Stephens Co. Commission Ratifies Millage Rates

Stephens County Commissioners ratify the millage rates for the county government and the school system.

Tuesday, commissioners voted 3 to 1 to approve both the county government’s millage rate of 13.41 mills and the school system’s millage rate of 19.75 mills.

Commissioner Michelle Ivester voted “no,” while Commissioner Dean Scarborough was not at the meeting.

Ivester says she supported the school system’s millage rate of 19.75 mills, but was against the county government’s millage rate of 13.41 mills.

She also voted against the Fiscal Year 2016 budget for the county government last month that was built off of that millage rate of 13.41 mills.

That 13.41 mill figure is .25 mills lower than the 13.66 mills the county set as its millage rate last year.

When voting against the budget, Ivester said she does not feel this is the year the county needs to do a millage rate decrease.

Ivester says there are just too many uncertainties and she does not want to be back at the table next year, having to up the millage rate for another reason.

For someone with a $100,000 home, the millage rate decrease would only translate to about $10 in savings on a yearly tax bill, while the county will lose about $140,000 in revenue.

The same figures are true for the school system, which also lowered its millage rate by .25 mills, from the state maximum of 20 mills to 19.75 mills.

Tax bills will go out to Stephens County property owners in September.