City Plans To Maintain Current Millage Rate

Douglasville GA

09 August, 2021

10:55 AM

Description

Press release from the City of Douglasville: Post Date:08/03/2021 2:42 PM The Douglasville City Council will hold the first of three required public hearings on August 16 at 11:00 AM and 6:00 PM to discuss the city millage rate. The City of Douglasville City Council today announces its intention to increase the property taxes it will levy this year by 5.61% over the rollback millage rate. Each year, the board of tax assessors is required to review the assessed value for property tax purposes of taxable property in the county. When the trends of prices on properties that have recently sold in the city indicate there has been an increase in the fair market value of any specific property, the board of tax assessors is required by law to redetermine the value of such 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 reassessments occurred. If the millage rate that is adopted is higher than the rollback rate, Georgia law requires three public hearings to allow the public an opportunity to express their opinions on this increase. The Douglasville City Council will hold the first of these three required public hearings on August 16 at 11 a.m. to discuss the city millage rate. The overall millage rate is comprised of the Maintenance and Operation (M&O) rate and the Bond rate for the Public Safety building. The proposed M&O rate for 2022 will remain at 7.211 mills, which is the same rate as 2021. The City of Douglasville was able to lower the Bond millage from 1.068 mills down to 0.93 mills, reducing the city's overall proposed millage rate by 1.67% from 8.279 mills to 8.141 mills. The State of Georgia requires that municipalities advertise only the M&O rate, however. Even though the city has proposed to maintain its M&O rate of 7.211 mills, it may appear as a tax increase due to rising property values within the city limits. With the millage rate remaining at 7.211 mills, the property tax bill assessed to a home with a fair market value of $200,000 will increase by approximately $77 for the year, for example. The City of Douglasville has not raised its millage rate since 2015, when renegotiations with Douglas County for fire and animal control services resulted in a $1.8 million increase to the annual budget. The first and second required public hearings will take place on August 16 at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. The final public hearing is at 5:30 p.m. on September 2. All public hearings and special-called meetings will take place at the Douglasville Conference Center located at 6700 Church Street in downtown Douglasville. For more information about the city's millage rate and financial documents, visit the city's website at www.DouglasvilleGA.gov. Notice-of-Property-Tax-Increase 2021 Five Year History 2021 This press release was produced by the City of Douglasville. The views expressed here are the author's own.