The Whitfield County Board of Education voted 5-0 on Wednesday to set the school system’s property tax rate at 18.5 mills, down from 18.756 mills in 2022. Because the cut is not the full rollback rate, the rate needed to cancel new revenue from reassessments, it is considered a tax increase under state law. The full rollback rate is 15.488 mills.
“We have had the same millage rate, 18.756 mills, for the past 11 years,” said Whitfield County Schools Chief Financial Officer Kelly Coon.
Board of Education Chairman Bill Worley said the decision was a difficult one, with board members trying to balance giving property owners some tax relief while making sure the school system has adequate funds.
“We still don’t know what the final tax digest will be,” he said.
Data presented by Coon show that 1,256 reassessments representing property with a total value of $168 million are currently under appeal.
Coon said the tax digest rose 19.45% due to reassessments.
“It does not mean that every taxpayer has a 19.45% increase,” Coon continued. “Some could have more, some could have less depending on what the tax assessors’ office valued their property at.”
Coon said last year a home assessed at $175,000 would have paid $1,313 in school property taxes. If its assessed value rose by the average of 19.45% this year, its assessed value would be $209,038. Under the tax rate adopted Wednesday, the owner of that home will pay $1,547 in school property taxes, an increase of $234 over 2022.
The tax rate is forecast to generate $36 million in local revenue, up from $32.6 million projected under the fiscal year 2024 budget the school board adopted earlier this year. Fiscal year 2024 began on July 1.
The increased revenue will reduce a projected budget deficit of $4.1 million to $20,000, reducing the need for the school system to dip into its fund balance.
“We should end the year with a fund balance of 25.67% (of spending),” Coon said. “When we prepared the budget, we were looking at a fund balance of 22.86%. This new fund balance forecast is more in line with where the system wants to be.”
The fiscal year 2024 budget calls for $147 million in spending and $143 million in revenues. The tax increase will add about $4 million to that forecast revenues. About $102 million of the school system’s revenues comes from state sources.
The biggest expense in the budget — $99 million — is instruction. The next largest items, at $11 million each, are administration and maintenance and operations.
Coon said there are several factors that are expected to drive school spending higher in future years. Certified employees, such as teachers and counselors, get step pay increases for longevity in the position or additional education.
“We have already been notified that the Teachers’ Retirement System of Georgia employer share is going to increase (for fiscal year 2025),” Coon said.
She said employer contributions to employee healthcare increased last year and are expected to increase again in 2024 and 2025.
And she said general inflation will continue to impact the budget.