A longtime Walker County, Ga., business is exploring a shift to a nearby county after recent tax increases in Walker County.
Dixie Dye and Chemical and related businesses are looking at the options, including a move to Chattooga County, Ga., Hamilton County or Cherokee County, Ala., according to the company.
Shannon Hill, plant manager for the Dixie affiliated company Exact Color Systems, said Thursday that while he's sure the tax hikes have something to do with looking at a move, there are "many other reasons."
Hill wouldn't go into those reasons, but said Dixie is "exploring different options" as it looks ahead.
Walker County public relations director Joe Legge said he understands that Dixie "already started things in motion to look elsewhere."
Legge said he finds it hard to believe that Dixie would relocate its entire operation over the tax issue. He said Dixie, a wholesale supplier of dyes, pigments, and chemicals for industrial coloring processes, is the first instance he has heard of a Walker County company considering a move over taxes.
Robert Wardlaw, chairman of the Walker County Development Authority, said Dixie has been "an important part of our community for many years and we are fully engaged to meet their current and future needs."
Last year, Walker County Commissioner Shannon Whitfield signed a tax rate increase, boosting the county portion of property taxes by about 22 percent.
He also passed a new, second property tax that would last for three years to pay off debt owed to Erlanger Health System for a 2011 loan.
For a person with a $100,000 house in the incorporated part of the county, the two property taxes were to have increased taxes last year by about $227.56. That is a 52 percent increase on the local portion of their property taxes.
In an unincorporated part of the county, the two taxes were to have increased a similar homeowner's bill by about $220. That is a 70 percent increase.
Whitfield also hiked building owners' public safety fees.
In addition, Walker residents in November voted 2,622-1,122 to implement a 1 percent increase in the sales tax.
According to a Summerville News report last week, the Trion Town Council in Chattooga County voted unanimously to create an industrial development authority as negotiations intensified with a Walker County business.
Lisa Tyson, Dixie Dye and Chemical's finance manager, said then that the company has looked at Chattooga, Hamilton and Cherokee counties. She said discussions with Chattooga have gone well.
Tyson, who did not return a request for comment on Thursday, said last week the business employs about 45 people in Walker but plans to expand operations and employment.
Legge said Dixie has been in Walker "a long time" and the county would like to keep them longer.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.