If the Washington County Board of Supervisors wanted to destroy the only housing authority providing low-income housing in the county, they took a big step in that direction when they voted to kill the Greater Greenville Housing and Revitalization Association’s tax exemption and seek back property taxes from the inception of the organization.
The GGHRA has been playing by the rules set forth by the State of Mississippi and followed by Washington County for the entirety of its existence acting as the City of Greenville’s housing authority.
Only now, someone doesn’t like those roles and has decided it is in the county’s best interest to re-write a taxation policy that has been in effect for 30 years.
If the supervisors can, on a whim, decide to change an entity’s taxation status and then seek reparations for its entire history, they can shut down any entity in the county at any point.
If the board was allowed to decide the Delta Democrat-Times had been undertaxed for its 153-year history in the county and, came calling for the difference, well, the bill would be insurmountable.
While the supervisors may seek to cancel the tax exemption of GGHRA, they can’t do so capriciously.
The supervisors acted on the advice of board attorney Willie Griffin who made a decision about the tax-exempt status of GGHRA without seeking outside counsel. If he did seek counsel, he didn’t report it during a board meeting.
The tax-exempt status of GGHRA has long been established. In their appeal of the decision, GGHRA’s lawyers provided precise documentation creating the organization in the mold necessary to fulfill the needs of a housing authority in the city of Greenville.
Until recently, the GGHRA offices were housed on city property and part of their operations budget came from the City of Greenville.
The GGHRA is also a beneficiary of county funding as well to the tune of about $150,000 over the last six years. The money was used as part of a program to rehab more than 273 homes for elderly and disabled residents in Washington County.
Griffin, in his position as board attorney giving advice to the supervisors, is acting as judge, jury and executioner of the GGHRA.
What Griffin and the supervisors are seeking to do is baffling to me.
The GGHRA has had nothing but a positive impact on the City of Greenville. It has provided good housing to those in desperate need. Its Main Street Greenville wing has operated our largest festival. It has reopened and refurbished a downtown hotel. It’s in the process of rehabbing thousands of square feet of derelict commercial properties downtown.
But, with one vote, our supervisors could destroy that organization.
If they go through with their latest motion, they will then send a tax bill to GGHRA that will be devastating.
There’s not a business in Greenville with enough cash on hand to pay 30 years of back taxes.
The supervisors have to know this.
If they destroy the GGHRA, the buildings it owns will then be saddled with the burden of 30 years of tax liens and placed on the market. No entity will be able to purchase those buildings and expect the revenue of the operations to be sufficient to pay those liens.
That’s exactly the opposite of what Greenville needs.
I dare say, the GGHRA is the only operation in town making a significant investment in low-income housing in a community wracked by some of the highest poverty rates in the nation.
But, all that could go away unless the supervisors decide to change their minds regarding the GGHRA.
Perhaps the board made a hasty decision and will rectify it in the coming weeks. In the meantime, the GGHRA is having to outlay expenditures to defend a position that’s been well established.
The organization is having to spend dollars on good lawyers that could be used to rehab the 300 block of Washington Avenue.
The organization’s employees and its tenants are sitting in limbo wondering if their livelihoods and homes may be ripped away from them.
The organization, one of the great success stories in Greenville, is on the verge of being reduced to ashes because the board of supervisors decided to reverse course on 30 years of decisions they’d already made.
Jon Alverson is proud to be publisher and editor of the Delta Democrat-Times. Write to him at jalverson@ddtonline.comor call him at 662-335-1155.
