Changing demographics
Part 1—The view from the Commissioner’s Office
By KATHLEEN MCKEVITT

Commissioner Lamar Paris

According to Union County Commissioner Lamar Paris, the growth of population in Union county has hovered around fourplus percent, and is expected for the next two decades to continue at that rate or greater, then taper off as the last of the “baby boomers” retire and settle in various parts of the country.

“This is an attractive place to live for many people. Folks moving here tell me often that it is the friendliness of the people as well as the beauty and peace that attract them here,” said Paris. “Growth is bound to continue at a four percent plus pace for some time to come.”

However, another factor looms large over all residents of this and similar counties around the United States: development, and the environmental costs of that. The costs to taxpayers who must shoulder the burden of increased taxes and

expenses when county services are required to expand, renovate, and build new facilities to accommodate the growing population are becoming excessive for many taxpayers, everywhere.

There is, as county property homeowner's have been told recently in tax-increase meetings held by the school board, and the Commissioner, no where to turn for increasing need for the money to support the county services but to the people. In addition to the tax increases people face, the rate of inflation is also growing at over four percent per year.

The County's new 4.78 percent tax increase for property owners is now in effect. Said Paris, if growth slows some, maybe it will allow our county to catch its breath.”

County taxes support the Fire Department, Ambulance Service, Sheriff's Department and Jail, Drug Task Force, E-911 Center, Probate Judge, Magistrate Judge, Tax Commissioner, Tax Assessor, Coroner, GIS Mapping System, Election Board, Voter Registrar, Juvenile Court System, Development Authority, Department of Family and Children's Services, Historical Society, Chamber of Commerce, Mountain Humane Society Shelter, Georgia Mountain Rural Development Council, North Georgia Resource Management Agency, Addressing, Road D e p a r t m e n t , R e c r e a t i o n Department (Meek's Park, Poteet Creek Campground), Building Inspection/ Environmental enforcement, Building Permit, Clerk of the Court,SAFE/CASA, Hiawassee River Watershed Coalition, Byron Herbert Reece Society (supported in a minor way), Detainees, Carlton Colwell

Detention Center, Senior Center, County Agent-Soil Conservation Service, Health D e p a r t m e n t , L i b r a r y, Tr a n s p o r t a t i o n Services, New Drivers License Center, Fiber Optic Network, District Attorney and Public Defender's Office, Superior Court Judges.

The county is responsible for either the upkeep, maintenance, operation or insuranceusually all four, on 18 buildings, and, another nine fire stations.

Utility costs for one year on county building:

Power $191,000, Water/Sewer - $42,000 and Telephone/Internet $123,183.

Vehicles and fuel - The increased cost of fuel and pacing materials has had a huge impact on the county finances. The county paid $216,074 for fuel, in 2005, and to date

(November) paid $256,888). All 100 vehicles are insured and maintained by the county.

The county maintains approximately 150 employees for all these service. Medical insurance, other benefits and annual cost of living pay raises are major budget items.

Paris said, “Most people have no idea how vast the county operation actually is and all the services that are provided, but by far and away, the largest cost of county government is that caused by the criminal element. If it were not for the cost of operation of the Sheriff's Department, the Jail, and the court system, our taxes would be reduced dramatically. However, because we pay the price and deal with these individuals, our quality of life and safety is enhanced greatly.” [note: after this statement by the

Commissioner, there were an additional four burglaries, and robberies in Blairsville alone].

A major factor in all of this is rapid growth in property sales, and yet slow growth in local business and industry. Thus, the property tax burden continues to increase for the property owners. The new county tax increase is in addition to the recently passed school tax increase, both effective at the beginning of 2007 and touching the lives of all property owners in the county.

Paris wants property owners to know that while no one likes to lay higher taxes, the Union County tax rate (county and school combined) continues to be the second lowest in the state of Georgia out of 159 counties.

The new sub-divisions may be putting in their own sewer

system which will help by not burdening county and city systems. The Commissioner's office is looking into new ordinances, to be adopted in the next six months, that will help control and limit where and how new sub-divisions function within the county to help insure less dramatic change to the environment, and to the excessive burden on existing county systems.

The Commissioner notes the 4 percent growth a year is 50 percent growth in a decade, so systems and budgets that work in the present will not suffice five-to-ten years out. With these figures to go by, growth of the county twenty years from now will be upwards of 100 percent.

This information is part of a series on the growth and changing demographics of

Union County in the last decade and in the two to come, all of which are expected to be significant for the area's people and resources.

This series will report on activities of the Development Authorities in the county and city and their findings, predictions and plans. Next in this series is an interview with Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Management Company, followed by interviews with educational directors, county, and state, then real-estate evaluations with interviews with researchers in national and local companies, and finally, environmental agencies, their concerns, research and plans for the next two decades of growth, what it means to local people, and those planning to relocate to north Georgia.