June 2, 2023

At its Thursday, June 1 meeting, the Clarke County Board of Education set two additional public hearings to allow more opportunities for citizen input on the Clarke County School District’s proposal to keep the millage rate at 18.8 mills for the 2024 fiscal year. 

The hearings will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 28, and 6 p.m. Thursday, June 29, in the Vernon Payne Meeting Hall of the CCSD administrative building, located at 595 Prince Ave., Athens. Anyone who wishes to speak may contact Lisa Palmer, executive assistant to the superintendent and board manager, at palmerli@clarke.k12.ga.us in advance, or sign up at the door before the meeting begins. 

Due to the board’s decision to set two additional public hearings on the millage rate, the board also delayed action on final approval of the proposed FY2024 budget. The meeting on June 29 will be immediately followed by a called meeting of the board to adopt a millage rate and vote on final approval of the proposed budget, which would take effect July 1. 

As required by state law, the board previously held three public hearings — May 23, May 24, and June 1 — on the proposed millage rate, which is projected to fund the proposed FY2024 budget of $214,145,443. The proposed millage rate is the same as the current rate but is higher than the “rollback” rate — the rate that would be used to produce the same amount of taxes collected in FY2023. There is an expected increase of 15.83% for property taxes levied in the previous year, and while the millage rate would remain the same under the tentative budget, that would in effect increase overall property-tax collections by 2.569 mills. 

Each year, the assessed value for taxable property in Athens-Clarke County is recalculated, and the Board of Tax Assessors is required by law to reassess values based on fair market value. The proposed tax increase for a home with a fair market value of $300,000 is approximately $282.59, and the proposed tax increase for non-homestead property with a fair market value of $375,000 is approximately $385.35.

More information on the proposed FY2024 budget and millage rate is available here.