City of Snellville, A Case Study
Gwinnett County

For sixteen years prior to 1999, the Snellville (Gwinnett County) City Council under a 26-year incumbent mayor had annually set the city's millage rate at 6.0 mills. The city administration was proud of its accomplishment-- the mayor's annual "state of the city" address touted the fact that the council had not "raised taxes" in over a decade and that the city was "debt-free with over a million dollars in the bank."

In reality, the city's coffers were flush with over $4,000,000 in cash reserves, the product of years of overtaxation as a result of the arbitrarily-set millage rate.

In 1998, the Mayor and Council again set the millage rate at 6.0 mills when, had city leaders followed proper procedure, the millage rate would have been around 4.5. The 1998 millage rate subsequently produced a surplus of approximately $750,000 which, that year, was equal to 10% of the total budget.

This writer conducted a mini-seminar for several city officials, while Council members remained uninterested. Although experienced administrators, all admitted that they did not understand the millage rate process and had never set the rate mathematically, to that date.

Citizens grew increasingly discontented as the revelation that the overtaxation had gone on for years became more widespread. With increasing frequency, the Council faced angry taxpayers who questioned their competence from the podium at public meetings.

In 1999, a mayoral election year, the incumbent Mayor proposed an arbitrary "tax cut" to 5.2 mills; the mathematically-derived rate, however, should have been 4.56 mills.

Through the budget process, the Council had determined that $2,000,000 in tax revenues was needed to balance the budget. The Gwinnett County Tax Commissioner’s Office had computed 40% of the city's gross tax digest to be $480,191,862; after exemptions, the net tax digest was $438,894,502. The correct millage rate, therefore, was $2,000,000 divided by $438,894,502, or .004556 ($4.56 on every $1,000 of value).

By the Council’s own published computation, the proposed 5.2 mill rate would have taken over $282,000 more than was required from Snellville property owners.

Bowing to public pressure just weeks before Election Day, the Mayor and Council ultimately approved a rate of 4.5 mills which, "on paper," put the City of Snellville at a slight deficit for the 1999 tax year.

The change of heart came too late for the 26-year incumbent. He was defeated by the primary advocate of a mathematically-derived millage rate in the heaviest Election Day turnout in Snellville's history.

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