MillageRate.com

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

An open letter to the Hoschton City Council:

As you revise your charter, I would suggest, in regards to the calculation and adoption of the millage rate, that the charter simply require that you follow the procedure that has been recommended and taught by the Department of Revenue for decades.

There is only one CORRECT way to calculate the millage rate so that government takes no more and no less from its property owners than required to fully fund the budget.

You can learn the correct way to calculate the rate at www.millagerate.com/howto.htm . I am available to discuss the benefits of following the correct procedure at your convenience.

The millage rate, currently a hot button issue in Hoschton, is one area [Council member Jim] Jester wants to re-evaluate. Right now, he said, Hoschton can levy a property tax "from 0 to infinity."

"I mean literally it can be anything without a public referendum," he said.

Hoschton revamping 90-year-old charter

Three Peach County Board of Education members’ apparent inability to manage their schedules will result in Peach County tax bills being mailed a month late:

Board members Virginia Dixon, Jamie Johnson and Kay Whitley were out of town Thursday and could not make either a third public hearing on a proposed millage rate increase or a special called meeting to approve the millage rate.

Dixon was en route from Rhode Island, Johnson called in a half-hour before the meeting and said he was in Atlanta and Whitley was on vacation, said Denise Carmichael, executive assistant to Superintendent Susan Clark. “They’ve known about the public hearing schedule since June 3,” a flustered Carmichael said. “People knew it was going on. This makes us look bad.”

Tax bills in Peach County will be tardy – The Sun News – Macon

Reported in the Walton Tribune:

In 1999, the millage rate was at 8 and had steadily declined to the 2008 rate of 6.6. However with property values slipping and assessments dropping, council members were told by city number crunchers during a July 12 retreat in Amelia Island, Fla., a millage rate hike is advised.

The Walton Tribune

Bad legislation like Rep. Edward Lindsey’s property assessment freeze will force local governments to temper millage rollbacks or even increase rates when they might normally remain stable:

The next several years could be lean ones for Morgan County as actions by state legislators come home to roost.
County Finance Director Mia Wilson and County Manager Michael Lamar painted a potentially grim picture for the county at the commissioners’ regular meeting Tuesday, telling elected officials that revenues from ad valorem taxes after this year will be frozen. At the same time, the state of Georgia has not specified in its budget when and from where county reimbursement funds for the new Forest Land Protection Act (FLPA)-an estimated $900,000 the county was expecting to receive from the state-will appear.

County struggles to balance budget | Morgan County Citizen Online

Read the story:

The proposed school spending plan would mean a millage rate increase of 1.538 mills, bringing the total to 17 mills.

Peach BOE OKs tax increase – The Sun News – Macon