MillageRate.com

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

The owner of an average Camden County home will pay approximately $70 more than necessary in school taxes this year because of the mathematically incorrect and inflated millage rate adopted by the Camden County Board of Education. The excessive tax bite will be much higher for commercial and higher-value residential property owners, says Bob Griggs, the founder of MillageRate.com, an advocacy group promoting honesty in the Georgia property taxation process.

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Macon Telegraph reporter Matt Barnwell reports [story] that the Houston County city of Centerville [site] proposes to adopt a 2005 millage rate of 10.7, the same rate as last year. The Council will schedule the required hearings (10.7 is above the “rollback” rate) at its monthly meeting next week.

As our faithful followers know, the adoption of the same rate as the previous year is a very strong indicator that the elected officials failed to “do the math” and that the adopted millage will either OVERtax or UNDERtax the property owners of Centerville– it must be one or the other.

We have encouraged Mr. Barnwell by email to investigate the Centerville Council’s failure to deal honestly with its citizenry.

Early next month, the Clarke County city of Winterville will hold three public hearings prior to adopting its 2005 property tax (millage) rate. The hearings are required by the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights (TaBoR) law adopted in 2000.

The TaBoR requires cities, counties and school boards to hold the hearings and advertise an “Intent to Increase Taxes” when they choose to adopt a millage rate that exceeds the “rollback rate,” which is the previous year’s millage reduced by the same percentage by which the Net Tax Digest grows as a result of increases in the assessed value of existing properties.

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Jeff Bishop of the Calhoun Times reports that the Gordon County Commission recently adopted a millage rate of 7.57. Writes Bishop:

That’s identical to the millage rate that was adopted last year, but recent property re-evaluations will likely make many tax bills rise, county officials explained.

Not only is the adoption of the same rate as the previous year evidence of a taxing authority which has failed to “do the math,” but it also means that the politicians may have squandered an opportunity to pass the benefit of a growing net tax digest back to the taxpayers in the form of a lower millage rate.

If you remember the math, you know that as the net tax digest increases, the mathematically-calculated millage rate must decrease, as long as the elected officials have held the line on the cost of government.

By keeping the same rate as the previous year, the Gordon County Commission may have kept money that rightfully belongs in the pockets of Gordon’s property owners.

We found this story by Ayanna McPhail in the Macon Telegraph regarding the plan by Fort Valley (Peach County) to adopt a budget that will require no increase in the millage rate.

Our research indicates that the Fort Valley City Council has adopted mathematically incorrect millage rates for years; probably since at least 2000.

To read our email to McPhail (which was also copied to the Fort Valley City Council), please continue…. To express yourself on this issue, you can send a letter to the editor of The Macon Telegraph at letters@macontel.com. Read more…