Cobb School Board to Set Millage Rate

The Cobb County Board of Education is scheduled to vote on its 2024 millage rate after its third and final public hearing on the tax rate Thursday night.

Superintendent Chris Ragsdale has proposed keeping the millage rate flat at 18.7 mills.

The board tentatively adopted that rate, which calculates how much homeowners will pay in property taxes to the school district, when it adopted its 2024-25 school year budget in May.

Though the tax rate will not increase under the proposal, an increase in property values throughout the county would bring the district an extra $54.96 million in tax revenue, an increase of 7.32% over last year.

The proposed tax increase for a home valued at $450,000 is roughly $255.17, according to the district.

Cobb Schools voted to reduce its millage rate by 0.2 mills last year, bringing it from 18.9 to 18.7 mills. The school district’s millage is slightly higher than neighboring Marietta City Schools, which has had a flat millage rate of 17.97 for over a decade.

Both districts tout maintaining some of the lowest millage rates in the metro Atlanta area.

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 millage rate to 17.199 mills.

The MDJ polled Cobb school board members on the proposed tax increase. Nichelle Davis, Brad Wheeler, David Chastain and David Banks did not respond to several requests for comment made Tuesday and Wednesday.

Democrat Becky Sayler and Republican Board Chairman Randy Scamihorn both said they would not make up their mind on how they’d vote until after the final public hearing and board discussion.

“Right now I’m going to wait for the discussion. I don’t anticipate any change, but I want to see. … As a fiscal conservative I always like to lower taxes, but I also realize there are bills to pay if we want to have a school district,” Scamihorn said. “… But I’ll hold my tongue until we have all the discussions.”

Sayler noted that while she is still weighing all options, if the board were to roll back the millage rate, it could jeopardize a few budget items that have already been outlined according to the rate the board tentatively passed.

“The quirk of the way it all works is that we have to have a budget in place by the beginning of the new fiscal year, July 1. So, we already have that 18.7 millage rate in place, in order to have the working budget,” Sayler said. “… We had a lot of extra funding because of COVID that we were able to use to hire interventionist teachers, and do programs like summer school at no cost to students. And now that that funding is over, we’re finding ways to roll that into the budget.”

Democratic board member Leroy Tre’ Hutchins said he would love to see a rollback, but, similar to Sayler, said a rollback would be challenging, since a budget has been passed which assumes increased tax collections.

“I would love a rollback, but because we’ve already voted on the budget and the millage projections don’t support that, it’s gonna be hard to even get a rollback,” Hutchins said. “… We’re paying for everything on our own now. I don’t believe (federal) CARES (Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act) money is carrying over at this point.”

When the board voted to reduce the millage rate last year in July, the 0.2 mill reduction had already been baked into the budget that passed in May 2023.

The district held the first two public hearings on the millage rate on July 11. There were no speakers at the first hearing, and only two speakers at the second.

One of them was Cobb resident Leslie Davis. Holding a homemade sign that read “Have a Heart,” with a red heart emoji, and “Rollback Now!” Davis called the board “wicked” and questioned why Scamihorn, Wheeler and Chastain take advantage of their senior property tax exemption, but pass millage rates that require non-exempt residents to pay.

“Your insatiable lust for more and more money has got to stop. You are all wicked, evidenced by your willingness to have the citizens of this county pay taxes on unrealized gain that the government says we have in our homes,” Davis said. “I don’t have more money in my pocket just because you say my house is worth more … Be a part of relieving the suffering Cobb County residents are experiencing under the weight of out-of-control inflation. Roll back the millage rate now.”

The school district will have its third and final hearing on the millage rate Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at its headquarters at 514 Glover St., followed by a voting meeting at 7 p.m.