DCSD Maintains Tax Millage Rate;
Property Reassessments Produce Increased Revenue

Three Millage Hearings with Public Comment Set for June 6 and 16

May 26, 2022

(STONE MOUNTAIN, GA) – As Georgia law deems an increase in the property tax digest produced by the reassessments of the Board of Tax Assessors to be a tax increase if the tax millage rate is not rolled back to produce the same revenue as last year, the DeKalb County Board of Education announces its intention to increase the property taxes it will levy this year by 14.31 percentage points. The tentative increase will result in a millage rate of 23.08 mills, a 2.889 mills increase.

The millage rate will be no more than 20.191 mills without this tentative tax increase. The proposed tax increase for a home with a fair market value of $300,000 is approximately $361.13. The proposed tax increase for non-homestead property with a fair market value of $500,000 is roughly $577.80.

Each year, the Board of Tax Assessors must review the assessed value for property tax purposes of taxable property in the county. When the trend of prices on properties that have recently sold in the county indicates increases in the fair market value of any specific property, the board of tax assessors must re-determine the value of such property and adjust the assessment. This is called a reassessment. When the total digest of taxable property is prepared, Georgia law requires that a rollback millage rate be computed to produce the same total revenue on the current year’s digest that last year’s millage rate would have made no reassessments occurred.

To be tentatively adopted by the DeKalb County Board of Education, the budget requires a millage rate higher than the rollback millage rate. Therefore, before the DeKalb County Board of Education may finalize the tentative budget and set a final millage rate, Georgia law requires three public hearings to allow the public to express their opinions on the increase.

Accordingly, all citizens are invited to three millage hearings on this tax increase. Two meetings will be held on Monday, June 6: A virtual meeting at 10:30 a.m. and an in-person meeting at 6 p.m. at the Administrative and Instructional Complex located at 1701 Mountain Industrial Boulevard in Stone Mountain. Another virtual meeting will be held on Thursday, June 16, at 11 a.m. The deadline to register to speak at the June 6 meetings is noon on Friday, June 3. The deadline to register to speak at the June 16 meeting is noon on Friday, June 10. Please call 678-676-0722 or email budget_info@dekalbschoolsga.org before either deadline to register.

Details on how to speak in the public hearing by virtual technology will also be made available on the District’s website before the time of the hearing at: www.dekalbschoolsga.org Citizens can also send comments and questions to:

DeKalb County School District Finance Office – Budget Information
1701 Mountain Industrial Boulevard
Stone Mountain, Georgia 30083

More information on the DCSD budget is located at: www.dekalbschoolsga.org/superintendent/budget/