Gainesville property taxes
New millage rate: 7.71 mills, down from 7.81 mills last year
Difference for a $200,000 home over last year: $20 less
Homeowners Tax Relief Grant unfunded this year: up $17.44 to $76.80
The Gainesville school board adopted a 1.3 percent smaller property tax rate Wednesday, but most homeowners still will see an increase in their property tax bill this fall because the state did not fund the Homeowner’s Tax Relief Grant this year.
The school board’s 0.1 mills property tax reduction means a $20 decrease in taxes for a $200,000 home, assuming homeowners do not qualify for any tax exemptions.
The city’s portion of the property tax rate is unchanged from last year. The Hall County school board’s millage rate also was unchanged.
The Gainesville millage rate was reduced from 7.81 mills to 7.71 mills, which is not enough to offset the tax relief grant that saved Gainesville homeowners between $17.44 and $76.80 on the their tax bill last year, according to Gainesville Administrative Services Director Melody Marlowe.
The school board raised property taxes by 12 percent last year because the system had an estimated $5.6 million deficit at the time.
Gainesville schools Superintendent Merrianne Dyer said the board was able to reduce its tax rate because it now is dealing with a deficit of about $780,000 deficit, down from an anticipated $3.4 million deficit for this fiscal year, which ends June 30.
Syfan said also the board was able to reduce its debt obligation portion of the millage rate by .09 mills, or about 23 percent, because the system only has about $2 million in bond debt that will be paid off by 2011. Gainesville schools Chief Financial Officer Janet Allison said the bond was taken out in 1993 to construct schools.
The board reduced its maintenance and operation portion of the millage rate by .01 mills, about .001 percent, according to budget documents.
“The board basically felt that given the economic situation of the community, of which we are a part, we needed to do what we could to reduce the millage rate,” Syfan said. “Since we’ve done so well with our deficit plan, we felt we needed to come down on the millage rate since we will be out of the deficit by the end of this (fiscal) year.”
Syfan said the board will revisit teacher pay cuts in January.