MillageRate.com

Over 99% of Georgia’s City Councils, County Commissions and School Boards fail to simply do the math.

The millage rate (also known as the tax rate) is a figure applied to the value of your property to calculate your property tax liability. One “mill” equals one dollar of tax on every thousand dollars of taxable value. Your tax dollars are used to fund the cost of your government each year.

There is only one way to correctly calculate the millage– it is simply one number divided by another. When your city, county or school board correctly “does the math,” the cost of government* is equally spread to all property owners based on the value of their property. You pay no more and no less than is required to fully fund the budget.

Of course, you know our solution. Require taxing authorities (cities, counties, school boards) to “do the math.” As assessments increase, the millage rate must decrease, simply as an operation of the math, as long as the politicians hold the line on the cost of government services.

Hancock County, GA is typical in a state where very few politicians even understand the millage rate process:

The county historically had a high millage rate, but very low property assessments. Hill said the assessments are now in line with surrounding counties, but with the high millage rate, taxes have soared.

Local tax revolt in Hancock County  | ajc.com

Gwinnett County is in a tight spot. A “perfect storm” of national economic woes, a maturing local economy and a lack of meaningful leadership has begun to write a sad chapter in our county’s otherwise stellar history. We face not one but several years of having to strike a balance between raising property taxes on already cash-strapped households and cutting essential government services.

We can weather the storm, but only with bold action and not a small amount of sacrifice. Read more…

Suwanee, GA (Gwinnett County) leaders are boasting about the recent confirmation of their AA-minus bond rating by Fitch Ratings. Knowing what we do about Suwanee’s property taxation practices, we looked at their tax rates for the past five years.

What we found surprised and disappointed us—as the city’s debt millage decreased each year, the City Council arbitrarily increased the M&O millage rate to maintain the same overall rate… apparently with no consideration for the actual cost of government for its property owners:

As you, the Suwanee property owner, paid down the public debt, your tax rate should have decreased accordingly; at least, as long as the City Council held the line on the cost of government. Instead, city leaders maintained the same arbitrary total rate and, in essence, rolled your overpayment into M&O. They have essentially used the decrease in the city’s debt responsibilities to fund increases in the cost of government.

Bragging Rights or Just Overtaxation in Suwanee? | TalkGwinnett.com

State Senator Chip Pearson has issued a press release to clarify just who is to blame for a significant jump in property tax bills this year. His publication exposes a primary problem with Georgia’s property tax code—state legislators who do not know what in the hell they are talking about.

Read more…

A two-year-old challenge to the homestead assessment `freeze` in Dade County, GA has finally gone to court. Superior Court Judge Brian House is expected to rule soon in a case that could set a precedence for ending unconstitutional assessment caps across the state.

Former County Commissioner Rex Blevins sued the county, alleging that the law that `freezes` a property’s value for tax purposes creates a special class of taxpayer, which is prohibited by the state Constitution.

We have published numerous articles on the harm to taxpayers inherent in the assessment caps.

Blevins and Townley made the argument during the hearing that granting a tax exemption to people eligible to apply for it in that year puts them in a favored class over those who buy later, offending standards of uniformity. “What you’re basically saying is, if you’re living right here and you’re voting right now, you’re going to get a tax break and we’re going to take care of you, compared to other folks that come in and buy property later,” said Townley.

The Dade County Sentinel