Tax 'rate' up 23-25 percent in proposed FY2013 budget

The Barrow County Board of Commissioners will meet at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 4, to approve a tentative spending plan for fiscal year 2013 that includes a tax increase.

The BOC’s budget committee wants to balance the $33.5 million operating budget by rolling up the ad valorem tax rate to 9.957 mills in Winder and 12.509 mills everywhere else. Though that represents about a 14 percent rise in the tax rate, it doesn’t actually constitute a “tax increase” under state law, because it would only keep property tax revenues flat in the wake of a similar drop in the 2012 Tax Digest. However, the budget committee is recommending an additional 1-mill rate hike for capital purchases such as patrol cars, a pumper truck for the fire department, the replacement of the county’s outdated computer system, and local road improvements.

The combined tax rate would be 10.957 mills — a 25.8 percent increase — in Winder and 13.509 mills — a 23.59 percent increase — elsewhere. But with lower assessed values, the net effect would be an annual increase of about $40 for every $100,000 of a property's value. The BOC’s called meeting is open to the public and will be held in the commissioners’ meeting room on the second floor of the government administration building at 233 E. Broad St. in Winder.

After the tentative approval of the budget, the document will be placed in local libraries and in the county's finance department. The BOC also must have three public hearings before adopting the final budget at the end of September. Tuesday's meeting was requested by the budget committee, which finished its work Aug. 29.

To read the full story about the FY2013 budget, read the Sept. 5 edition of the Barrow Journal.