Friday, May 16, 2003

Fulton millage rates remain mostly the same

The Fulton County Board of Commissioners approved tentative millage rates for 2003 at its last week's meeting and scheduled three public hearings.

The proposed 2003 millage rates are 12.527 mills for the General Fund, 4.469 mills for the Special Services District (SSD) Fund and .27 mills for the Bond Fund. The General Fund and SSD rates are the same as in 2002 and the Bond Fund has a .01 mill reduction from the previous year.

Citizens are invited to the public hearings at the Fulton County Government Center Assembly Hall, 141 Pryor Street, S.W., Atlanta, on the following dates: May 21 at 10 a.m.; May 21 at 6 p.m.; and June 4 at 10 a.m.

Citizens may also participate in the public hearings via video-conferencing. All three sessions will be video-conferenced from the North Fulton Service Center, 7741 Roswell Road in Sandy Springs, and the South Fulton Service Center, 5600 Stonewall Tell Road in College Park.

Annually, the board establishes a millage rate for the general Fund and the bond Fund, two taxes paid by all county property owners; and the SSD Fund, a tax paid by property owners in the unincorporated portions of the county.

While the General Fund and the SSD millages are the same as 2002, the county's tax digest, excluding the value of new residential and commercial properties, increased from the previous year.

If the tentative millage rates are approved, this is considered a tax increase under the "Taxpayer Bill of Rights."

Consequently, the 2003 millage rates would increase property taxes in the General Fund by 3.94 percent over the rollback millage rate, and increase the SSD Fund by 3.76 percent over the rollback millage rate.

Each year, the Board of Tax Assessors is required to review the assessed value of county residential and commercial properties for property tax purposes. When the trend of prices on properties that have recently sold in the county indicates 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 the property and increase the assessment. This is called a 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 new digest that last year's millage rate would have produced had no reassessment occurred.

Georgia law requires that three public hearings be held to allow the public opportunities to express opinions on the proposed increase in property taxes.