Tybee’s ‘Hurricane Gilligan’ training exercise under way

The city of Tybee Island is conducting an emergency readiness exercise this week with the Chatham Emergency Management Authority.

Read more:
Tybee’s ‘Hurricane Gilligan’ training exercise under way

Tybee outfits cops with clip-on cameras

Tybee Island, GA, (Posted July 11, 2010) – Tybee police have found an affordable way to help rule out uncertainty when piecing together confrontations involving officers in wake of May tasar incident… will afford better evidence and accountability… read the Savannah Morning News story by Arek Sarkissian II.

Ask The Mayor

This month’s question:  How do I know how much money I pay to the City of Tybee in property taxes?

For whatever reason, the powers that be have devised a mechanism for calculating property tax bills that is relatively complex.  Be that as it may, the Tybee mill rate is currently about 3.7.  To calculate your tax rate for Tybee municipal taxes, you take the value of your home, business or land (according to the county’s determination as to it’s value) and multiply it by .4 (you are taxed on 40% of the assessed value).  This number is then multiplied by the mill rate.  So, for example, if your home is valued at $400,000, this number is multiplied by .4 equaling $160,000.  This number is then multiplied by .0037 ( a “mill” is a tenth of a cent).  This gives you your taxes owed to the City of Tybee, in this case $592.00.

However, of course, this doesn’t take into account homestead exemptions. If your property is owner-occupied and is not used for business purposes, it generally qualifies for homestead exemptions.  The most significant of these is the county-wide Stephens-Day exemption, named for the authors of the legislation which created the exemption, State Representatives Burke Day and Ron Stephens.  It essentially locks in the value of your home at the time you purchase it.  So in the example above, if the home currently valued at $400,000 was valued at $200,000 at the time of purchase, then there is a $200,000 exemption on the property and for tax purpsoes it is valued at $200,000 as opposed to $400,000.

Also, in 2003, the City of Tybee enacted a $200,000 exemption for Tybee city taxes.  So again using the example above, since the home has a locked-in value of $200,000, the home owner pays $0 to the City.  About half the homeowners on Tybee have homes with a locked-in value less than $200,000 and pay nothing to the City in property taxes.  There are also additional senior citizen and other exemptions.  I have talked to many property owners who wait a few years to go to the County to sign up for the homestead exemptions that they are entitled to.  Because of Stepehens-Day (at least up until recently), this delay costs these folks thousands of dollars over the long haul.  I should also add that the millage rate referenced above does not include county and school tax rates, which are about 10.5 and 13.5, respectively.  Given Tybee’s relatively low millage rate coupled with the $200,000 exemption, the proportion of taxes paid to the City relative to that paid to other governmental entities is fairly small.  This is why we work very hard to recoup as much county, state and federal funds as possible for various projects on our Island.

Thanks for the great question!
Jason Buelterman

Send questions to “Ask the Mayor,” City of Tybee Island, P.O. Box 2749, Tybee Island, GA 31328, or e-mail them with an “Ask the Mayor” header to buelterman@hotmail.com.

Tybee Inagaurates a New Council

Tybee Island, GA. Members of Tybee’s newly elected City Council posed for pictures immediately after the official swearing in ceremony at 2:00 pm on Jan. 4th, 2010 at City Hall. The Inaugauration of the Mayor and Council took place at 7:00 pm, and there was standing room only in the auditorium. Mayor Jason Buelterman who wasn’t present earlier also attended the evening ceremony and spoke to the public, as did Savannah Attorney, Judge Steven Scheer and City Attorney Bubba Hughes. A festive community reception hosted by Marlin Monroe’s Restaurant immediately afterward served up a delicious buffet and was also well attended. First City Council meeting of the new year will be on Thurs., Jan. 14th, 2010.

(Photos by Nancy Heffernan, Copyright 2010, The Tybee Times)

Ask The Mayor

January 2010

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and of course a happy new year!  This month’s question is: “Are we voting again on four year terms for mayor and city council?  I thought we just did that a few years ago.”

The simple answer is that there is a referendum on the ballot for Tybee voters in November 2010 about this issue.  A vote in the affirmative would give the mayor and council four year terms.  Should the referendum obtain a majority of votes, the first election cycle which would be affected would be the 2011 Tybee municipal elections.  For the first election under this possible new system, the winning candidate for mayor and top three council candidates would get four year terms and the fourth through sixth place council candidates would get two year terms.  In 2013, those three two year council seats would be on the ballot.  The three winning candidates and would get four year terms.  In 2015, the mayor’s seat three seats that were in the top three in 2011 would be on the ballot and subsequently all successful candidates for mayor and council would serve four year terms.

The issue was placed on the ballot for 2010 after the previous council (the one that served from 2008-2009) voted to ask the state legislature to place it on the ballot.  Our state legislators all agreed to this and consequently the referendum is on the ballot for 2011.

It is also true that this issue was recently on the ballot on Tybee and was emphatically rejected by the citizens.  Many felt that the referendum was defeated because it took place during the same election cycle as a Tybee municipal election leading to some confusion over which candidates would get four year terms.  Some felt the ballot language wasn’t clear enough.  And of course many others simply felt that the voters wanted to keep two year terms for the mayor and council.  I am optimistic that the next eleven months will give us a chance to analyze the pros and cons of four year terms and we can–one way or the other–put this issue to rest once and for all.

Thanks for the great question!
Jason Buelterman

Send questions to “Ask the Mayor,” City of Tybee Island, P.O. Box 2749, Tybee Island, GA 31328, or e-mail them with an “Ask the Mayor” header to buelterman@hotmail.com.