Bad Links?
Other glitches?
Notify Webmaster

Error forces cities, BOE to redo tax hikes

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

A miscalculation of Fayette County’s 2004 tax digest will force three city councils and the Board of Education to restate their millage rate increases for fiscal year 2005.

There will be a slight delay in sending out tax bills, but property owners in Fayette County will still be getting their notices far earlier than in recent years.

Tax Commissioner George Wingo said Thursday that an outsourcing firm hired to compile the total value of taxable property in Fayette County omitted a step in that process, resulting in a $50 million shortfall.

“They failed to do it and we didn’t detect it,” said Wingo. “It was not a red flag thing that popped up.

“The bottom line is everybody gets to reset their millage rates.”

But that also means the city councils in Fayetteville, Peachtree City and Tyrone, along with the school board, must hold three public hearings each to gauge public input on the tax increase, as required by law.

Fayetteville, Tyrone and the school board OK’d their fiscal year 2005 budgets weeks ago. Peachtree City was scheduled to give final approval to its new budget on Thursday night.

The $50 million adjustment is just a drop in the bucket of the overall $11.117 billion estimated value of Fayette County property. And the millage rate is figured on just a 40 percent value of that, or $4.446 billion, Wingo said.

The only local “taxing authority” that will see a significant adjustment in revenue based on the increase will be the school board, which would have realized a windfall of about $1 million had the error not been caught, Wingo said.

School spokeswoman Melinda Berry-Dreisbach said that means the Board of Education might roll back its earlier approved millage rate of 19.19, giving taxpayers a slight break.

A notable decrease in city taxes is less likely, since the municipal share of the millage is valued at far less than the school system’s share.

Neither the school board nor Fayetteville City Council has announced dates for their hearings.

Tyrone hearings are scheduled for Sept. 9 at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., and Sept. 16 at 6:45 p.m.

Peachtree City has set hearings for Sept. 14 at 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m., and Sept. 21 at 7 p.m.

Peachtree City Spokeswoman Betsy Tyler pointed out that the earlier approved millage rate was the same from last year, but represents more actual revenue based on the increase in property values. Those extra funds, equal to about one-quarter of a mill, is enough to fund to the city’s bond indebtedness for the library expansion in FY 2005.

“If we weren’t building the library, we’d be able to reduce property taxes this year,” she said.

Wingo said the added cost to re-advertise the millage rate changes would be the only extra expense due to the error.

Pending conclusion of the hearings, his office is scheduled to take the tax digest back to state revenue officials for approval Sept. 24, leaving a week for tax notices to be printed up and mailed.

Property owners will receive their tax bills by Oct. 1 and have 60 days to Nov. 30 to pay them.

That’s a month earlier than last year, said Wingo, who added that compiling the digest isn’t an exact science.

“You can never nail it down completely. So much detail goes into the compilation of the digest, to get it absolutely perfect is almost impossible.”

Fayette County ranks 13th statewide in wealth, Wingo said, besting counties with larger populations like Richmond and Muscogee.