Coweta School Board lowers Property Tax Rate to 16.00 Mills
From Coweta County Schools Press Release
The Coweta County Board of Education voted 6-1 to lower the 2022 school system property tax rate to 16.00 mills, at a called board meeting Thursday night.
The school board lowered the school maintenance and operation (M&O) tax rate by 1.14 mills, down from the 17.14 mills adopted in 2021. The board also set the property tax millage for bond debt at 0.00 mills, since the school system operates without capital project debt.
The millage rate is the rate applied to local property taxes, which provides the school system with approximately half of its funding for maintenance and operations of the school system. The board set this year’s school tax rate after three public hearings on August 9 and August 18, and voted to set this year’s rate at a 7:00 p.m. called board meeting following the third hearing.
It was the third year in a row that the school board reduced the local property tax rate, and is the lowest school tax in Coweta County in 40 years.
For a video outline of this year’s school tax rate adoption go here
For accompanying charts detailing this year’s tax rate adoption go here
The 16.00 mill rate will lead to an anticipated 7.4% increase in local school system tax revenues over a projected rollback rate of 14.90 mills this year. However, increases in the value of real and personal property in Coweta County from 2021 to 2022 will also, under state law, lead to an anticipated decrease in state educational funding of approximately $7.1 million under state school funding formulas going forward. This year’s tax rate aims to break even between local revenue and a reduction in state funding precipitated by the increase in the local tax digest.
“I feel like this rate allows us to meet our responsibilities to students while also being responsive to homeowners,” Horton said.
In addition to being the lowest Coweta school tax rate since 1983, Horton noted that it will be one of the lowest school tax rates in the region and among metro Atlanta school districts, “which leaves our community in a very competitive position,” said Horton. “In the metro area right now I can only find one other school district that would be lower than 16 (mills)… over in Heard County. We would be, if not the lowest, one of the lowest in the metro area.”
The reduction in this year’s school millage rates follows growth and a round of local revaluation of real and personal property in Coweta County this year. The total value of assessed property in the county (for the school system’s net tax digest for maintenance and operations) increased to $7,362,373,614 in 2022, up from $5,987,128,772 in 2021 and $5,731,391,699 in 2020.
The board has responded to those increases with reductions in the local school tax rate for each of the last 3 years.
For over 15 years, the school system’s millage rate was “steady at 18.59 mills… until 2020. In 2020 the board lowered it to 17.33. Last year, the board lowered it again to 17.14. And now this year, we’re now recommending to the board that we lower it to 16 mills,” said Superintendent Horton. The school board also increased local senior citizen homestead tax exemptions in 2020 through a local referendum.
Horton attributes the downward trajectory of local school system tax rates to “a fiscally responsible board that, while trying to make sure that we fulfill our mission and our responsibilities to the community, is trying to be responsible and responsive to the taxpayers in the community. We’re trying to maximize every dollar that we get.”
The board also took into account the effect of rising local property values on the school system’s state funding. The state of Georgia deducts each school district’s “Local Fair Share” from total state educational funding each year, based on 5 mills of each school district’s tax base, in order for the school system to participate in state educational funding. As a community’s local tax digest grows, that “fair share” amount increases, and is dedicated from state funding. Coweta’s $32.3 million in fair share for FY 2022 is projected to increase from $32.3 million to $39.4 million. This represents a decrease in state educational funding of $7,100,000 for Coweta. The increase in local tax revenue is proposed to offset that amount going forward.
“You could lower the millage rate to where you have a negative revenue” due to the increase in the local fair share, said Horton. “You don’t want to lower it just so you have to turn around and raise it the next year.”
On average, the proposed rate of 16.00 mills would increase taxes for a home with a fair market value of $250,000 by an average of $130.04, (this does not include applicable homestead tax exemptions for eligible homeowners). That average is based on the anticipated increase in the tax digest for Coweta County as a whole. However, if the assessed value of a homeowner’s existing, real property is the same as the previous year, or had not increased by more than 7.4% since last year, then the homeowner would see a lower tax bill for school purposes under the proposed rate of 16.00 mills.
Coweta County School System Financial History and Information
