Not only is Atlanta and Gwinnett County growing, but Effingham County, next door to Savannah, Chatham is growing by leaps and bounds as well. In 1990 the County was around 25,000 residents, today it almost 60,000.
John Henry tells us what this kind of growth means in the context of a limited water supply. Because Effingham County is located in a area of the Floridan acquifer that is depressed, it can only pump 6.5 million gallons of water a day to supply both homes and business. As a result of this limitation, Effingham just can’t handle industries that require a lot of water.
Located on the Savannah River and near the Georgia Ports facilities, Effingham has a lot of attraction for industry. The Georgia Pacific paper mill located there years ago. But the pressures of rapid growth and development impact more than just water consumption. It takes money to provide the infrastructure for a county growing by a third every 10 years or so. And money means taxes, property taxes in particular. According to Henry, residential property requires 9 times the county services required by commercial property.
And property taxes are something that the 2008 Georgia Legislature may do something about. I predict that it is going to be very hard to convince counties like Effingham to give up local control of property taxes, the bread and butter of local government. Our cities and counties are not going to like having to ask the State legislature for more money. Think about that? A lot of people understand that all this talk about doing away with the property tax is, at least in part, an effort to concentrate power by the boys in Atlanta.
So if you are just thrilled about paying no property taxes, you better be thrilled enough to get in the car, head to Atlanta and hold out your hand when you need a new school or fire station. Tax reform ain’t gonna happen in 2008. Wanna bet?
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