Are Your Peachtree City Taxes Going Up? (No. But Yes.)

Last October, I spent the better part of an hour with the city’s finance staff trying to answer a simple question: How low can Peachtree City’s taxes really go? 

The average homeowner pays about $100 a month for the city’s share of their property taxes. With a millage rate of 5.840, the finance director called that the lowest rate the city could responsibly hold without cutting services or finding new revenue.

Nine months later, the city’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) was introduced to city council and discussed. A public hearing is set for July 9th, and the council is scheduled to adopt it on August 20th.

So, given what we’ve seen, it is fair to ask: Are your Peachtree City taxes going up?

No, Peachtree City is not increasing your taxes.

But yes, your taxes are increasing.

Here is how both are true.

Why Peachtree City Is Not Increasing Your Taxes In 2027

Let’s start with the good news.

Peachtree City’s proposed FY27 budget holds the millage rate flat at 5.840, well below the 7.178 mills the city charged in 2012. The millage rate is the multiplier the city applies to a home’s assessed value to calculate its portion of your taxes, so when the rate holds steady, the city is not actively reaching any deeper into your pocket than it did the year before.

Context makes the news even better. While Peachtree City’s municipal rate is above Fayetteville (5.646), Tyrone (2.889), and Brooks (1.126), those other cities lean on the county for fire and EMS and pay the county for those services. When the county taxes are added back in, Peachtree City’s combined rate of 9.813 comes in below Tyrone at 10.682 and Fayetteville at 10.619. On the average home, that means a lower total tax bill compared to those cities.

There is a second reason the city is not raising taxes. It is spending down its savings rather than borrowing or taxing. The clearest example is the police headquarters renovation, which the city plans to pay for in full with $6 million from reserves rather than issue a bond or increase rates.

So what are the downsides of keeping the rate flat? For residents, essentially none. They still get a fire department with an ISO Class 1 rating, which lowers the fire insurance premiums they pay on their own homes. They also get a CALEA-certified police department, more than 100 miles of maintained paths, a great public library, year-round recreation, and crews that maintain the entrances to some 280 neighborhoods.

But this year’s budget goes a step further and starts giving back to the employees who work to make Peachtree City great. The FY27 budget proposes a 3% raise for staff with another 1% likely in December if revenues hold. It is a meaningful step toward closing the gap that opened after last year’s rollback when the city trimmed employee raises to fund the FY26 tax cut.

Why You May See Higher Taxes In 2027 Anyway

Now for the bad news.

While the city sets the rates that tax your home’s value, it does not set the value of your home. That number comes from the county. But this increase is limited because House Bill 581 caps the annual growth in a homesteaded property’s taxable value at the rate of inflation, which the state set at 2.7% for 2026. That prevents a sharp jump in taxable value, but your bill can still rise by as much as that 2.7%.

Here is what that looks like in dollars. Using last year’s average home value of $508,000, the average homeowner pays about $1,200 a year to the city. A 2.7% increase adds about $32 a year, which comes to under $3 a month. So the $100 a month I wrote about last fall becomes closer to $103 for the average homesteaded home.

There is a second reason your bill may look bigger, and it will catch people off guard in January.

According to the minutes of the June 22 work session, businesses will see new stormwater rates on October 1, and residential stormwater charges will move onto the property tax bill (probably in January). Stormwater is a separate fee for maintaining the pipes, ponds, and drainage systems that keep the city from flooding. It is not part of the millage rate, but the charge will now land on the same statement as your property taxes.

Then there is the pressure building behind this budget. The city kept several large, one-time projects out of the proposed FY27 budget and will handle them separately, which keeps the year-to-year operating budget comparable but also keeps a big number out of view for now. Those projects come to about $26 million, but they are not all the same kind of cost.

Two of the three already have a funding source. The $6 million police renovation, mentioned earlier, is paid from reserves. Fire Station 85, which the July 9 packet prices at a guaranteed maximum of $7,981,687 with a groundbreaking planned for August, is covered by the SPLOST 2023 sales tax that voters approved for exactly this kind of capital project.

The one still to be paid for is a 15-year, $12 million bond for a permanent structure over the Kedron pools, a multipurpose field at Braelinn, and another project the city has not yet chosen. That bond will carry an annual payment of about $1.064 million. 

The city manager has also signaled a future stormwater bond to speed up the most urgent drainage work, funded not by another rate increase but by the stormwater rates already approved. Even so, that borrowing is real money the city will repay for years.

There is one tool on the horizon that could change the math entirely, and it works in the taxpayer’s favor. The state legislature passed Senate Bill 33 this year, creating a Local Homestead Option Sales Tax (LHOST). It would let the county adopt a 1% sales tax and use the money to offset property taxes on homesteaded properties. At the June 22 session, the city manager estimated an LHOST could cover somewhere between 80 and 100% of the city portion of a homeowner’s property taxes by swapping sales tax dollars, paid partly by visitors, for property tax dollars.

On June 18 the council voted unanimously to introduce the local legislation that keeps the city eligible if Fayette County pursues a referendum in November. The earliest any collection could begin is January 2028. If it passes, the city portion of a homesteader’s bill could fall sharply without cutting a single service, which is exactly the release valve for the pressure this budget has been quietly building.

The Takeaway

So, are your Peachtree City taxes going up in 2027?

No. 

The council held the rate flat. It is spending its own savings to renovate the police station, and voter-approved sales tax dollars are covering the new fire station. Neither lands on your property tax bill.

But yes.

Your home value could rise, and a stormwater fee is moving onto your tax statement. Together they mean the number you actually pay is likely to tick up, even though no one on the council voted to raise the rate. And what will shape the next several years is everything the rate ignores: the Kedron pools, the Braelinn field, the drainage work, and the sales tax that could rewrite the homeowner’s bill by 2028.

Though the budget and mileage rate could change before they are finalized, the city has so far done good work to keep 2027 affordable and our taxes low for another year. But holding them there as the borrowing comes due is the harder task, and the one worth watching. 

Tomorrow’s bills still come due, even if this year’s did not.