Chatham chairman or Roman emperor? Ellis should strike deal on penny sales tax

This is a commentary by Tommy Barton, the retired editorial page editor of the Savannah Morning News.

Chatham Commission Chairman Chester Ellis formerly served as president of the Carver Village Neighborhood Association, whose members live in a historic, working-class area of west Savannah named for George Washington Carver and established in 1948 as affordable housing for Black Savannahians. Many were in the military or were military veterans. Today, this area includes about 600 houses, churches and other buildings.

So Ellis should know more than most people about the struggles facing these home-owners. Many are on fixed incomes and live frugally. All are coping with record inflation and are scratching and clawing to pay their living expenses and their property taxes – city, county and public schools – that serve as leeches sucking on the life blood of their modest bank accounts.

Ellis, a preacher turned politician, should know better. He should be sympathetic to these struggles. He also should be familiar with the biblical admonition to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.

Instead, Ellis is pushing a cockamamie scheme tax scheme that could almost double the city property taxes that Carver Village residents pay. If he succeeds it will no doubt force some homeowners who can’t afford to pay another $600 or so in taxes to sell out and move, contributing to Savannah’s ongoing gentrification.

Like a Roman emperor sitting atop a county courthouse throne, Ellis wants them to render almost everything to Caesar.

Chatham sales tax negotiations stall: Why the breakdown poses a threat to property owners

LOST negotiations: Chatham, municipalities squabbling over local sales tax. How they justify their positions

LOST is a golden goose for taxpayers

Ellis should drop his hoggish demand for the county government to receive an oversized share of the Local Option Sales Tax revenue collected in Chatham County through a 1% sales tax on most goods and services. This tax, imposed in most Georgia counties, generates a huge pot of money here - an anticipated $107 million this year.

State law requires that it be divided among local governments to spend. These governments reduce their property tax rates to offset this additional revenue, which has the desired net effect of reducing property taxes for almost everyone.

But here’s the catch: The terms of the revenue split must be renegotiated every 10 years after the completion of each U.S. Census, as population growth is supposed to be a major factor in determining who get what.

The LOST system has been a great deal for Chatham County taxpayers and the eight incorporated municipalities in the county that share this windfall, from Vernonburg to Savannah to Tybee Island. In the three decades it has been around, it has saved property owners millions in tax dollars.

But the current negotiation between the cities and the county on how to split this money over the next 10 years has been a disaster. The cities want about 88% of the pot – a reasonable split in line with population and the locations of the commercial activities that generate this tax. Ellis, however, is holding out for a 50-50 split. And if he doesn’t get his way, he is threatening to punish everyone in the county.

But state guidelines for splitting the LOST revenue don’t support the Ellis proposal. Incredibly, the chairman is threatening to let this 1% tax expire and forgo all the money if the county doesn’t get half the loot. Then everyone will suffer with higher property tax bills, as cities raise their taxes to make up for the lost sales tax revenue.

Lost when it comes to LOST?: What you need to know about the Local Option Sales Tax

Savannah’s property taxes could rise by as much as 78%. For property owners in Carver Village, and in other neighborhoods from Cloverdale, to Tatemville, Windsor Forest and Ardsley Park, paying these bigger bills would pose real hardships. Renters would pay a steeper price, too, as landlords pass on the cost of these higher taxes to tenants. The crisis of the lack of affordable housing in Savannah would get worse.

So far, Ellis’s response to these concerns has been loud and clear: “Drop dead.” He doesn’t seem to care who gets hurt if he doesn’t get his way.

This selfish, shortsighted and egotistical approach is more suited to a playground bully than to the elected head of county government. County voters are paying the price for choosing Ellis over the more level-headed and proven leader Jason Buelterman, the former long-time Tybee mayor, in the razor-thin 2020 chairman’s race.

It’s not that the cities, led by their chief negotiator Savannah City Manager Jay Melder, are being unreasonable - they are willing to give the county a bigger piece of the pie. But not more than what state law believes is a fair share.

Officials say local governments have until the end of the year to cut a deal and submit it to the state. That’s not much time, as Ellis has dug in his feet and nailed them to the ground. Thus the end of LOST, a true property tax relief plan, is a real possibility, thanks to backward local politics.

Other Chatham commissioners must act

Ellis doesn’t seem to care about being a one-term chairman. Voters will not forgive or forget Ellis for his hardheadedness when their property taxes skyrocket.

But Ellis is just one vote on the nine-member county commission.

He may not care about going down in flames over LOST and taking Savannah taxpayers with him. But the six commissioners with constituents who live in Savannah –Helen Stone, Larry “Gator” Rivers, Bobby Lockett, Tanya Milton, Aaron “Adot” Whitely and Kenneth Adams – should. That’s because if Ellis goes down, they stand a good chance of going down with him and cutting their own political careers short for not standing up to him.

They should know that six votes beats one vote every time.

These commissioners should tell Ellis to stop his talk about ending LOST if he doesn’t get his way. They should encourage him to negotiate in good faith with the cities.

No wonder why Ellis, who has a history of bullying and shutting out the public, has defied open meeting requirements in promoting his junker of a proposal.  He is willing to kill the golden goose, and there’s no way to defend the indefensible.

To paraphrase the great Texas Democratic philosopher Ann Richards, “Ellis can put lipstick and earrings on a pig and call it Monique, but it’s still a pig.”

And with higher property taxes forthcoming if he prevails, Ellis is pushing a real stinker.

Contact Barton at tommy@iamnotoldnews.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Chatham Chairman Ellis has bad plan on local option sales tax | Opinion