Leslie D. Akins

  1. Name on Ballot: Leslie D Akins
  2. For which office are you seeking: Tax Commissioner
  3. Employment/Profession: Tax Commissioner
  4. Military Service: 
  5. Can you allocate the time to attend and actively participate in all required meetings and additional functions?
  6. Political Experience: Elected as Tax Commissioner in 2020 after 19 years of previous experience in the office
  7. Civic Involvement: I love serving the community in various ways.  I am a member of Connection Church Statesboro and serve in the kids area, guest services and with students as well.  I co- lead a womens connect group alongside my dear friend, Lindsay Daughtry.  I am currently serving as Treasurer of Statesboro Service League.  I have served on the Dayspring Walk to Emmaus board for the last 4 years. I am involved with foster kids camp through 7th Mile Farm and have served the last two years at Royal Family Kids camp for foster children.  Serving the community in these small ways truly bring joy to my heart.
  8. If you have yet to gain prior political experience or involvement, give your reasons for seeking this position and your qualifications for office:
  9. How would you best explain the duties of the office you seek? Our office serves the public by collecting property taxes and also serving as agent for the Department of Revenue for the purposes of local motor vehicle services.  This includes vehicle registration renewals, processing of titles, collecting of TAVT, insurance fines, etc.  The tax commissioner is responsible for collecting property taxes for the state, board of commissioners and board of education as well as municipalities when applicable and be sure those funds are accounted for and disbursed properly with the greatest of accuracy and timeliness.
  10. How can you best contribute to our county and the citizens you serve? We can best serve the citizens of this great county by continuing to collect and disburse money timely and with the greatest of accuracy.  Our office continues to strive daily within the limits of constraints given to us by the state to streamline processes to save time for the public.  We strive as a staff to provide excellent customer service.  Just because it is a government office for the collection of payments doesn’t mean the experience has to be a negative one.  We love the relationships made with taxpayers and love to serve them with a smile.
  11. Are you willing to speak and communicate with the citizens that you serve? Absolutely!  I have an open door policy.  Always have, always will.  I have been nominated and voted Friendliest Government Worker for the past 3 years in the annual contest through Discovering Bulloch magazine.  I think this speaks for itself in telling the story of how much I love people and talking with them.  (My husband always says I talk to people, even strangers, more than any human he has ever seen! – and I love it!) .
  12. What are your biggest concerns for the County and the citizens you are running to represent? Our community is growing rapidly.  With that growth has come a lot of feelings of division and contention amongst our taxpayers and community leadership.  Taxes and insurance have increased for all of us, along with everything else in the world… from a carton of eggs to vehicles, etc.   My prayer is that our local governing agencies can ALL work together to figure out creative ways to make budgets work while keeping our taxes as low as possible to meet the needs of our growing community..  We all have to pay our fair share for the services the county needs for road, public safety, etc but I am hoping the biggest increases are behind us with the 2023 tax digest year.
  13. What changes or improvements would you like to see made in Bulloch County? As it pertains to our office, I would love to see more people utilize online services when possible.  Many online functions are possible in the world of motor vehicle transactions at eservices.drives.ga.gov.  You can easily renew tags there, cancel a vehicle registration, pay an insurance fine, etc. as well as sign up for Go Green.  Go Green allows you to receive your vehicle renewal notices by email to your inbox over receiving a paper renewal in the mail.  It’s free and easy to sign up and I encourage everyone to do so!  In the future, we would also like to possibly put a kiosk somewhere in Bulloch County if we think it will be utilized enough to keep the county from paying any fees.  The current requirement is 700 transactions a month for it to be no cost to the county.  Kiosks are usually located in Kroger and Publix locations.  Your decal prints at the kiosk immediately for your convenience at a minimal fee to the customer.  We are enrolled in the kiosk participation program, free of charge to the county.  If you see a kiosk anywhere in the state of Georgia and need to renew your license plate, you can do so.  Many have utilized this service since we began participating last year.
  14. What would you like to see continue in Bulloch County? In the Bulloch County Tax Commissioner’s office, we want to continue to provide excellent customer service… bottom line.  We want people to walk in and out happy  (well, as happy as one can be while renewing a tag or paying a property tax bill!)  My commitment as we grow is to continue being a good steward of taxpayer dollars and finding creative ways to run the office efficiently.  We would like to continue working hard on delinquent tax collections to ensure that our collection rates stay high.  Our collection rates are the envy of many counties around us.  We work hard to help educate the public about how to stay out of the tax sale process when they fall behind and we will continue to work with everyone in those situations to the best of our ability.  Our online payment website is another service we want to continue to provide.  On that website, you can not only pay your bill but you can print your bill, print a receipt after payment, see your tax history for the last few years, etc.  That website is www.bullochcountypay.com.  We encourage everyone to take a look at the website and utilize it.  It is a great tool!
  15. How would you balance the interests of the taxpayers with the needs of the citizens? I think the interests and needs of the citizens is usually balanced best by always practicing transparency and open conversation with those we are entrusted to serve.  I always try to listen to everyone about their concerns, whether I can do anything at all to give them a solution.  Many times, the complaints I hear most are about how much taxes people are paying.  While my office has zero control over the amount of anyones tax bill, we can help them understand how their bill is calculated and where the amount comes from. The ultimate goal of course that I think everyone shares (from community leaders to taxpayers) is to find creative ways to fund the needs of our entire community while keeping that burden on taxpayers to a minimum.
  16. I would like to add… I am very thankful and blessed to serve our great community.  My door is always open to each of you for anything you may need.  I truly feel honored that the citizens of this county voted me in 4 years ago and feel that I am the person to continue to carry out the job duties of the Tax Commissioner.  I promise to always do my job with honesty and integrity and to make decisions that are in the best interest of the citizens I serve.