MoCo Intends to Roll Back Millage Rate
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The Montgomery County Board of Commissioners and Board of Education have each announced their intent to accept the rollback millage rate for this year’s property taxes.
The Montgomery County Board of Commissioners have proposed to accept the rollback millage rate of 14.8530 mills, which will total a $36,040 (1.11%) decrease in revenue from prop- continued from page
erty taxes due to some recent reassessments. The amount of taxable values in the county has decreased by $2,367,552, as real and personal property taxable value have decreased by $1,011,811; motor vehicle taxable value have decreased by $25,660; mobile homes taxable value have decreased by $57,808; and timber taxable value has decreased by $27,911. The proposed millage rate will levy $3,213,583 total.
The commissioners issued a comment on the intention to accept the rollback rate, stating, “Our county manager has reviewed county budgets with each department – including our Constitutional Officers’ budgets – and through the efforts of our departments to maintain or decrease their budget where possible, we were able to find savings and pass it along to our citizens. This, along with an increase in our digest from new construction and a small amount of reassessed property, afforded the Board of Commissioners the opportunity this year to help our citizens as we mark one year out from Hurricane Helene. We believe this trend can continue when reassessments get back on schedule this upcoming year for the benefit of all.”
The Board of Education also intends to accept the rollback millage rate, which totals 14,7460 mills. This potential millage rate would cause a 0.78% tax decrease, as the Board will receive $23,390 less in tax revenue. Just as the amount of taxable value decreased for the Board of Commissioners, the value totaled $1,530,729 less than last year for the Board of Education. These changes come from various decreases, such as a $1,196,428 decrease in the taxable value of real and personal property; a $25,580 decrease in the taxable value of motor vehicles; a $58,001 decrease in the taxable value of mobile homes; and a $27,911 decrease in the taxable value of timber. Overall, with the proposed millage rate, the Board will levy $2,992,617 total.
The Board of Education also issued a comment on the proposed millage rate, as they remarked, “Our board was pleased to see the rollback rate reflect a slight decrease in the millage rate. This slight decrease is a result of a small amount of reassessed property. It is our hope as more reassessments are complete, that we get the opportunity to continue to decrease the millage rate, especially now that school systems, for the first time ever, are allowed to have a millage rate below 14 mills and not lose additional, vital state education funds. Reassessments will also correct the extremely low sales ratio that caused the school system to lose $945,548 this school year and will cause the school system to lose an additional 1.3 million in state education funds next school year. The state includes each county's sales ratio as part of the state funding formula that determines each school system's allotment of state funds to run the school system. If our sales ratio is corrected, these are dollars that we can collect from the state rather than local property taxes. We believe in every single student in Montgomery County Schools and will continue to be good stewards of the public's money, investing it wisely into each and every student.”
The Board of Education will vote to set the millage rate at 5 p.m. on October 16, while the Board of Commissioners will set the millage rate officially at 10:30 a.m. on October 17.
