Fayette Board of Education announces proposed property tax increase over rollback millage rate

The Fayette County Board of Education announces its intention to adopt the maintenance and operations (M&O) millage rate at 19.150 mills, which will effectively raise property taxes the board of education will levy this year by 2.66 percent over the rollback millage rate.  The proposed millage rate is a reduction from the prior year’s millage rate by 0.10 mill.

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.

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.

The fiscal year 2021 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.

The fiscal year 2021 general fund budget totals $228.8 million which is a decrease of $609,000 from the prior year.  The budget anticipates a decline in local and state revenues due to economic conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The projected decline in state revenues is approximately $10 million.

All concerned citizens are invited to participate in the public hearings on this tax increase to be held at the Lafayette Educational Center located at 205 LaFayette Avenue, Fayetteville, Georgia on August 17, 2020 at 12:00 PM and 6:00 PM, and August 24, 2020 at 6:00 PM. Due to social distancing requirements, the meetings will be held in a virtual format and live streamed on the school system’s website, www.fcboe.org.

The millage rate adoption is scheduled to occur August 24, 2020 at 7:00 PM at the location listed above.