By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
MARCH 30, 2021 | Out of nowhere, a change in the way the new Gwinnett Tax Commissioner wants to charge eight Gwinnett cities for her work in collecting municipal taxes has developed.
In the past, the Gwinnett Tax Commissioner has handled sending out bills and collecting municipal ad valorem taxes for eight Gwinnett cities: Peachtree Corners, Norcross, Berkeley Lake, Sugar Hill, Lawrenceville, Snellville, Lilburn, and Dacula. The other eight Gwinnett cities administer and collect their own taxes.
Handling the city tax collections was previously done by Tax Commissioner Richard Steele, who lost his office in the 2020 elections. Tiffany Porter won election in 2020 as the new tax commissioner.
A letter to the eight cities sent out by Denise Mitchell, the chief deputy tax commissioner, outlined the changes that Ms. Porter would want to adopt. Among the details of a new four year contract Mrs. Mitchell sent out was the addition of a new fee of $2 per parcel for collecting the taxes. She sent out the letter on March 17, 2021, and put a deadline of April 8 for signing the contract.
Another element of the contract that was proposed was that it would allow Mrs. Porter to be a signatory to the proposal for the new contract. The previous contract that the cities had for municipal tax collection by the tax commissioner was between the cities and the county. The tax commissioner was not a signatory to the contract, as is proposed in the new contract.
The cities erupted over such a change.
Lawrenceville City Manager Chuck Warbington says: “The City of Lawrenceville received a new agreement from the Tax Commissioner that almost tripled the cost to the residents of the City. The requested increase was for a direct supplement to her salary. Since our agreement for services for the Tax Commissioner is with the Board of Commissioners, we are pleased with initial discussions that there appears to be little support for the agreement as presented. The Tax Commissioner’s office has run a surplus over the last five years, therefore we have no understanding as to why there would be a requested increase for providing the same service.”
The fee charged the eight cities in 2020 by Richard Steele for collecting municipal taxes was $86,523. The fee for 2021 for similar services for the eight cities as proposed by Tax Commissioner Tiffany Porter in a letter by Mrs. Mitchell would be $210,412. The new charge would break down to a county fee of $99,908, but an additional $2 per parcel fee to the tax commissioner of $110,734.
An opinion from Lawrenceville city attorney Lee Thompson also brought up another point in the proposed contract. Thompson said it was his opinion “that such a contract does not have to be approved or consented to by the Tax Commissioner.” He also said that the Georgia Code section allowing tax commissioners to collect municipal taxes was “….between the county governing authority and a municipality” and did not mention the tax commissioner.
Porter
Last week GwinnettForum talked with several local city leaders who had previously used the tax commissioner to collect municipal taxes. All were concerned about the higher proposal and were hoping that the incident could be resolved.
GwinnettForum also talked Friday with Tax Commissioner Tiffany Porter, who did not make a statement at that time, but promised one Monday morning. (Since the statement came after our deadline, we ask you to click here to read her statement.)
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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