Bartow School Board Announces Property Tax Increase

CARTERSVILLE, GA — The Bartow County School Board has tentatively adopted a millage rate that will require an increase in property taxes by 3.56 percent. This move will require the school board to hold three public hearing on the proposal, and concerned residents are invited to weigh in on the board's decision.

Each year, the board of tax assessors is required to review the assessed value for property tax purposes of taxable property in the city. When the trend of prices on properties that have recently sold in the city shows there's been an increase in the fair market value of any specific property, the board of tax assessors is required by law to re-determine the value of such property and adjust the assessment. This is called a reassessment.

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.

For Bartow County, the tentative increase will result in a millage rate of 18.85, an increase of .648 mills. Without this tentative tax increase, the millage rate will be no more than 18.202 mills. The proposed millage rate is higher than the rollback rate, thus state law requires the Bartow County School Board to hold three public hearings.

(For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here)

So, how would this impact you? For a home with a fair market value of $125,000, the increase would mean you'd have to pay about $32 more in school property taxes. For a non-homesteaded property with a fair market value of $275,000, the increase would be roughly $71.

Public hearings are scheduled for noon and 6 p.m. Aug. 9 and at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 20 at the Bartow County School System's Central Office at 65 Gilreath Road in Cartersville. The rate is scheduled to be adopted by the school board at the Aug. 20 meeting.

Image via Shutterstock