Muscogee County School District clarifies ‘property tax increase’ announcement
The Muscogee County School District has issued a clarification of a “property tax increase” state law requires it to announce — despite Columbus homeowners not being asked to pay more.
While taxing authorities such as MCSD plan their budgets for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, Georgia law mandates they advertise a “property tax increase” and conduct three hearings to allow public comment before finalizing the millage rate if they expect to benefit from growth in the tax digest.
The tax digest is the total assessed value of all taxable property in a county. It increases when current property is improved or when new construction takes place.
Millage rate is how local governments and school boards calculate property taxes. One mill is one one-thousandth of a dollar ($0.001), meaning homeowners pay $1 in taxes for every $1,000 of their property’s assessed value.
The MCSD administration has proposed keeping the millage rate at 23.075 mills. That means the school district would receive more money in property tax revenue when the tax digest increases — without individual homeowners paying more taxes.
Georgia law requires property to be assessed at 40% of its fair market value, meaning a house with a fair-market value of $100,000 has an assessed value of $40,000 for tax purposes. So, with a 23.075 millage rate, such a property owner would be charged $923, although the actual bill would be lower if homestead exemption is applied.
“Under Georgia law, because property values have increased, the district is required to advertise a tax increase unless it lowers the millage rate to offset all growth in the tax digest,” MCSD explained in a news release. “To fully offset the increase in assessed property values, the millage rate would need to be reduced to 22.608 mills.
“Muscogee County homeowners who receive the frozen homestead exemption generally do not pay additional school taxes due to increases in assessed property values. As a result, homeowners with no significant changes to their property and who qualify for the exemption will generally see no increase in their school district property taxes.”
MCSD’s mileage rate hearings for this year will be conducted in the Muscogee County Public Education Center, 2960 Macon Road, June 15 (two separate times) at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., then June 29 at 6 p.m.
As the county’s other taxing authority, the Columbus Consolidated Government also has been advertising a property tax increase that really isn’t an increase — for the same legal reason.
Muscogee County chief appraiser Suzanne Widenhouse said during the June 2 Columbus Council meeting, “If you have not had a change in value to your property, you will not see an increase in your taxes.”
