Rome Finance Committee Recommends Slight Tax Rate Reduction

The Rome Finance Committee recommended a slight reduction in the city’s overall millage rate during a called meeting Tuesday morning.

City Manager Sammy Rich and Finance Director Toni Rhinehart spoke to commissioners and presented two scenarios: leave the tax rate the same or adopt a slight reduction.

“Inflation is very real right now,” Mayor Craig McDaniel said. “Everything is more expensive and we know our citizens are feeling the pinch.”

The committee voted to recommend the city reduce the total millage rate to 26.2 mills, a reduction of 0.25 mills.

A tax rate of one mill represents one dollar per $1,000 of assessed value, which is 40% of a property’s fair market value. So, the taxable percentage of a $200,000 home is $80,000.

In an area where the millage rate is 25 mills — $25 per every $1,000 of value — the property tax on that home would be $2,000, less any exemptions.

However, even though the city millage rate is expected to be reduced, most people will likely see their overall property tax payment increase because of an increase in property valuations.

The millage rate that would cause property taxes to stay the same as the previous year is called the rollback rate. A reduction in millage rate that does not meet the rollback rate results in a de facto increase in taxes, which must be advertised by the taxing authority.

Rome recently advertised a maximum millage rate of 26.45, which is the current rate. That is the maximum they are allowed to increase the rate if they choose.

The city tax rate is comprised of three different rates; city maintenance and operations, 7.750; capital tax, 1.750; and Rome City Schools maintenance and operations, 16.750.

Rich and Rhinehart cautioned against reducing the millage rate any further.

The most prominent reason is a study commissioned by the city that calls for an across-the-board increase in salaries for many city workers, including police.

The Rome Police Department has 17 open positions, and one bar to filling them is that the starting salary is below other comparable police departments, such as Cartersville in Bartow County.

Another question mark is a referendum championed by state Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, that is going before Georgia voters in November. If approved, it will allow an additional 1-cent sales tax used to offset rising property taxes.

“There are some cities in Georgia where property taxes have been effectively replaced by a sales tax,” Rich said. “Which is nice because in Rome and Floyd County a large percentage of our sales tax is from out of the county.”

The first public hearing on the proposed millage rate will be July 8 and the final vote will be on July 22 during the regular Rome City Commission meeting.

The Floyd County Commission is likely to increase the county millage rate this year, after dropping it last year, largely because of a budget deficit. County commissioners are advertising an increase of .75 mills. That would be an 8.7% increase from 2023 but the same as the 2022 rate of 9.414 mills.

The Floyd County Board of Education is dropping its millage rate from 17.70 mills to the rollback rate of 17.136 mills. The rollback rate is, essentially, a calculated tax rate reduction to produce the same total revenue on the current year’s tax digest that last year’s millage rate would have produced if no property tax reassessments occurred.