City Schedules Property Tax Rate Hearings

SANDY SPRINGS, GA -- The first of three public hearings on the city's millage rate will kick off next week in Sandy Springs.

The first hearing, scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 23, will take place in the Council Chambers at Sandy Springs City Hall.

These hearings are required, as the City Council's intention to hold its millage rate at the same level since its incorporation will result in a property tax increase of 1.07 percent over rollback millage rate.

Sandy Springs' millage rate of 4.731 is set in its charter and has not changed since 2005.

Here's how this works in Georgia. Each year, the 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 recently sold in the county indicates there's been an increase in fair market value on any specific property, the board is required by law to re-determine the value of 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.

Since the budget adopted by Sandy Springs leaders requires a millage rate higher than the rollback rate, the City Council must hold three public hearings to allow citizens to speak out on the increase.

The final two public hearings are scheduled for 7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Aug. 30. City Hall is located at 7840 Roswell Road, Building 500.

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