Because Bulloch County Commissioners reduced the property tax rate for county government by more than the amount needed to offset inflation in assessed property values, they were not required to declare a tax increase or hold tax increase hearings.

But the school board held three hearings on tax increases in the meantime and only approved a partial reduction in the tax rate, which did not fully offset revenue from inflation. After the third such hearing on Thursday, August 22, at 9 a.m., the school board approved the previously announced tax rate of 7.932 per thousand during its regular “work session” at 6:30 p.m. This was a reduction in the tax rate compared to last year’s 8.478 per thousand, making it the lowest in over a decade. But this was still considered a 4.95% tax increase compared to the “reduction” rate of 7.558 per thousand that was required to avoid the hearings.

Then, at a special meeting at 8:30 a.m. Friday, the board officially adopted the school tax rate along with its own 2024 tax rate for the county government’s general fund of 11.35 per thousand. That represents a reduction of 1.5 per thousand, or 11.7%, from last year’s county tax rate of 12.85 per thousand.

For this portion of the tax, the “legal” tax rate — determined by the county’s tax collectors as the necessary reduction to compensate for inflation — would have been 11.46 per thousand. So the 11.35 per thousand rate proposed by the Board of Commissioners staff and adopted by the commissioners was 0.11 per thousand below the level required to avoid tax increase hearings.

“This was possible because there was strong real growth in the county, not just inflationary growth. So we were able to pull back and will only have about one percent more revenue than last year,” said Kristie King, the county’s chief financial officer, in a telephone interview.

Real growth

The county government’s recently released “Five-Year History of Tax Revenues” showed a projected 1.3% increase in property tax revenue from 2023 to 2024. The table included the total value of taxable property in Bulloch County, as well as a history of tax rates and estimated Board of Commissioners revenue for 2019 to 2024. As King explained, that 1.3% increase reflects real growth in total value, such as from construction and improvements to homes and businesses.

Local governments are not required to lower tax rates to offset real growth. But under Georgia state law, known as the Property Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, they must either lower their tax rates to offset the average increase in existing property values ​​or announce a tax increase and hold hearings.

On a net digest basis, real growth was nearly 4%, but commissioners gave up some of that by cutting tax rates by more than the 10.8% needed to offset inflation.

“That was partly because other revenues were higher. So even though we increased the budget, we didn’t feel like we needed to increase tax revenues to the same extent,” King said.

Examples of other sources of revenue for the county’s general fund include the ad valorem tax on vehicles at the time of purchase and the Hospital Authority of Bulloch County’s contribution to the county from investment earnings. That amount was higher than expected last year and could again be higher than in previous years, King said.

Increase in the last year

Last year, commissioners approved a 1.5 percent tax increase on top of a large average inflation-related increase in assessed property values. The resulting 28 percent total tax increase has since been criticized by some county residents, including an organized group called the Bulloch Action Coalition, and clearly played a role in the defeat of three incumbent commissioners.

But Couch says the explanation for last year’s increase has been overlooked, and that the increase sets the county up for future tax cuts when real growth in the tax base leads to higher revenues. Factors behind that strategy included the arrival of Metaplant America, a Hyundai Motor Group electric vehicle plant, in the region, the relocation of several of its supplier plants to Bulloch County, and a boom in residential development plans.

Service level

“We had to get our ad valorem (property tax) revenues up to a level that I think is a minimum level of service to our population,” Couch said in an interview Friday. “We were always behind, and the commissioners decided we needed to be here to break even. …

“Also included in that message was that we believe that although some of the dividend growth is subject to inflation, we can be confident in the future organic or natural growth of the dividend resulting from the Hyundai influence. This gives us the ability to implement what we call statutory withdrawal, hopefully in the future,” he said.

So if the digest value increases, “our effective tax rate may continue to decline,” Couch said.

Both the fiscal year 2024 budget, which ended June 30, and the fiscal year 2025 budget, which begins July 1, fund significant staff increases in public safety. But after last year’s tax increase boosted the general fund’s bottom line, this year’s budget was expected to use about $1.9 million from the reserve, in addition to what growth in property tax revenue and other current revenue sources will bring in.

The current budget calls for 22 full-time and one half-time positions for additional staff, 16 of which will be in the public safety departments, namely the sheriff’s office, jail and emergency services. A 3% general salary increase for county employees is also provided, along with the possibility of a performance bonus of up to an additional 2%, depending on job performance.

An additional 12 positions for firefighters and their equipment are included in the separate Rural Fire Protection Fund budget, which has its own tax rate. In fact, the General Fund, with its planned spending of nearly $65 million, is only one of the county’s budget funds, but it is the one that directly receives property tax revenue.

The county’s general budget property tax is expected to generate net proceeds of $39.16 million, compared to $38.66 million last year.

Fire mileage unchanged

A portion of the county’s combined tax rates were not reduced at all. The two fire districts’ tax rates remained unchanged at 3 per thousand for the rural area served by the Bulloch County Fire Department and 2.7 per thousand for areas outside Statesboro city limits served by the Statesboro Fire Department within five miles of their stations. The county collects both taxes but forwards an agreed amount to the city of Statesboro for the fire department’s services to the rural population.

“Because these are special districts, there is no requirement for us to calculate a withdrawal and announce any type of increase,” King said.

In the rural fire service area (with a slightly higher tax rate), the combined county tax rate is 11.35 per thousand for the county general fund plus 3 per thousand for the fire department and 7.932 per thousand for the school system, for a total of 22.282 per thousand.

A mill is equal to 1/1000 of the tax-assessed value of a property, and in Georgia most real estate is assessed at 40% of market value.

So if a tax rate of 22.282 is applied to a property valued at $250,000 (market value) and no property tax exemptions apply, the total county tax is $2,228.20.

If the Board of Education had adopted its full statutory rollback rate of 7.558 per thousand and the Board of Commissioners had adopted only its rollback rate of 11.46 per thousand, and the fire department rate of 3 per thousand had remained unchanged, the total tax rate would have been 22.018 per thousand. Then the total tax on the $250,000 property would be $2,201.80, $26.40 less than the actual rates adopted.

“The taxes they pay in the fire districts will probably go up a little bit, so overall they might still pay a little more, but the difference shouldn’t be too great,” King said.

However, a one-time, statewide property tax exemption granted last year was not extended this year, so many citizens will feel even more of last year’s tax increase this year.