Fulton School Board Plans To Increase Tax Rate

By Kristal Dixon

The Fulton County School Board has announced plans to increase its property tax rate, and wants the public to chime in on its proposal.

The board will hold three public hearings this months to give residents the opportunity to provide feedback on the increase. 

Residents are invited to public hearings at 11:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 10 and at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 19. The hearings will be held at the Fulton County Board of Education Administration Building, located at 786 Cleveland Avenue SW in Atlanta. 

The board intends to increase the rate by 0.88 percent over the rollback millage rate. The current rate is 18.502.

Each year, the Fulton County Board of Tax Assessors is required to review the assessed value for property tax purposes of taxable property in the county.  

When the trend of prices on properties that have recently sold in the county indicates there has been an increase in the fair market value of any specific property, the board is required by law to reassess the value of the property and increase the assessment. 

When the total digest of taxable property is prepared, Georgia law requires that a rollback millage rate must be computed that will produce the same total revenue on the current year’s digest that last year’s millage rate would have produced had no reassessments occurred. 

The budget tentatively adopted by the school board requires a millage rate higher than the rollback millage rate. 

So, before the board can approve the final budget and set a final millage rate, Georgia law requires three public hearings be held to allow the public an opportunity to express their opinions on the increase.