Fayette County Board of Education announces proposed property tax increase over rollback millage rate
No rollback for school taxes, according to the Fayette County Board of Education in a Friday news release.
The school board intends to adopt the millage rate at 19.5 mills, which will effectively raise property taxes the board of education will levy this year by 9.16 percent over the rollback millage rate. “The proposed millage is a 0.25 mill decrease compared to the previous year,” said system spokesperson Melinda Berry-Dreisbach.
The system expects to collect more money with nearly the same millage rate because of rising property values in Fayette.
“Each year, the board of tax assessors is required to review the assessed value for property tax purposes of taxable property in the county. When the trend of prices on properties that have recently sold in the county indicate there has been an increase in the fair market value of any specific property, the board of tax assessors is required by law to re-determine the value of such property and adjust the assessment. This is called a reassessment,” the news release said.
“When the total digest of taxable property is prepared, Georgia law requires that a rollback millage rate must be computed that will produce the same total revenue on the current year’s digest that last year’s millage rate would have produced had no reassessments occurred,” Berry-Dreisbach said.
“The budget adopted by the Fayette County Board of Education requires a millage rate higher than the rollback millage rate; therefore, Georgia law requires three public hearings be held to allow the public an opportunity to express their opinions on the proposed increase,” she said.
“Increases in the FY2018 budget include a cost-of-living increase for all employees, years of service credit increases, an increase in the employer contribution rate to the Teacher’s Retirement System (TRS), and the increase in the employer portion of health insurance for classified employees. These increases total approximately $10 million,” the news release said.
All concerned citizens are invited to the public hearings on this tax increase to be held at the Fayette County Board of Education building located at 210 Stonewall Avenue, Fayetteville, Georgia on Aug. 14, 2017 at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., and Aug. 21, 2017 at 6:30 p.m.
The millage adoption is scheduled to occur Aug. 21, 2017 at 7 p.m. during the same board meeting.
