Downtown may see tax rate rollback

Published 10:52 pm Wednesday, February 20, 2008

When the Downtown Dalton Development Authority raised its property tax rate to 3 mills from 2 mills in 2005, officials planned to bring it back down as quickly as they could, said DDDA executive director Sarah Harrison. She told authority board members on Wednesday that the agency should be in a financial position to roll the tax rate back this year.

“We always had that in mind,” she said.

Harrison told board members the organization had maintained a “skeleton” budget for several years. The DDDA has a budget this year of about $180,000, up from $145,575 in 2007. The agency’s budget was $112,000 in 2005.

Harrison said much of the growth in the tax digest downtown had been offset by increasing exemptions for church-owned properties. But she said increasing growth downtown and regular reassessments of property by the county tax assessors office should allow revenue to grow while rolling taxes back.

DDDA board chairman Brian Peters had asked the authority to look for ways to join Dalton Mayor David Pennington’s call to cut property taxes. Peters said that downtown property owners face a total tax rate — county, city, schools and DDDA — slightly more than double what businesses in unincorporated Whitfield County face.

Board members asked Dalton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau executive director Margaret Thigpen to brief the board on the CVB’s function. DDDA board members have approached the CVB about looking at ways they can work together to save money.

Thigpen told DDDA members the CVB has a budget of about $340,000, funded equally by the city and the county. The city’s half comes from its hotel/motel tax. But there’s only one motel in the county, so most of its share comes from general revenue.

Thigpen said the CVB attempts to market Whitfield County as a whole to convention planners and tourists.

“We don’t focus on any one area. We focus on the entire area,” she said.

Thigpen said tourism is Georgia’s second largest industry and Whitfield County is the second largest tourism destination in the region.

Thigpen and Harrison each noted that the two organizations have worked together on events such as the Tour de Georgia, which will not pass through Dalton this spring.

Several members of the trade center board, which also oversees the CVB, attended the meeting, including T.J. Kaikobad, owner of The Dalton Depot restaurant in downtown Dalton.

“It think it went well. At the very least, it was very informative for many people about the role and the effectiveness of the CVB,” he said. “We need to see some strong activity. When everything is said and done, if this is a motivator for more activity, that would be great.”

A.J. Kocher, co-owner of The Fantasy Factory in downtown Dalton and a former DDDA board member, also attended the meeting.

“I think the development authority will look for ways to cut taxes,” he said. “But there are many services provided by the DDDA that are very helpful to the downtown community.”

He pointed to the authority’s role in securing more than $250,000 in state loans to help Planet of the Grapes expand. The wine shop plans to add a full service restaurant.

“That is the type of thing they are moving forward on,” he said.