MANSFIELD, Ga. — Mansfield City Council has voted to approve a lower property tax rate for the fifth year in a row to fund its 2022 budget. 

The council voted to reduce the tax rate from 3.867 to the rollback rate of 3.412 mills Monday, Aug. 9, following a public hearing.

State law requires governments and school districts to calculate a rollback rate which would generate the same amount of revenue as the previous year if reassessments had not occurred.

Mayor G.W. Davis said the council’s action was designed to help offset the rise in assessed property values that increased the city’s tax digest from $13.6 million in 2020 to $15.3 million this year,.

Davis said Mansfield is a “very conservative area” and the council wanted to lower the rate after reassessments left home values “way higher than” 2020.

“As soon as that happened we were going to roll it back,” he said.

The new property tax rate will be used to help generate revenue for the town’s 2022 budget, which increased by about 10% from 2021.

Davis said the decreased tax rate lowered the revenues to the 2022 budget by only about $600 compared to 2021.

Its 2022 General Fund budget is $477,314, compared to $437,865 in 2021.

One council member wrote on his Facebook page that that action “only keeps the city portion of your upcoming tax from increasing” and does not affect county government and school tax rates. 

The Newton County Board of Commissioners is considering a 14% decrease in the property tax rate to fund county government. 

The county school board is also considering lowering its tax rate.