Marietta to Vote on Millage Rate

The Marietta City Council is set to vote on its 2024 millage rate Tuesday.

City officials have proposed keeping the general fund millage rate flat at 2.788 mills.

The council voted to tentatively adopt that rate, which determines how much homeowners will pay in property taxes to the city, when it approved its fiscal year 2025 budget in June.

While the tax rate would not increase under the proposal, rising home values will translate to an additional $377,293 in general fund tax revenue, an increase of about 2.93% over last year.

The proposed tax increase for a home valued at $450,000 is approximately $34.14, according to the city.

The city’s general fund millage rate has been flat since 2003.

Under Georgia law, rising property value assessments not accompanied by a corresponding millage rate “rollback” that offsets the increase in tax due are considered tax increases and must be advertised as such.

In order to collect the same amount of property tax as last year, the school board would need to roll back the general fund millage rate to 2.594 mills.

Marietta also collects a bond millage rate of 1.825 mills, which the city plans to keep flat, so the total millage rate will be 4.692 mills.

Council members Johnny Walker and Carlyle Kent both said they are expecting to receive documents from the city that provides details about the millage rate Friday, and would wait to read through those before forming an opinion on the proposed millage rate.

“I’m waiting to get the information from the city before I make up my mind,” Kent said.

Walker added that while he’s still unsure how he’ll vote Tuesday, he knows that if the millage rate is not rolled back, there are plenty of good uses the extra tax revenue could be put toward.

“I’m all in support of our infrastructure, our public safety, our parks. We could use help everywhere. We’re doing good, but there’s always ways that we can find we need a little extra money,” Walker said. “But, we also don’t want to raise taxes.”

The council will vote on its millage rate at a special called meeting Tuesday at 12 p.m. in the council chambers at Marietta City Hall at 205 Lawrence St.

On Tuesday, the council will also vote on approving the Marietta school district’s millage rate, which was approved at 17.97 mills by the Marietta school board this week.