The Columbia County Board of Commissioners approved lowering the millage rate during the meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 15.
The commissioners approved a quarter mill rollback to 4.895 mills from 5.147 mills. County Manager Scott Johnson told board members that when the county staff was originally working on the budget, they had a different millage rate in mind.
“As we were preparing our budget, as you know our budget preparation happens before the digest comes out, so we have to make some assumptions,” Johnson said. “But we actually prepared our budget with a tax reduction, so instead of 5.147 mills, we prepared our budget with a 4.999 millage rate, and we anticipated a growth of 5% in the digest. When we did that and balanced our budget, you approved the budget.”
When the actual digest came in, instead of seeing a 5% growth, the county saw a 13.96% growth, Johnson said. This allowed the county to propose even more of a rollback.
“I think at the end of the day this board has made it clear that every dollar counts to the taxpayer, which is why we are proposing a full quarter rollback to 4.895 instead of 4.999 that we presented at budget time,” Johnson said.
Besides the M&O millage rate, Johnson said the bond the county is able to roll back the bond rate and keep the fire rate the same. With the 2.788 mills for the fire rate, the fire department is fully funded.
“That millage rate is dedicated to the fire department, it’s not used by anything else in the county,” Johnson said.
Johnson also mentioned the Property Tax Relief Grant, which instead of giving people with the homestead exemption the traditional $2,000 for the exemption, homeowners will get an additional $18,000 off the assessed value for a total of $20,000. Board member Connie Melear asked if the $18,000 exemption would be given next year.
“That’s tough to say,” Johnson said. “They passed that in this legislative session. The governor actually signed it into a law in March. The state has a large surplus of money, right now they have over a billion dollars in surplus. We don’t know. But I think it would be prudent for us, we’re doing a full quarter mill rollback, but if we don’t get that exemption next year, we can look at another rollback to be able to help the taxpayer make up that difference if they don’t get that.”
Following the approval of the millage rate, Board Chair Doug Duncan said lowering taxes and controlling spending is a focus of the commissioners year after year.
“People are paying less money this year on the M&O section,” Duncan said. “Actually, to the county it’ll be less overall…but from the county perspective you will pay less.”
Stephanie Hill is the managing editor and covers Columbia County government for The Augusta Press. Reach her at stephanie@theaugustapress.com.
