Public Meetings Set for City’s Slight Tax Increase

SAVANNAH, GA (June 28, 2018) — The City of Savannah will hold three public meetings about the intended slight increase to the City’s millage rate. On June 28 City Council announced a .92 increase, taking the millage rate from 12.48 mills, adopted in 2017, to 13.40 mills.

All concerned citizens are invited to attend the hearings at City Hall at the following times:

July 5 at 6:00 p.m.

July 1 at 9:45 a.m.

July 19 at 2:00 p.m. (final vote will follow)

By law the City is required to place an advertisement in the newspaper each year and issue a public notice concerning the millage rate. (See attachments) The City’s advertisement indicates a 1.392 mills increase, when it is really a 0.92 mill increase. This is because the State requires the City to use our “rollback rate” as our current rate for advertising purposes. State law requires the calculation of a rollback millage rate that relates property reassessments.

While the proposed rate of 13.40 mills is 7.37% above the 2017 tax rate, it still represents a 23% reduction over the past two decades. (See chart below) For a homeowner with a fair market value of $150,000, this will amount to a property tax increase of $55.20 annually, or $4.60 per month. Per the American Community Survey, the median value of owner-occupied housing units in the City of Savannah is $145,100.

The less than 1 mill increase is being announced in conjunction with the repeal of the Fire Fee which was scheduled to be billed in September 2018. The additional revenues collected from this property tax increase, paired with cuts to the FY18 operating budget, will balance the FY18 budget and allow for the repeal of the Fire Fee.

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