Johns Creek Lowers Property Tax Rate

JOHNS CREEK, GA -- Johns Creek leaders on Monday made history when they opted to rollback its millage rate.

The City Council at its Aug. 29 meeting voted to reduce the 2016 rate from 4.614 to 4.360 mills. The city made the move after just one public hearing held during its Aug. 29 meeting on the proposal.

This year's process to adopt the millage rate hit a snag due to calculation errors in the Fulton County Tax Appraisers Office.

To establish the rate, the city first receives a tax digest from the county, which consolidates the reassessments of property values from 2015 to 2016. This information is typically sent to the city in June of each year.

However, Johns Creek didn’t receive the tax digest from the county until Aug. 10. This delay created a time crunch for the tax commissioner to deliver annual tax bills to property owners.

The tax commissioner urged each taxing entity in the county to submit their adopted millage rates by Sept. 1. Fortunately for Johns Creek, there was no increase in reassessments for 2016, so it did not have to hold the mandated three public hearings to allow allow for citizen input.

Several tax entities, including the Fulton County School System, depend on the remittance of property tax dollars in the fall to preserve a healthy cash flow.

If the county receives each taxing entities’ adopted millage rates by Sept. 1, property tax revenue will be collected by Nov. 15.

A delay in getting the bills out will extend that collection date into December or January, which would create a significant burden on the school system.

With that in mind, the city decided to move forward with adopting the rate at Monday's meeting to help entities such as the school system to fight off a revenue shortfall.

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