This is your chance to tell

Fayette County commissioners what you think about your taxes.

Public hearings on Fayette County's property tax rate are planned Sept.

28 and Oct. 5.

Sept. 28 hearings are at 9 a.m. in a called session, and during the commission's

regular meeting at 7 p.m. The Oct. 25 hearing is at 7 p.m., also during

a regular meeting.

Tax rates for maintenance and operation will increase from 6.31 mills

to 7.556 mills for residents of Fayette's cities and from 5.21 to 6.562

mills for unincorporated county residents, under proposed rates tentatively

approved in a special called meeting Monday morning.

The increase will be offset for residents of the unincorporated areas,

as well as in Tyrone, Brooks and Woolsey, by a reduction in the fire tax

rate, from four mills to 3.778.

A mill is $1 per thousand of a home's assessed value, which is 40 percent

of its market value, minus exemptions. Thus, the owner of a $200,000 home

would pay about $72 per mill.

The increase in taxes to the owner of a $200,000 home in unincorporated

Fayette will see a M&O tax increase of about $90, and a fire tax reduction

of about $16.

But that's not all. A person whose home was valued at $200,000 in 1999

will probably pay taxes on a higher value this year, because tax assessors

conducted a state-mandated reassessment of almost all of the property

in the county.