Wednesday, October 8, 2003
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Wednesday, October 8, 2003 |
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bills going out later than planned
By J. FRANK
LYNCH
Peachtree City is off the hook, no longer to blame for yet another delay in the mailing of some 38,192 property tax bills. Originally intended for mailing on Oct. 1, with a due date of Dec. 1, the bills will go out Oct. 15 with a due date of Dec. 15. "It's just a lot of little things that contributed to that," said an employee in the tax commissioner's office. "We hope to get them in the mail by Monday." Last year, nearly 50,000 individual bills were mailed, but only around 40,000 will go out this year due to a change in the law regarding the value of taxable property. Meanwhile, Peachtree City has met the legal requirements for hiking its tax rate by 12.3 percent. Citing scheduling problems, the city postponed by a week the final two hearings on the .53 mill increase, originally scheduled Sept. 25. Moved to Thursday, the final public forums on funding the 2004 city budget actually took place a day after the start of the new fiscal year. The .53 millage rate increase imposed by the Peachtree City Council on city homeowners will raise the taxes on an average $200,000 house by about $100 annually, city staff asserts. Tax Commissioner George Wingo had hoped to get the bills into the hands of county taxpayers by Oct. 1 with a Dec. 1 due date, in an attempt to help the school district avoid the end-of-year cash-ow problems it's suffered before. Just last month, the Fayette County Board of Education borrowed $8.5 million in a 90-day note from Wachovia Bank, to meet operating expenses and pay salaries Thursday's meeting in Peachtree City was attended by a host of angry residents, many of whom took the opportunity to chastise Mayor Steve Brown for not doin more to cut spending. The council voted 3-1 to adopt the budget, with Dan Tennant casting the dissenting vote.
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