The Columbia County Board of Commissioners approved rolling back the millage rate even more than advertised during the meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 6.
The county approved a net M&O millage rate of 4.568, the full rollback rate, but had advertising a proposed millage rate of 4.795. Board Chair Doug Duncan said the commissioners went with the full rollback rate because they want to be good stewards of the taxpayers money.
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“We focus on managing the money wisely,” Duncan said. “We focus on managing the tax payers money wisely and whenever there is an opportunity to keep that rollback, we’re going to do that. We do the best we can to be as efficient as possible and run as lean as possible.”
Duncan added that the objective of the board of commissioners is to continue to lower the millage rate as much as possible. The rate approved Tuesday night is the lowest it’s been since the late 1980s, said County Manager Scott Johnson.
“I think credit ought to be given to this board, you went as far back as you legally could,” Johnson said. “Obviously you could do away with taxes, but we have to have some ability to operate this government and this is the most aggressive rollback you could have. You could have rolled it back anywhere between where you did and our current rate. This was, I think, an indication to the taxpayers that you heard that values are high and that you adjusted accordingly. You adjusted to the lowest amount you could.”
Other Columbia County millage rates
The Columbia County Board of Education approved reducing the rate from 17.20 to 17.10 at the meeting on July 23.
The Harlem City Council approved keeping the same rate of 9.35 mills during its meeting on Monday, July 22.
The Grovetown City Council approved rolling back the rate from 7.62 to 7.313 mills on July 8.
