The Fayette County Board of

Education in a called session Monday approved a tentative millage rate

of 21.694 for Fiscal Year 2003, a decrease of .089 mills from last year's

rate.

Because the millage rate exceeds

the rollback millage rate automatically calculated by the state, the decrease

will be advertised as an increase and yet will result in a savings of

a little under $10 to the owner of a home valued at $200,000.

However, if your home's tax

appraisal value was $200,000 last year, there's an excellent chance that

this value has increased and that you will receive a tax bill for more

than you paid in 2001.

The decrease, that's an increase,

that's a decrease, which is really an increase, is the result of a 9.5

percent growth in the county's digest.

"This is government gobbledygook

at its best," School Board Chairman Mickey Littlefield said Monday.

Because of this growth, the

board is able to decrease taxes despite the fact that the state of Georgia

has lost revenue for four straight quarters and cut their funding to local

school systems as a result.

"We're fortunate in this

county that due to growth they just keep collecting more tax dollars and

we don't have to raise millage rates," Littlefield said. That is

not the case in many other counties, he noted.

The millage rate for maintenance

and operations for the school system is decreasing by .403 mills while

the bond millage rate is increasing by 0.314. The total millage rate set

the digest has grown by 70 percent. Almost two mills have been shaved

off the school rate since 1999.

Of the 9.5 percent growth in

the digest for this year, 6.7 percent is due to reassessments and 2.8

percent to real growth.

If your home was valued by

the tax assessor's office at $200,000 in the year 2000, and that value

has not changed, you will in fact save $7.12 on the portion of the taxes

you pay for schools. But if your property has been reassessed, using an

average of 6.7 percent increase, it is now worth $212,540. The portion

of your property bill which funds the county's schools was $1,742 last

year. This year it may be $1,844.

Your net "savings"

is negative $102.

All of the county's 37,000

parcels of property are considered for revaluation each year, Ellen Mills,

chief tax appraiser, confirmed Tuesday. There was a time when reassessments

occurred every three years, but no more. Of those 37,000 parcels, 1,500

are industrial or commercial areas which account for about 17 percent

of that tax base, 800 are exempt (churches, etc.) and the rest are agricultural

or residential.

Mills estimates that values

changed on 35,000 parcels, the majority of which were increases.

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