First Public Hearing on increased BOE millage rage
The Stephens County Board of Education will hold a public hearing regarding the proposed FY2025 education millage rate today, July 11, at 5:30 p.m. The hearing will take place at the Stephens County School District Office, 19 Big A School Road in Toccoa.
The Millage Rate Public Hearing will be followed by a work session meeting of the Board of Education.
The regular meeting of the Board of Education will take place on Tuesday, July 16, at 5:30 p.m. at the 19 Big A School Road location.
During the work session, Stephens County School Superintendent Dr. Connie Franklin will preview next week’s regular meeting agenda with Board Members. Included in that preview is consideration of meal pricing and bids as presented by the nutrition director. No documentation regarding the pricing and bids has been attached to the Agenda for review at this time. Other items on the agenda include consideration of a Construction Manager At Risk, a Memorandum of Understanding with Camp Toccoa, and an SRO or school resource officer MOU. Documentation on these agenda items have also not been provided.
The second required public hearing on the FY2025 millage rate will be held prior to the start of the July 16 Board of Education meeting.
As previously reported by WNEG News, the Stephens County School System has announced its intentions to increase the 2024 property taxes it will levy this year by 4.87 percent over the rollback millage rate.
The rollback rate is 14.074 mils; the school system is proposing to leave the millage rate unchanged from the current-year millage rate of 14.76 mils; resulting in an estimated 4.87 percent increase in property taxes levied in the coming year than was levied by the school district in the current year.
A full copy of the original press release regarding the millage rate increase is below:
School Board Announces Proposed Property Tax Increase
Toccoa, GA – The Stephens County Board of Education announces its intentions to increase the 2024 property taxes it will levy this year by 4.87 percent 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 trend of prices on properties that have recently sold in the county 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 re-determine the value of such property and adjust the assessment. This is called a reassessment.
When the total digest of taxable property is prepared, Georgia law requires a rollback millage rate be computed that will produce the same total revenue on the current year’s digest that last year’s millage rate would have produced had no reassessment occurred.
The budget tentatively adopted by the Stephens County Board of Education requires a millage rate higher than the rollback millage rate; therefore, before the Stephens County Board of Education may finalize the tentative budget and set a final millage rate, Georgia law requires three public hearings to be held to allow the public an opportunity to express their opinions on the increase.
All concerned citizens are invited to the public hearings on this tax increase to be held at the Stephens County Board of Education Administrative Office; 191 Big A School Road, Toccoa, GA 30577, on Thursday, July 11, 2024, at 5:15 PM; Tuesday, July 16, 2024, at 6:00 PM, and Thursday, July 18, 2024, at 7:30 AM.