Wood disagreed. He said the millage rate has to drop.
“We need to roll it back as much as we can to lower the impact to taxpayers,” he said.
Martin said he has never voted for a tax increase, but the revenue is not where it needs to be to pay for the expense of the revaluation.
Wood said the county needs to take baby steps.
“The tax rate needs to drop. When the countywide revaluation is done, it will pay dividends,” he said.
Commissioner Sam Kitchens said the rollback shows there is not an increase in taxes, only in property values. He said the problem started when property values were raised by picking and choosing.
“We need to bring the low values up to get where they need to be,” he said. “When we get to year two, we should have values where they should be.”
Weidner said the rollback will still generate more taxes. He said the reports he is receiving about the revaluation process is that it is going well.
Kitchens said the public will understand because the board is making great strides in reducing the pain.
“Everything is increasing, and we cannot guarantee that people are not going to have to pay more in the future, but the rollbacks now will ease the massive hurt,” he said.
Weidner said the county staff is doing a good job of saving money and holding costs down.
Kitchens made the motion for the rollbacks, and it was approved with a vote of 4-1, with Martin opposed.
SPLOST workshop
Commissioners met at 5 p.m. Aug. 5 to discuss the projects to be included on the Nov. 5 ballot for renewal of the county’s one-cent sales tax.
Rizner said estimated anticipated collections for the new SPOLST would be $25 million, and the joint projects with the city are estimated at $11 million. The projects approved to be on the November ballot for the remaining funds include renovation of the elections office, Civic Center repairs, paving of parking lot at Highway 18 recreation complex, JCSO vehicles, jail roof replacement, water and sewer improvements, storm water and draining improvements and debt service on existing projects.
