- The millage rate, made up of mills, is a tax rate. It is multiplied against the assessed value of taxable property in an area to calculate the amount of property tax to be paid.
- Georgia law (OCGA 20-2-165) requires school systems to maintain a minimum equivalent millage rate of 14 mills of maintenance & operations property tax or otherwise lose Equalization Funding which is part of the state funding formula for school systems.
- The proposed millage rate of 8.478, which is a 1.174 mill increase over the rollback rate (7.304 mills), will increase school maintenance and operations property taxes on a homestead property with a fair market value of $225,000 by approximately $103.31 and on a non-homestead property with a fair market value of $200,000 by approximately $93.92.
- Updated 2023 Millage Rate Presentation
- Updated Five-Year History of Levy
- Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
Notice of Property Tax Increase
Board of Education Delays Millage Rate Vote; Schedules second series of public hearings
All concerned citizens were invited to a series of six public hearings on this tax increase:
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- Thursday, August 31, 2023 at 12:00 noon
- Thursday, September 7, 2023 at 9:00 a.m.
- Thursday, September 7, 2023 at 6:00 p.m.
- Friday, September 8, 2023 at 12 noon - Board of Education's Called Session to vote on the 2023 Millage Rate
The Board originally announced on July 21, its intention to increase the 2023 property taxes it would levy by 16.07 percent over the rollback millage rate of 7.304 mills. It then tentatively adopted a millage rate of 8.478 mills at its July 27 work session, an increase of 1.174 mills over its previous rate of 8.263 mills. This was followed by three original public hearings on August 10 and 17.
The proposed tax increase for a home with a fair market value of $225,000 is approximately $103.31 and the proposed tax increase for non-homestead property with a fair market value of $200,000 is approximately $93.92.
Public Notice of Tax Increase
Each year, the Bulloch County Board of Assessors is required to review the assessed value of 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 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 a rollback millage rate to 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.
In accordance with Georgia Code 20-2-165, boards of education must maintain an equivalent millage rate of at least 14 mills to prevent a loss of their state equalization grant funding. Currently, Bulloch County Schools’ state equalization grant funding totals more than $7.4 million. Due to the reassessment of property values in Bulloch County, the rollback millage rate required by Georgia law would cause Bulloch County Schools’ equivalent millage rate to fall below 14 mills, thus causing loss of the school district’s equalization funding. Therefore, the Bulloch County Board of Education intends to adopt an equivalent millage that is at least 14 mills and secure the school district’s equalization funding.
The 14-mill calculation requirement is composed of the property tax millage rate that the board must adopt annually along with the equivalent mills produced by the Local Option Sales Tax that the school district collects for maintenance and operations purposes. Based upon the value of the 2023 tax digest, per the Bulloch County Board of Assessors’ reassessment, a complete rollback of the district’s millage rate would be 7.304 mills, which when combined with the imputed value of Local Option Sales Tax collections of 5.522 mills, equates to only 12.826 mills, which is below the legal threshold.
In order to maintain the minimum 14 mills of property tax required under Georgia Code 20-2-165, the superintendent is proposing that the Bulloch County Board of Education adopt a property tax millage rate of 8.478 mills, bringing the total effective millage rate to 14.000 mills. Due to the nature of the millage rate rollback process, this action will effectively constitute an increase in property taxes.