Coweta School Board maintains Property Tax Rate at 15.41 Mills

From Coweta County Schools Press Release

The Coweta County Board of Education voted 7-0 to maintain the 2024 school system property tax rate at 15.41 mills, at a called board meeting Tuesday night (Aug. 6).

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 school board held the local tax rate steady after four previous years of reducing school system millage rates.  From 2020 through 2023, the school board cut the school system’s maintenance and operation (M&O) millage rate rate by 3.18 mills cumulative, down from an 18.59 mill rate in the years prior to 2020.

The millage rate is the rate applied to local property taxes, which provides the school system with local funding for maintenance and operations of the school system.  That local funding comprises slightly more than half of the school system’s operational funds.

 The school board set this year’s school tax rate at a 7:00 p.m. called board meeting on Tuesday, after three public hearings held on July 30 and August 6.

The resulting school millage rate remains the lowest Coweta school property tax in 43 years, and the lowest school tax rate in the metro Atlanta area.

The 15.41 mill rate will lead to an estimated 6.06% increase in local school system tax revenues over the projected rollback rate this year. 

However, increases in the value of real and personal property in Coweta County from 2023 to 2024 will also lead to an anticipated decrease in state educational funding of approximately $6.3 million under state school funding formulas this year, because of “Local Fair Share” calculations required in Georgia’s school funding formula.

Local Fair Share requires school systems to levy 5 mills of the total of their local tax digest in order to participate in State Quality Basic Education funding, and an equivalent amount is deducted from school systems’ state earnings.  As Coweta’s local tax digest grows, so does the value of a mill, and so does the amount of Coweta’s subtracted state funding under Local Fair Share.

The total Local Fair Share amount for Coweta was $27.7 million for FY 2022.  This amount is projected to increase to $46.7 million, which is an $18.9 million increase in Coweta’s state Fair Share loss.

“It is the school system’s price – it is our tax – for participating in state funding,” said Superintendent Evan Horton. “In order to receive state funding… the local fair share is required of us.”

During Coweta’s three school millage hearings, Superintendent Evan Horton and school system Assistant Superintendent for Finance Keith Chapman noted that the Local Fair Share calculation in Georgia school funding makes it different when local school boards attempt to meet the state’s rollback calculation for local taxes, compared to other local governments.

Horton and Chapman said that this year’s recommended local school tax rate aims to take into account local revenue and reductions in state funding precipitated by the increase in the local tax digest, and the needs of schools in the system’s FY2025 operational budget, which was adopted in June.

“What you have said to me is you want to make sure we get what we need to operate… but don’t get any more ” to meet the school system’s budgeted needs, said Horton. This year’s recommended rate of 15.41 mills doesn’t make up all losses from Local Fair Share, and still requires the school system to budget $3.8 million in reserves, he noted.  “But we feel like we’re going to be able to withstand that negative 3.8 million hit that you see there, because of the local fair share,” said Horton.  It is manageable, he said, “but it does represent a net loss for us.”

This year’s school millage rate follows several years of local property value growth, in Coweta and other counties around the state, since 2020.  The Coweta County School board has responded to those increases with reductions in the local school tax rate for each of the last 4 years.

For over 15 years, between 2003 and 2020, the school system’s millage rate remained steady at 18.59 mills.  In 2020 the board lowered millage rates from 18.59 to 17.33 mills, then to 17.14 in 2021, and to 16.00 mills last year. A rate of 15.41 “maintains us at the lowest rate in 43 years” said Horton.  The school board also increased local senior citizen homestead tax exemptions in 2020 through a local referendum.

The school board does not establish property values.  The board’s role “is to set a millage rate rate in order to fund public education locally,” said Horton.  He added that “if we leave the rate the same, and if home value remains the same, then the amount that someone is paying in taxes on their homes remains the same.”

In addition to being the lowest Coweta school tax rate in 41 years, Horton also noted that the 15.41 mill tax rate set by the board is expected to remain among the lowest rates in the metro Atlanta and West Georgia regions. 2023 rates for several surrounding or comparable school systems (which are expected to remain largely the same) include:

Coweta County Schools – 15.41 mills

Fayette County Schools – 19.15 mills

Cherokee County Schools – 17.95 mills

Carroll County Schools – 17.50 mills

Forsyth County Schools – 17.30 mills

Troup County Schools – 17.35 mills

Heard County Schools – 14.454 mills

Spalding County Schools – 16.742 mills

FloydCounty Schools  – 17.95 mills

Henry County Schools – 20.00 mills

Douglas County Schools – 19.50 mills

Fulton County Schools – 17.24 mills

Rockdale County Schools – 21.00 mills