Both the Oconee County Board of Education and the Oconee County Board of Commissioners are poised to adopt property tax millage rates for the 2025 tax year and Fiscal Year 2026 that are rolled back sufficiently to avoid a state-defined tax increase.
The Board of Education plans to adopt a rate of 13.962 mills, which is calculated to produce $53.1 million in revenue, up from $51.2 million last year, or an increase in property tax revenue of 3.67 percent.
The Board of Commissioners plans to adopt a rate of 4.184 for the incorporated parts of the county and of 5.154 for the properties in the county’s four cities.
The county is calculated to receive $15.9 million in property tax revenue, down from $16.3 million in tax year 2025, or a decrease in property tax revenue of 2.22 percent.
The Board of Education millage rate, scheduled to be adopted in August, is 13.962, down from 14.25 last year.
The Board of Commissioners millage rate, also likely to be adopted in August, is 4.184 for the unincorporated parts of the county, down from 4.435 last year, and 5.154 for the incorporated parts of the county, down from 5.375 last year.
The county’s calculated revenue is based on a tax digest of $3.7 billion, up from $3.6 billion last year. The tax digest reflects the new local homestead exemptions as well as the state-wide floating homestead exemption.
The School Board’s calculated revenue is based on a taxable tax digest of $3.8 billion, up from $3.6 billion last year. The tax digest reflects the new local homestead exemptions but not the state-wide floating homestead exemption, since the Board opted not to allow the exemption.
Had the Board of Education not opted out of the statewide floating homestead exemption and set the millage rate at 13.962, its revenue would have been $51.9 million, or an increase of 1.2 percent, not 3.67 percent.
School Budgets
The Board of Education Budget, adopted on June 9, is based on a millage rate of 13.919, rather than the currently planned 13.962.
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| School Board Chair Michael Ransom 7/7/2025 |
The 13.919 rate presumed a tax digest of $3.816 billion, rather than the $3.802 in the final calculation by Oconee County Tax Commissioner Jennifer Riddle.
Oconee County Schools calculates the actual revenue to be received based on 98 percent collection, and the adopted budget lists the expected property tax revenue at $52,053,865.
With the tax digest of $3.802 billion, the millage of 13.962 produces $52,034,263, based on 98 percent collection. That is $19,602 less than was budgeted.
At the July 7 meeting of the Board of Education, Chief Financial Officer Peter Adams told the Board that he had a “tax digest update” from Tax Commissioner Riddle and briefly presented on the screen the report that Riddle had provided.
“We are currently reviewing the information in detail,” he said. “At this time, we're still recommending the adoption of the rollback rate consistent with the tentative decision made during the May 12th Board meeting,” he continued.
Riddle has calculated the rollback rate, or the rate that reflects only growth in the tax digest that is attributable to real changes in the property’s worth, not just reassessments, as 13.962.
Adams did not tell the Board at the public meeting on July 7 of the change in the millage rate from the 13.919 shown in the approved budget to the 13.962 calculated by Riddle.
When I asked Adams for the document from Riddle after the meeting, he said he would not release the document he had projected on the screen until it is published in the county legal organ, The Oconee Enterprise.
County Budget
The Oconee County Board of Commissioners adopted it Fiscal Year 2026 Budget at its meeting on June 3. It did not list a millage rate as part of the budget.
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| Commission Chair John Daniell 7/8/2025 |
The 4.184 millage rate the Board is set to adopt for the unincorporated parts of the county is actually lower that the rollback rate of 4.354, resulting if a tax cut of 3.9 percent.
The 5.154 millage rate for the four incorporated parts of the county, Bishop, Bogart, North High Shoals, and Watkinsville, is the rollback rate.
The difference in the two millage rates reflects different reductions in the gross millage rate in the two parts of the county.
In both the unincorporated and incorporated parts of the county, the gross millage rate of 8.3550 is reduced by 2.98 mills as required by law to offset revenues from the collection of the Local Option Sales Tax.
In the unincorporated parts of the county an additional reduction of 0.94 is applied because the county receives part of the state insurance premium tax for the unincorporated part of the county.
The state insurance premium taxes goes directly to the cities, rather than to the county.
The 4.184 rate for the unincorporated parts of the county will generate $13,901,158, and the 5.154 millage rate for the incorporated parts of the county will generate $2,019,277, for a total of $15,920,435.
That figure is down by 2.22 percent from the combined revenue of $16,281,225 in Fiscal Year 2025.
The Fiscal Year 2026 Budget adopted by the Commissioners on June 3 is based on $15,614,770 from property taxes. That means the county adopted a balanced budget based on receiving $305,665 less than it is expected to receive with full collection of the property tax.
Annual Assessment Notice
Tax Commissioner Riddle sent out Annual Assessment Notices to property owners in the county on June 6 that provided an estimate of taxes based on last year’s millage rates, so the actual taxes will be lower than shown.
It is possible from that Assessment Notice to see the impact of the Board of Education decision on Feb. 3 to opt out of the statewide floating homestead exemption passed by the legislature in 2024.
Under that legislation, the taxable part of increased assessments of homesteaded property that has not been improved is limited by the inflation rate, with any increase in assessment beyond the inflation rate exempted from taxation. The exemption is not fixed, but "floats" based on the calculation of inflation.
On the Annual Assessment Notice sent out by Riddle, the two lines at the bottom of the sheet list the Net Taxable Value for County and School. The County figure is higher, because it includes the floating homestead exemption. The School line does not.
The line above the first fold lists the 40% Assessed Value. Property in Georgia is taxed at 40 percent of appraised value.
The Current Year Fair Market Value is then reduced by the two homestead exemptions for County and School, and the reductions are shown as Net Taxable Value.
The tax to be paid is determined by multiplying the millage rate (.004184 or .005154) for the County and (.013962) for School by the Net Taxable Value.
If the School Board had not opted out of the floating exemption, the two Net Taxable Values would have been the same, so it is possible to see what the School tax would have been with that floating exemption.
The difference between what “would have been” and what is without the floating exemption is the amount that the decision by the Board of Education cost the taxpayer.
In my case, that difference is $146.08.
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