Despite not having the city mill rate change for 2016, some residents of Porterdale will likely see an increase in their property taxes this year.
The county reassessed many people’s property, with some home values as much as doubling. A public hearing on county tax rates is scheduled for Monday, July 20, at 6:30 p.m. at the Courthouse in Covington.
At the first of three public hearing on Porterdale’s proposed mill rate of 17.910 per thousand of assessed value, Mayor Arline Chapman said, “We have no control over what the county does, but we’ve always tried to not let [city] taxes go up.”
Council Member Linda Finger said she thought the city had not raised property tax rates since 2010, while Council Member Lloyd Chambers believed Porterdale has been under appraised for the last couple of years.
Not all property values have gone up. City Clerk Megan Reid reported that some people saw their property values double, while some saw theirs cut-in-half. However, City Manager Bob Thomson said the overall property digest has increased 31 percent.
“Ultimately,” said Council Member Tim Savage, “we want to see appraisals go up.”
Chapman said the increasing property value reflected changes the council had approved, including the adoption of International Housing Codes. “We’re moving at a pretty good pace,” she said. “We’re not going to get there overnight.”
Because property values have been increasing, many cities have had to roll back tax rates to meet Georgia’s law mandating tax rates be adjusted to reflect the actual amount of taxes the entity said they’d collect.
The proposed annual tax increase for a home with a fair market value of 25,000 and a homestead exemption is approximately $0.00. The increase for a property valued at $25,000 without a homestead exemption is approximately $43.28.
The second public hearing on the tax rate will be on Thursday, July 23 at 6:15 p.m., at City Hall, 2400 Main St., Porterdale. A third and final hearing will be held Monday, Aug. 3 at 6:15 p.m. at City Hall.
At a work session later, the council gave the go ahead to the public works department to install electrical power at Yellow River Park, so the work could be completed in time for the Oct. 3 Yellow River Jam.
