Schools
School Board Officially Adopts Millage Rate Cut
The millage rate will drop from 17.0 to 16.5 as a result of the official action taken by the Board. The current budget assumes the cut.
The Oconee County Board of Education at its meeting on Monday officially adopted a millage rate of 16.5, down from the 17.0 from last year, and the lowest property tax rate collected for the county’s schools since 2003.
The millage rate vote was unanimous and expected, as the Board of Education had adopted a budget for the 2019-2020 Fiscal Year that began on July 1 based on the lowered rate.
Even with the drop in the millage rate, the county property tax for support of the schools increased due to the increased assessment of value of unchanged properties in the county, and the Board held three hearings in recent weeks on the resulting tax increase.
Find out what's happening in Oconeefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Such hearings are required by state law.
Only one person, John Webb, 1320 Bent Creek Road, off Hodges Mill Road, spoke at one of the three hearings.
Find out what's happening in Oconeefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Webb thanked the Board for reducing the rate by a half point but requested that it cut back on spending to reduce it further.
For more on the School Board meeting and on Webb’s comments at the Tax Hearing, please go to Oconee County Observations. Videos of the Board meeting and of the Tax hearing are embedded at the bottom of the post.
