East Point keeps millage rate flat but your taxes are still going up
City hosts final virtual public hearing about millage rate on Sept. 8
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Your property tax bill is likely to nudge upward this year in East Point, even though the City Council is keeping the millage rate the same for the third consecutive year.
In fact, that’s one of the reasons why you’ll likely pay more this year. The other? The value of your property is increasing. And another? The Fulton County School Board did what East Point did and kept its millage rate the same.
Confused? Don’t worry. Calculating your property taxes is confusing. Let’s break it down.
Earlier this summer, the council adopted a $47 million general fund budget for the fiscal year that started in July. To fund the budget – or at least a large portion of it – the city turns to property taxes. To get a share of your property taxes, the city sets a millage rate.
For 2020, that rate is likely to be 13.45 mills, which will be the same for the third straight year. On Monday, the council held a virtual public hearing about the millage rate. No one from the public spoke. A second hearing is scheduled for Sept. 8 before the council votes to adopt a millage rate.
Though the millage rate isn’t changing, the value of your property likely is. The city doesn’t set your property value – that’s done by the county. But East Point’s tax digest increased to $1.26 billion this year, up from $1.21 billion in 2019. So it’s likely the annual assessment notice you received from the county in June shows an increase in the fair market value of your property.
That’s why your tax bill will likely see a slight increase.
During a city council meeting on Aug. 3, city officials stressed that it’s not really their fault.
“The reason this is considered an increase is because the values have increased, not because we changed our millage rate or we’ve done anything to increase taxes. The only difference is the value increased,” Finance Director Lolita Grant told the council.
Mayor Deana Holiday Ingraham backed up Grant.
“The good news is our property values are going up but the millage rate number has not changed. It is the same number,” Ingraham said.
The council could have rolled back the millage rate to 13 mills, which would have kept tax revenue at the same amount as 2019 – and likely resulted in property owners not seeing an increase.
The Fulton County School Board took a similar approach to East Point. It voted in July to set the millage rate at 17.796 – the same for the last three years. That will also mean an increase in your property taxes thanks to an expected rise in your property value. The school board could have rolled back its millage rate to 17.613 to keep tax revenue – and likely your tax bill – the same. Like East Point, they didn’t.
Your property tax bill includes taxes from the city, Fulton County and the county school system.
Of those three, only Fulton County rolled back its millage rate for 2020. On Aug. 5, Fulton commissioners voted to reduce the county’s millage rate for the fifth consecutive year. The new rate is 9.776 mills, which is a drop from 9.899 in 2019.
The millage rate is the amount of tax payable per $1,000 of property value. One mill is equal to $1 in tax per $1,000 of property value. Legally, the city’s millage rate is capped at 15.
What the millage rate in East Point means is this, according to city officials: If your home was valued at $105,000 in 2019, your value will likely increase about four percent to $109,617 this year. City taxes are assessed on 40 percent of the value, or in this scenario, $43,847 in 2020. With the millage rate of 13.45, your tax bill will be $589.74 – or $22.23 more than last year. (That’s the assessed value of $43,847 multiplied by .01345.)
The county and Fulton schools offer more tax exemptions than the city, so it’s difficult to provide a typical scenario for what those portions of your tax bills may look like. (The annual assessment you received in June will show those exemptions and you can plug in the millage rates for the schools, county and city there.)
Even by keeping the millage rate flat at 13.45, the growth in East Point’s tax digest means it will receive about $667,000 more in property tax revenue this year, bumping the total to $16.88 million.
But consider this: Tax revenue only funds about 60 percent of the total cost of five key services in the city – fire, police, courts, public works and parks and recreation. Those five departments account for $27.87 million of the $47 million city budget in 2020. Tax revenue pays for just $16.88 million of that. Sales tax, license and permit fees, fines and other taxes provide the rest of the revenue.