News 12 at 6 o'clock, August 18, 2008

COLUMBIA CTY, Ga.---Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue has a major, State-Wide grant frozen right now. A grant that could save the State, but cost everyone else.

Property owners in Columbia County just got their tax bills in the mail. They look about the same as every other year, but these bills will actually cost the county money...over four million dollars.

Dede Craft and her family recently moved to Columbia County for two specific reasons. "That was the deciding factor. The taxes and the schools, otherwise we would have stayed in Richmond County," says Dede.

But Richmond County, and all of Georgia, is going through this too. Waiting to find out if the state will keep the 428 million dollar grant, or divide it out. "He can hold certain revenues and that's what he's doing. He's holding this money," says Columbia County Tax Commissioner Kay Allen.

Counties around the state base their budgets on getting grants like these. Columbia county is no different. With the state money in doubt, local governments are searching for ways to fill in the gap.

Columbia County took care of their taxpayers by going ahead and giving them the discount on the bill. However, now they're short that money, roughly four million dollars. "Sounds like to me they're gonna be in a big hole," says Dede.

Columbia County will be in a big hole if the grant doesn't come in and they can't cover the money. "We will have to cross that bridge when we get there. I don't know what the options are at this point," says Allen.

Columbia County Schools could take the biggest hit, almost three of the four million dollars. The county does have reserve money in place, a hefty twenty-six million dollars.

"Twenty-six million is a tremendous amount of money, but when you consider that's with a 176 million dollar budget. That's less than two months expenses," says Columbia County Superintendent Charles Nagle.

Georgia says schools can't have more than 15 percent of their total budget in reserves. Due to some recent re-arranging, that's exactly the number in the savings now. "It would be nice if we could have a little more. Twenty-six million dollars will not go very far if we were to have a huge economic crisis in our community," says Nagle.

It's not clear when the state will make a decision about the money. It could even be as late as February or March. The county tax commissioner encourages people can contact their legislature and complain. Superintendent Nagle also told me he's already in talks with local representatives to help put some heat on the state to keep the grant.