SPRINGFIELD, Ga. – Effingham County property owners will see a combined 6-mill reduction in county, school and Industrial Development Authority property taxes in 2026 after county commissioners approved an agreement Tuesday tied to $90 million in payments connected to the OpenAI data center project.
For homeowners, county officials estimated the combined changes – along with the state's $500 homestead tax credit and a change in how the county collects its fire protection charge – could reduce annual tax bills by more than $1,000.
Commissioners approved an intergovernmental agreement between the Effingham County Industrial Development Authority, the county and the Effingham County School District that will distribute $90 million over three years.
The agreement calls for $30 million to be paid each year. County officials said about $9 million annually will be used to provide the equivalent of a 2-mill tax reduction.
The county reduced its combined maintenance and operations and indigent care millage by 2 mills. The Industrial Development Authority set its millage rate at zero, eliminating another 2 mills, while the school district reduced its rate by 2 mills.
Together, those actions amount to a 6-mill reduction.
School rate drops further
The Effingham County Board of Education voted Monday to lower its fiscal 2027 millage rate to 16.45 mills, down from the 18.018 mills it had approved Aug. 20. The new rate is 2 mills below the 18.45 mills the district charged last year.
The school board is scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. Wednesday to formally accept the resolution and intergovernmental agreement tied to the additional tax reduction. The meeting will be held at the Board of Education office, 405 N. Ash St. in Springfield.
The additional reduction is made possible by the $90 million, three-year agreement approved by county commissioners and the IDA. About $9 million of the annual payment will go toward the equivalent of a 2-mill reduction for the school district.
The county's millage rate was set at 4.976 mills. Without the additional tax relief, the county's rollback rate would have been 5.466 mills.
The commission approved the intergovernmental agreement with the IDA, with Commissioner Beth Helmly casting the lone no vote.
Helmly said she supports reducing property taxes but was not comfortable voting on the agreement without more time to review documents and get answers to her questions.
"I just don't feel personally, I don't feel comfortable voting for this tonight because I have too many questions," Helmly said.
The agreement follows an amendment to the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement between the IDA and Octans Georgia LLC, the entity associated with OpenAI's proposed Project Camellia data center.
The amendment sets the millage rate used to calculate the company's payments at 32.537 mills, preventing the company from receiving the benefit of the millage reductions being provided to other property owners.
Commissioner Jaime DeLouch, who made the motion to approve the agreement, said he had reviewed the documents and was comfortable with the proposal.
"I don't feel rushed because I did read every bit of this," DeLouche said.
Commissioner Roger Burdette said the county faced time limitations but should not miss the opportunity to provide tax relief.
"Out of everything we've had go on, I get more people telling me they need a break than anything else," Burdette said.
During public comment, Raymond Carver of Protect Effingham Alliance, whose property is close to the proposed data center, questioned whether the agreement had been rushed and raised concerns about the financial and legal consequences of approving it without additional review.
"I feel like this puts the county, the people in the county, the commissioners, in jeopardy for clawback lawsuits if anything were to happen or go wrong," Carver said.
County officials said the annual payments are specified in the intergovernmental agreement and defended the review process.
Commissioners also changed how the county collects its fire protection charge, replacing the square-footage-based fire fee with a 2-mill ad valorem tax.
County Manager Tim Callanan said the change generally will result in additional savings for homesteaded residential properties and will allow the fire charge to be included in future property tax relief programs.
