Local property owner hopes to avoid property taxes
By Diana Royal Staff Writer

A Georgia timber mogul has found a loophole in legislation, and he plans to use that to avoid paying property taxes in Burke County.

The board of commissioners received a request from Webster County commissioners to join them, along with 16 other counties, in an effort to share legal fees in a case brought about by the property owner, Holland Ware.

According to county administrator Merv Waldrop, when the Georgia General Assembly passed HB 848, a bill that was intended to help nonprofit and charitable organizations, such as Goodwill, avoid property taxes, Ware, too, believed he should be exempt.

In a letter to Burke commissioners, Dave Wills, chairman of Webster County's commission, explains that Ware transferred approximately 67,000 acres of timberlands from all 18 counties into the Holland M. Ware Foundation and then applied for exemption from advalorem taxation on those lands. He has since filed for arbitration in 17 of the counties, which stand to lose approximately $700,000 collectively.

Waldrop said Burke's commissioners voted in favor of sharing the litigation fees, which will cost the county no more than $2,300.