MillageRate.com

(The following article was written in 2005 to illustrate how a mathematical millage is the only way to eliminate the “back door tax increase,” which is an increase in an individual’s tax bill resulting from a higher assessment when the millage rate remains the same from the previous year.)

A statement in the Clayton County School Board’s press release regarding the adoption of its millage rate for 2005-2006 insists that, although the Board was required to hold three public hearings as required by the “Taxpayers Bill of Rights,” it was not “raising taxes” because it was leaving the millage rate the same as the previous year.

The Clayton School Board has adopted a mathematically-incorrect millage rate that will substantially overtax the property owners of Clayton County.

Clayton County Public Schools will operate on a 2005-2006 budget of $332,172,530. Of that amount, $124,500,000 will be funded by property tax dollars. The School Board adopted a millage rate of 18.916, the same rate as last year.

The mathematically-correct millage rate is 17.611, 1.305 mills lower.

If calculated mathematically, the millage rate is nothing more than the portion of the budget to be funded by tax dollars divided by the net tax digest. This is the process recommended and taught by the Department of Revenue– it is the ONLY correct way to calculate the rate.

Newly-elected school board members are taught a different, incorrect method. Newly-elected city council members and county commissioners are not taught how to calculate the rate at all.

The arbitrarily high rate imposed by the School Board will overtax Clayton County property owners by at least $9.2 million more than is necessary to fully fund this year’s budget.

The owner of a $150,000 (assessed value, not considering exemptions) home in Clayton County will pay $1,134.96 in property taxes for schools, about $78.30 more than what would be required with a mathematically-correct millage rate.

It is my opinion that the setting of an arbitrary rate, especially a high one, is tantamount to the School Board lying to its constituents.

The Board adopted a budget that contained a revenue line item, “Revenue expected from property taxes” or something similar. Through the budget process including public hearings, the Board “told” its taxpayers that they will have to pay a certain dollar amount– in the case of Clayton Schools, $124,500,000 — to fully pay for government services rendered.

The School Board adopted a millage (tax) rate, however, that will take MORE tax dollars than the taxpayers were told would be collected from them.

Granted, there is no law requiring the Board to adopt a mathematically-correct rate; the Clayton BoE hasn’t done anything illegal. But it is a gross violation of the Clayton BoE’s fiduciary responsibility to its taxpayers to knowingly take more in tax dollars than is required to fund the cost of government… law or no law.