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PTC tax increase
public hearing is tonight
By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@thecitizennews.com
Peachtree City will hold its first public hearing Wednesday night
on plans to increase property taxes for the 2000-2001 fiscal year.
The hearing, scheduled at 7 p.m. to coincide with a council meeting, is
the first of three meetings slated to allow citizen input on the matter.
The city has announced it will seek to increase property tax collections
by 8.6 percent compared to last year.
Early estimates from the county indicate the city's property reassessments
increased home values by over 8 percent.
The 8.6 percent property tax increase would give the city an additional
$263,506 in revenue for the coming year, according to city estimates.
The increase is needed to offset a submitted budget that's 11.86 percent
larger than last year's.
The budget increase was attributed to a salary study that recommended
$493,877 in raises and the addition of three new firefighters to cover
shifts no longer manned by volunteers.
The public hearings are required by a new Georgia law designed to alert
citizens of impending tax increases that would occur even when local governments
decline to increase millage rates. With the recent increase in assessed
values of homes in Peachtree City, the only way to avoid a tax increase
would be to roll back the millage rate so the city would raise the same
amount of funds from property taxes as it did last year.
The city plans to hold the millage rate at 4.06 for the coming budget
year.
The other public hearings on the property tax increase are scheduled for
Wednesday, Sept. 27 at 6:30 p.m. and Thursday, Oct. 5 at 7 p.m.
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