The Columbia County Board of Commissioners held the first public hearing for the 2024 millage rate on Tuesday, July 16.
County Manager Scott Johnson told the board the county is advertising a net M&O rate of 4.795, which is a slight rollback from the 2023 rate, which was 4.895.
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“Georgia law requires us to hold millage rate hearings if in fact the Board of Commissioners has not decided at the time of the hearing that we are going to roll back to what’s considered the rollback rate,” Johnson said. “(The) law requires us to calculate a rollback rate each year and that would be the rate (that would bring in the same amount of money as 2023).”
Johnson added that if the county went to the full rollback rate, which would be 4.568 mills, the county would have to cut approximately $1.4 million from the budget, which the county has to set by July 1 according to the law.
Commissioner Connie Melear added that the county only sets the rate for Columbia County, they have no control over the rate for the school district and cities. She said that about 2/3rds of the property taxes goes to the school district and of the remaining money, about 10% goes to fire, with another 1/3 going to the rule of law (courts, sheriff’s office, jail, etc.) and the remaining is what goes to the county.
The second hearing will be held on Tuesday, July 23 at 8:30 a.m. in the auditorium and the third hearing is set for Tuesday, Aug. 6 at 6 p.m. Both will take place in the auditorium at the Evans Government Center.
