Camden Commentary: Oh, yeah, a resolution and scads of solidarity: that'll work!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Oh, yeah, a resolution and scads of solidarity: that'll work!

http://www.jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2009-03-11/story/st_marys_council_asks_county_to_reject_proposed_tax_digest

6 comments:

Anonymous said...: "We're showing solidarity," said Greg Bird, who made the motion. "We want the assessments to be fair and equitable."

Let's start with fair and equitable!!

I must ask if a property has NOT been reassessed since 2002 (receiving their first reassessment in 2009) which is contradictory to the O.C.G.A code, should the rest of the County bail these people out?

If houses in your area have sold for #350,000.00 should your assessment remain at $150,000.00 because you feel thats what your house is worth? If you decide to sell this house, should you receive $350,000.00?

Just curious.....; March 11, 2009 at 6:35 PM
Jay Moreno said...: You know, this whole situation strikes me as a new form of "blcok busting." For thse too young to remember, that was a tactic where unscrupulous real estate investors would move a black family into white neghborhood. In the resulting white flight, the investors would scoop up the formerly white occupied properties at bargain basement prices.

Think about it. If enough of the residents of the old 900 square foot mill homes downtown are forced out by high taxes, an investor, or a group of investors, with deep pockets could buy up the houses a distress sales prices. After accummulating enough of them, they could then begin to build McMansions over in that neiborhood by the old pool (Ann Street springs to mind. Once a few of the McMansions sold, the values of all surrounding properties would go up high enough to force out all of the remaining holdouts. At that point, the complete gentrification of downtown would be unstoppable.; March 11, 2009 at 7:03 PM
Anonymous said...: I thought that was the plan!! With the exception of moving blacks in......

This started a long time ago, around 2002 I believe. Right after Durango closed down. It is also the last time a reassessment was done from the railroad tracks to the river. None of the residents said anything because they thought it was great that there residential properties were not elevating as quickly as the other municipalities.

Lockhart was selling properties at elevated rates with a vengence. I think the first real estate firm (Hodnett & Cooper of St. Simons) to tap into her sacred space came in to sell Mr. Porters house. I belive it sold for right at or a little over a million. Then the flood gates opened. All the realtors saw downtown St. Marys as the land of milk and honey.

The City Manager of St. Marys and Council are not known for making good decisions. So I am curious as to who will pay or how will they make up the difference for revenue lost by rolling back the assessments to 2006 to offset the taxes of the residential owners downtown.

You guessed it, all other homeowners in St. Marys whose properties have already been reassessed and are currently paying their fair share, will NOW be responsible for helping to pay for downtown residents.

Its amazing how the people in downtown St. Marys are always fleecing everyone else.

St. Marys took the Durango property off the tax digest, they took the Express Scripts property off the tax digest and now they want to roll back the assessments to 2006. All while they currently have a budget shortage. Simply AMAZING....; March 12, 2009 at 10:22 AM
Anonymous said...: If enough of the residents of the old 900 square foot mill homes downtown are forced out by high taxes, an investor, or a group of investors, with deep pockets could buy up the houses a distress sales prices.

You undoubtedly are reading the mines of Paulks of Century 21, I heard they are on this like white on rice.; March 12, 2009 at 10:28 AM
Jay Moreno said...: "Its amazing how the people in downtown St. Marys are always fleecing everyone else."

Ah, but Lilliput by the Sea is a special place, don't you know. It's historic, ergo the other 99% of us have a patriotic duty to come tot he financial aid of the resident Lilliputians at every opportunity.

Camn you really put a value on the preservation of "quaintness?"; March 12, 2009 at 2:31 PM
Anonymous said...: I wonder of the "Lilliputians" will share the profits from their home sales with the other 99% of St. Marys residents.

I was talking to someone today that reminded me of how the other residents were annexed into the city, but never received the services they were promised. Prime example of the fleecing.; March 12, 2009 at 5:08 PM