Coweta County commissioners voted on Aug. 18 to adopt the 2011 rollback millage rate despite the total value of Coweta County decreasing by -5.1 percent this year.
The 2011 millage rate for incorporated residents was set at 7.79 mills, the same rate as in 2010, while the unincorporated millage rate was set at 6.86 mills, down slightly from a rate of 6.8 mills last year.
County Finance Director Hans Wilson prior to the vote told commissioners the incorporated and unincorporated millage rates were reduced by the state-required rollback criteria. Both are less than state rollback rates so only one public hearing was required prior to adoption, Wilson added.
And what about the county tax digest and and how it fared in the past year in what is clearly a continuation of the recession that began in 2007? The answer is that the total value of Coweta County dropped by -5.1 percent for 2011.
The total county value in 2010 was $4,038,723,376. That compares to a 2011 value of $3,857,116,497, a difference of $18,160,688.
Real and personal property in both the incorporated and unincorporated areas experienced a decrease in value. Those figures in the incorporated areas for 2011 were reported at $1.214 billion compared to the 2010 figure of $1.274 billion. Real and personal property numbers for the county’s unincorporated areas came in at $2.943 billion in 2011 compared to $3.040 billion in 2010.
The Fire District millage rate for both incorporated and unincorporated property owners was kept at 2.5 mills, as in 2010. The Fire Bond District rate did increase from .39 mills in 2010 to .46 mills for 2011.
Wilson said the Fire Bond District was created in 2009 to pay the debt service on the 2009 General Obligation Fire Bonds approved by voters in 2008. The millage rate will be re-evaluated each year in light of the amount of debt service that will be owed in the coming year, Wilson said, adding that the amount of debt service required for 2012 will result in a rate of .46 mills.
As for the county’s largest tax-levying entity, the Coweta County Board of Education for the eighth consecutive year recently adopted a millage rate of 18.59 mills.
