There is only one way, recommended and taught by the Department of Revenue, to calculate the rate. You divide the portion of the budget to be funded by tax dollars [A] by the net tax digest [B]. Multiply the result by 1,000 and you have the millage rate, the number of dollars in tax charged on every $1,000 of taxable value.

Over 9 out of 10 Georgia cities, counties and school boards calculate the rate incorrectly. There is no law that requires them to do it right; moreover, newly-elected officials are not even taught how to "do the math"!

Newly-elected School Board members across the state are taught a process called a "millage value estimation." They take the property tax revenue amount from the previous year and divide it by last year's millage to determine how much money the rate brought in. Then they divide that number into their budget needs for the current year, which gives a slightly higher millage rate (if the portion of the budget to be funded by tax dollars has increased).

The process is flawed; it fails to consider the growth in the tax digest, and thereby fails to pass the benefit of that growth back to the taxpayer in the form of a lower millage. Only by doing the math as first described above can that happen.

The correct millage calculation does not determine, in itself, whether or not the School Board is spending money wisely, or whether they have considered every possible non-tax revenue. All it does is ensure, after the budget is set, that the Board collects no more (and no less) from the taxpayers of the county than is necessary to fully fund the budget.

It may become a political issue that a Board didn't "do the math" correctly. Sometimes, staff calculates the rate mathematically but is ignored by the elected officials for political reasons. That would be an interesting political scenario as well.

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