PRESS RELEASE ANNOUNCING NO CHANGE IN BOARD OF EDUCATION MILLAGE RATE
July 26, 2023

The Decatur County Board of Education today announces its intention to continue with a millage rate of 14.565 mills which is 2.51% above the calculated rollback millage rate.

Please note that the actual millage rate for the Board of Education will not change and will remain at 14.565 mills which is the same as last year. School/Library taxes will only increase if the assessed value of your property has increased from last year.

Each year, the board of tax assessors is required to review the assessed value for property tax purposes of taxable property in the county. When the trend of prices on properties that have recently sold in the county indicate there has been an increase in the fair market value of any specific property, the board of tax assessors is required by law to re-determine the value of such property and adjust the assessment. This is called reassessment.

When the total digest of taxable property is prepared, Georgia law requires that a rollback millage rate must be computed that will produce the same total revenue on the current year’s digest that last year’s millage rate would have produced had no reassessments occurred.

The budget adopted by the Decatur County Board of Education requires the millage rate to remain at last year’s rate of 14.565 and not at the rollback rate. This action would increase the local revenue of the Board of Education due to the increase in property values of Decatur County. Even with the increase in the local tax revenue, the Board of Education will still experience a budget deficit for FY2024 due to reductions in state funding, and the decrease in revenue received from the forest land protection act. The Board must also be able to balance the inflationary increases of the current market as it relates to labor, fuel, energy, and supply costs. Before the Decatur County Board of Education may set a final millage rate, Georgia law requires three public hearings to allow the public to express their opinions on the tax issue.

All concerned citizens are invited to the public hearings related to this tax matter to be held at the Decatur County Board of Education Board Room, 1417 Dothan Rd, Bainbridge, Georgia at the following dates and times: August 3, 2023 at 2:00 p.m., August 10, 2023 at 12:00 p.m. and August 17, 2023 at 6:00 p.m.