Wednesday, September 11, 2002
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Wednesday, September 11, 2002 |
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School tax rate decreases, but you'll likely pay more By JOYCE BEVERLY
The Fayette County Board of Education in a called session Monday approved a tentative millage rate of 21.694 for Fiscal Year 2003, a decrease of .089 mills from last year's rate. Because the millage rate exceeds the rollback millage rate automatically calculated by the state, the decrease will be advertised as an increase and yet will result in a savings of a little under $10 to the owner of a home valued at $200,000. However, if your home's tax appraisal value was $200,000 last year, there's an excellent chance that this value has increased and that you will receive a tax bill for more than you paid in 2001. The decrease, that's an increase, that's a decrease, which is really an increase, is the result of a 9.5 percent growth in the county's digest. "This is government gobbledygook at its best," School Board Chairman Mickey Littlefield said Monday. Because of this growth, the board is able to decrease taxes despite the fact that the state of Georgia has lost revenue for four straight quarters and cut their funding to local school systems as a result. "We're fortunate in this county that due to growth they just keep collecting more tax dollars and we don't have to raise millage rates," Littlefield said. That is not the case in many other counties, he noted. The millage rate for maintenance and operations for the school system is decreasing by .403 mills while the bond millage rate is increasing by 0.314. The total millage rate set by the school board has dropped steadily during the past five years, while the digest has grown by 70 percent. Almost two mills have been shaved off the school rate since 1999. Of the 9.5 percent growth in the digest for this year, 6.7 percent is due to reassessments and 2.8 percent to real growth. If your home was valued by the tax assessor's office at $200,000 in the year 2000, and that value has not changed, you will in fact save $7.12 on the portion of the taxes you pay for schools. But if your property has been reassessed, using an average of 6.7 percent increase, it is now worth $212,540. The portion of your property bill which funds the county's schools was $1,742 last year. This year it may be $1,844. Your net "savings" is negative $102. All of the county's 37,000 parcels of property are considered for revaluation each year, Ellen Mills, chief tax appraiser, confirmed Tuesday. There was a time when reassessments occurred every three years, but no more. Of those 37,000 parcels, 1,500 are industrial or commercial areas which account for about 17 percent of that tax base, 800 are exempt (churches, etc.) and the rest are agricultural or residential. Mills estimates that values changed on 35,000 parcels, the majority of which were increases.
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