Monday, July 10, 2023–8:25 p.m.
-David Crowder, WRGA News-
The Rome City Commission held the first of three public hearings Monday regarding the 2023 property tax rate.
No one spoke for or against the millage rate.
Rome City Manager Sammy Rich explained what it will mean for the average property owner in the city.
“For a $150,000 house, based on the new millage rate of 26.45, you will see a decrease of about $37 on your tax bill as compared to last year’s rate of 27.076,” he said. However, as we learned and reiterated, it’s really hard to compare because everyone has different exemptions. This assumes no exemptions.”
The breakdown is 7.8 for city maintenance and operations, down from 8.0 in 2022; city capita1 is proposed at 1.8, down from 1.826; and the proposed rate for city schools is 16.85, down from 17.25 last year.
“There has been a lot of conversation in the community about property reassessments, which we have zero control of as a city,” Rich added. “But for the thing that we control, which is setting the millage rate, we thought it was important to have a unified effort to set and to rollback the rates as much as we felt we could feasibly do, and still be able to recognize some growth…Because there are always going to be new challenges and expenses.”
Additional Public Hearings will be held on Thursday, July 20 at 10 a.m. and Monday, July 24t at 6:30 p.m.
