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Bibb district with highest property value will not have a commissioner for nine months

Earlier in March, Bechtel stepped down as a commissioner to run for State Representative Allen Peake's seat.

Bibb Commissioners voted Tuesday to not hold a special election in May to fill Gary Bechtel’s District 1 commission seat. This means that seat will stay empty until November of this year.

This comes at a time when Bibb County is getting ready to put together next year’s budget, which is projected to have a $10 million deficit which would deplete the county's general fund.

So, to try and prevent that from happening, the county’s financial advisor is recommending drastic cuts or increasing property taxes by five mills.

But that means they will be building a new budget and looking at property tax increases with only eight commissioners and no one representing District 1.

It's a situation that Forrest Edwards says concerns him as someone who lives in that district.

“We will be living in a state of taxation without representation, and this is quite serious in that this is how our country was formed and the revolution,” said Edwards.

Commissioner Mallory Jones called the situation a double-edged sword.

He says he understands Edwards’ concerns, but he says he voted against holding the election in May because there wouldn't be enough time for people to campaign.

“Would the public have time to vet those candidates and determine are they a good representative that they might want to vote for?” asked Jones.

But we wanted to know just how much of the county will not have a commissioner representing them during this time when the county is putting together a budget that could include raising property taxes.

Credit: Shaw, Mary Grace, WMAZ

So, we had the tax commissioner pull the property value for each of the districts and found that in district one there is about $1.9 billion of property value.

If you compare that number to the other districts, District 1 is the highest in the county by more than $200 million.

Credit: Shaw, Mary Grace, WMAZ

That means the district with the highest property value in Bibb will not have a commissioner representing them while the county makes crucial financial decisions like whether or not to raise property taxes.

It is also important to note that the county needs six commissioners to approve a budget, and they have to approve that budget by July 1.

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