Taxpayers can tell Fulton commissioners what they think of rate hike

Fulton County Commissioner Bob Ellis voted against the proposed increase in millage rate that would raise million in property taxes Photo by Bob Pepalis Fulton County property owners will get their first chance to tell county commissioners what they think of a proposal that might raise taxes by more than percent during the first of three residents hearings on Wednesday July The commission voted on June for a proposed millage rate of a full mill higher than the staff recommendation That would raise million more in property tax revenue When the commission sets the final millage rate it could adopt a lower rate but it can t go any higher than the proposed rate If the commissioners adopted the millage rate that staff proposed increases in tax assessments would still bring in million more in property taxes Related stories Fulton commissioners set tax rate ceiling higher than staff proposal Fulton County increased property taxes by percent Fulton Commission certainly approves property tax millage rate Commissioners Bridget Thorne Bob Ellis and Chairman Robb Pitts voted against the higher millage rate Thorne announced he trusts the county s finance squad who spoke with every department and examined historical spending and future spending before giving the commission its recommendation People are already spending enough and they re getting higher assessed values Thorne recounted Rough Draft Atlanta We have a lot of uncertainty in the financial sector right now Home prices are just skyrocketing Rents are skyrocketing because of the home prices the cost of living is up we just don t need to burden people with higher taxes During the June commission meeting Commissioner Dana Barrett announced she thought it was prudent to propose a higher millage rate to give commissioners more wiggle room She was concerned about what expenses might come out of the consent decree the county has with the U S Department of Justice over the Fulton County Jail Commissioner Mo Ivory who made the motion to set the millage rate proposal higher noted during that meeting constituents asking the commission for more services but not to raise taxes don t understand how the budget works I feel like fundamentally when our citizens utterly understand how it works they would be in aid of spreading out the cost of raising the millage rate amongst all property owners so that everybody could get more of the services that we provide which continue to go up and up in expense could be spread out and given to everybody Ivory mentioned during the meeting Ellis disclosed he was at a loss during the last meeting on how the commission got to the point of raising the millage rate when five of their members adopted a budget based on the staff s millage rate proposal There s nothing that s sort of gone off track in terms of our projected spend or whatever that would suggest that we are going to run out of money and be in a financial crunch in in such a way that it would necessitate us having to raise taxes at all Ellis explained and certainly not to the grade of percent The commission will set the millage rate on Aug The proposed rate is mills The rate was mills Property owners can attend the general hearings at the Ruling body Center at Pryor St SW Atlanta or use the following links to join virtually to offer input on the millage rate Wednesday July a m Wednesday July p m Wednesday Aug a m The post Taxpayers can tell Fulton commissioners what they think of rate hike appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta