Walker County Commission chair talks special sales taxes

Angie Teems, chair of the Walker County Board of Commissioners, hosted her most recent open forum town hall in Rossville last week.

Alongside other county personnel, she informed attendees about a property tax measure that may come to election ballots in November, successful efforts to unfreeze a county pension plan and her efforts to create a veterans memorial park.

Tuesday’s meeting was one of several with a theme of “common sense is our common ground,” the Chattanooga Times Free Press previously reported. There is not a specific topic driving the conversations.

“I want to provide an open forum to hear from the community about the issues important to them and how the county can be part of enhancing their quality of life,” Teems said in a press release.

Here are five updates to know from the Rossville meeting:

PROPERTY TAX

Teems said she is handling a county government budget for the first time.

County commissioners will vote on the budget in August, she said. Walker County’s budget is about $37 million, and once it is completed, she said she will turn her attention toward a possible November vote.

Commissioners may consider a resolution in August to call for an election in November on a pair of special sales taxes, county spokesperson Joe Legge said via email.

One sales tax would be a renewal of a tax set to expire in September 2026, he said. That tax is used for the county’s capital improvements, Teems said. Those improvements include the purchase of cars for the Sheriff’s Office, computers and a new painting machine.

Walker County residents may have heard about the other special sales tax in House Bill 581, or the homestead exemption, Teems said.

(READ MORE: Most tax authorities in Northwest Georgia will honor tax relief bill)

“We are very excited about this opportunity to actually reduce property taxes for the first time in, probably, history,” she said.

Teems said experts she consulted in a webinar said that the HB 581-related sales tax could reduce property taxes by 40% in the first year.

“That’s a huge reduction on your property taxes,” he said. “Now, I’m not promising that, of course, because I am still learning it. The experts are saying that it’s going to generate so much money, and that money is strictly for property tax credit.”

The amount is dollar-for-dollar, she said. Walker County won’t have to pay the state anything, she said, and it’s all the county’s money.

Cities that have property tax bills in addition to the county tax bills will receive some money, she said.

That special sales tax would start in January, and the revenue would directly supplant property taxes, Legge said via email.

“The proceeds would be shown as a credit on a property owner’s tax bill, shifting some of the tax burden from property owners to those who make purchases within the county,” Legge said.

PENSION PLAN

The board chair said her team recently unfroze a pension plan for a group of participants.

In Walker County, there are 42 county government employees who were on an old pension plan, Teems said.

“It got frozen several years ago, which meant that every time they got a raise, their pension did not go up,” Teems said. “The board voted to put that back into action, and we’re going to put the money back in their pocket.”

She said the affected employees are appreciative of the effort.

“You need every dime you can get to be able to retire,” she said. “So we wanted to help those folks get back in good standing.”

Walker County Commission chair talks special sales taxes

LITTER PICKUP

Teems discussed the Litter Task Force and invited Director of Solid Waste and Environmental Management Paine Gily to speak. She said he directs landfill operations and oversees the Litter Task Force.

The task force works throughout the county, she said.

If people have an emergency or see a road with a bunch of litter, Teems said they can call the landfill, and Gily will send people to clean up the litter.

It’s not an ongoing litter pickup, she said. Rather, the initiative is a fill-in to help volunteers.

The county hopes to have a driver on an increasingly regular basis to operate the litter pickup truck, she said. Currently, the driver is pulled off regular duties to assist in the litter pickup, depending on availability.

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VETERANS PARK

Described as a “pet project,” Teems said she’d like to create a veterans memorial park at the Walker County Civic Center so all the armed forces and volunteers will be recognized.

“I think that’s a very valuable part of the history of Walker County,” she said, “but also just for our communities to (have) somewhere to go together and to appreciate the people that went before us. They give us the freedoms that we have today.”

She said she chose the location because of its centrality and its abundance of property. Many people visit the center or go there to exercise, she said, and she noted efforts to expand the center’s existing park.

There is a similar park in Summerville, Georgia, she said.

Teems said she wasn’t going to introduce the initiative immediately because there are other things the county needs to put money toward. A recent fire truck accident contributed to her decision to postpone the veterans memorial park until at least next year, she said.

SALEM ROAD PARK

At the meeting, Legge said there is some ongoing construction by the park being built off Salem Road.

The county received a $2.2 million federal grant to construct the facility there. The park is called Adventure Acres, he said.

“Thankfully, the city of Rossville was willing to give us the property in order to make this investment in northern Walker County,” he said.

A rubberized surface will provide children of all abilities the opportunity to play, Legge said, and there will be a splash pad. A pavilion is being erected alongside picnic tables and existing restrooms, he said.

Installing the pavilion is slowing down the park’s progress, he said.

Once it is up and has a pad, other items will go in, like sidewalks and a walking space, he said. Landscaping can’t occur until the pavilion is complete and heavy machinery is out of the park.

A quarter-mile walking trail is on the site, he said. Some of the space remains open for people to throw Frisbees, pass a ball around or have picnics.

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He said the park was originally set to open in early May. The plan will likely come to fruition toward the end of September now due to construction being behind schedule, he said.

“We’ve got multiple contractors that are working on this project, and they all have to work together in order to make everything happen,” he said. “All but one contractor have been in line doing what they need to be doing.”

Legge said the county received a grant from AARP that will be used to establish both an electric vehicle charging station and free Wi-Fi access at the park. Walker County is also applying for other grants to help add additional park amenities, he said.

Once the park opens, Legge said he believes it will be a real community asset that both Rossville and all of North Walker County can be proud of.

“We hope that it’s going to be something that will really spur interest and spur some positive activity in this area,” he said. “That it will be a place that not just locals want to come to, but other folks will visit as well. We’ll just really create some positive energy for this community.”

Contact Northwest Georgia reporter Leah Hunter at lhunter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6673.