The News learned Monday from a legislative update from the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia that the state has not provided the monies for Forestland Protection Act reimbursement to local governments and school boards.

According to the ACCG update, neither the amended FY2010 budget nor the FY2011 budget includes funding for the reimbursement mandated by the Forestland Protection Act constitutional amendment approved by voters in the November 2008 election.

The Department of Revenue reports 85 counties have applied for reimbursement, and ACCG estimates the applications amount to approximately $10 million.

The constitutional amendment stated that the State would reimburse 50 percent of the cost up to 3 percent of the digest placed into the reserve and 100 percent of the cost over three percent of the digest.

According to tax collector Sylvia Hood, Early County’s reimbursement request was $609,007.85 — the largest of any county. According to the ACCG figures, the average reimbursement would be almost $117,650.

Hood was told recently by the Georgia Department of Revenue that they did not have the funds for the reimbursement and did not know of any deadline for the reimbursements to be made. She speculates that the reimbursement would have to be made by the end of the fiscal year June 30.

The local reimbursement application includes $273,770.81 in county taxes, $333,777.21 in school board taxes and $1,459.83 in City of Blakely taxes.

Early County appraiser Wynn Bush told the News there were 76,688.31 acres of land put into Forestland Protection Reserve in 2009. The 40 percent fair market value was $40,680,602. Of that, $27,959,762 was exempted from the digest.

The constitutional amendment authorized the General Assembly to pass laws creating special ad valorem taxation for “forest land conservation use.” To qualify, the tract of forest land must exceed 200 acres.

In an analysis of the proposed constitutional amendment published in the

Early County News leading up to the 2008 election, David Hudson, general counsel for Georgia Press Association, stated, “as Gov. Perdue’s threat to eliminate assistance grants to local governments for the state’s expanded homestead exemption demonstrates, the state cannot be trusted to reimburse the lost tax revenues.”

The expanded homestead exemption grants were abolished by the 2009 Legislature, coupled with an effort to cast the blame on the counties.

With the state facing a $1.2 billion revenue shortfall as they struggle to piece together a budget during the current General Assembly, ACCG is urging legislators to include this reimbursement in their budget recommendations.