A Millage Decrease is Still a Tax Increase
…the complicated process and illogical timeline of determining expenses, passing a budget, projecting revenue, and setting the millage rate for public schools in Newton County…
During the last three weeks, the Board of Education has met publicly three times to hear the Superintendent’s recommendation for setting the 2022 millage rate at 16.788 mills, thus “raising taxes” while actually lowering the tax rate. You can’t beat the dang tax man!!!
Newton County 2021 education millage rate = 18.288
2022 education millage rate = 16.788
According to the Georgia Department of Revenue:
The tax rate, or millage, in each county is set annually by the board of county commissioners, or other governing authority of the taxing jurisdiction, and by the Board of Education. A tax rate of one mill represents a tax liability of one dollar per $1,000 of assessed value.
How to Figure Tax: The assessed value (40 percent of the fair market value) of a house that is worth $100,000 is $40,000. In a county where the millage rate is 25 mills the property tax on that house would be $1,000; $25 for every $1,000 of assessed value or $25 multiplied by 40 is $1,000.
So, the property taxes that you pay are based off your assessed property value multiplied by three or four different millage rates. You have a County millage rate determined by the Board of Commissioners. You have an Education millage rate determined by the Board of Education. You have a small millage rate that helps fund fire protection. And if you live in one of the cities in Newton County you have a millage rate determined by your City Council to help fund government functions in your city. See the 2021 chart provided by the Newton County Tax Commissioner’s office below, or click here for more detailed info.
2021 Millage Rates for Newton County and municipalities
As you are well aware, your property value has skyrocketed over the past year or two. And as the collected property values of the county, also called the “digest”, have risen, then your taxes have risen proportionately. According to our local sources, the digest increased by 22% from 2021 to 2022. Since the property values have increased at such a rapid rate, the state has built in a system to help protect the property owner/tax payer. (See the Georgia Tax Payer’s Bill of Rights for more info.) This protection measure is called the suggested roll-back rate. In theory, the roll-back rate is suggested to the local governing bodies to offset the rising property values and to allow the government entities to collect the same amount of tax as the previous year. For instance, the suggested roll-back rate this year for the Board of Education was 15.516. If we had adopted this “roll-back” rate, the Board of Ed would have collected approximately the same amount of taxes (revenue) as we did in 2021. This roll-back rate would have kept your tax bill the same (or very close to the same) as 2021. However, the Superintendent recommended the rate of 16.288, and the rate was approved by our board 4-1 (I was the only “nay'“ vote.)
In the video above, the first millage rate hearing, you can hear the debate I present to the Superintendent (at the 30:00 mark) and her subsequent response. You can hear my passion to help reduce the tax burden on our property owners, ESPECIALLY our senior citizens. You can also hear my consternation over the budgeting and millage rate PROCESS. The Board of Education passed (4-1) the Superintendent’s FY23 budget in June, where she conservatively “projects” the revenue. She doesn’t have the actual figures from the Tax Assessor’s office at the time, so she must project based off of previous trends and current guesstimates. AFTER the budget passed, THEN we meet to set the millage rate. This whole thing seems backwards to me. I want to know how much revenue we will have BEFORE we set a budget of expenses. But unfortunately, there are factors outside of our control that impede us from operating in this logical way. (Ms. Coggin and I are meeting to discuss how we might help rectify this problem with both the Georgia Department of Education and the Georgia Legislature and/or the Tax Assessor’s office.)
[See my two previous posts about passing an “unbalanced” budget - more expenses than projected revenue: Don’t Dip Into Your Savings Account During a Recession and Differing Perspectives Do Not Mean One is Right and One is Wrong.]
I want to be quick to point out that although I’m arguing for a FULL ROLL-BACK RATE in the video, the Superintendent’s recommendation is still a good and solid recommended rate of 16.788. This rate is the lowest millage rate the BOE has produced in 25 years. I’m grateful for our Super and our Board agreeing to lower the rate 1.5 mills from the previous year. Certainly, I was hoping for a full roll-back of 15.516 which would have kept taxes basically the same…but fortunately the 16.788 won’t bust our citizens’ checkbooks. It is a significant tax rate decrease and will provide the necessary revenue to cover the rising costs of educating our precious kids, specifically a much needed pay increase for our employees just to keep up with rising inflation.
The other two millage rate hearings can be viewed here (millage rate hearing 2) and here (millage rate hearing 3). In these two hearings more information is given regarding the Local Fair Share and Equalization. These two items are very complicated and frustratingly difficult to understand. However, they greatly effect the bottom line dollar amount that the BOE has to use for educating our kids. Please watch and be as informed as possible. Lastly, you can find the public meeting where the BOE casts its official vote (4-1) here (my comments beginning at 8:51).
[Link to the Covington News article: Board Approves Lower Newton Schools Property Tax Rate for 2023 Budget.]
