County school board votes to leave millage rate unchanged

Published 10:12 pm Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Following the recommendation of Superintendent Judy Gilreath, members of the Whitfield County Board of Education voted unanimously on Monday to keep the property tax rate at 18.756 mills, meaning the school system will collect about $350,000 less in taxes than in the previous year.

Because of a decrease in the tax digest, under the state rollback provision the school system could have increased the rate to 18.820 mills without having to advertise a tax increase, but board members decided to keep the rate the same. The 18.820 mills is what would have allowed the school system to bring in the same amount of property tax revenue as the previous year.

Gilreath said because of the decrease in the tax digest, by keeping the rate the same the school system will collect $352,729 less in property taxes than in the previous year, “pending a 100 percent collection.”

Gilreath told board members the tax digest went down because of an increase in exemptions and a change in the automobile tax.

Kelly Coon, director of finance for the school system, said the vehicle ad valorem tax was changed by the state a few years ago. That is the tax added when purchasing a vehicle. Car owners who purchase new or used vehicles no longer pay the annual ad valorem tax, instead they pay a one-time title tax. The Title Ad Valorem Tax replaces both the purchase sales tax and the yearly ad valorem fees.

As for the rollback rate, “All the information is given to us by the tax office, we plug that into (the) form, it then calculates based on either the positive or negative reassessment of property what the millage rate would be,” Coon said. “This year the rollback was 18.820 because we have that decrease in property value; that’s what it calculated the rollback to be.”

Gilreath said the board members didn’t want to impose additional taxes on the community.

Board member Thomas Barton asked if holding the property tax rate the same will cause the rate to increase next year.

“A lot of that is going to depend on the assessments,” Gilreath said. “It’s also going to depend on what we get from the state and you’re never really sure about that.”

In other action, board members voted unanimously to waive out-of-district tuition for students at the Northwest Georgia College and Career Academy who are enrolled in the new Advanced Manufacturing Business Academy.

“It gives us the flexibility in this program and making sure we’re reaching out any way we can,” said board member Louis Fordham, who requested the change. He said by expanding the waiver more students may be interested.

Out-of-district tuition was waived during the 2015-16 school year for the Apprenticeship Program. This year the board added the Advanced Manufacturing Business Academy.