DeKalb County Property Reassessments Up; DCSD Announces Public Meetings to Maintain Current Millage Rate

Three Hearings with Public Comment Set for June 17 and June 24, 2024

(STONE MOUNTAIN, GA)- Georgia law deems an increase in the property tax digest produced by the reassessments of the Board of Tax Assessors to be a tax increase if the tax millage rate is not rolled back to produce the same revenue as last year. Accordingly, the DeKalb County Board of Education (DCBE) today announced its intention to increase the property taxes it will levy this year by 7.62 percentage points. The tentative increase will result in a millage rate of 22.98 mills, an increase of 1.628 mills. Without this tentative tax increase, the millage rate would be no more than 21.352 mills.

The proposed tax increase for a home with a fair market value of $350,000 is approximately $227.92. The proposed tax increase for non-homestead property with a fair market value of $550,000 is roughly $358.16.

Each year, the Board of Tax Assessors must review the assessed value for property tax purposes of taxable property in the county. When the trend of prices on properties that have recently sold in the county indicates increases in the fair market value of any specific property, the board of tax assessors must re-determine the value of such property and adjust the assessment. This is called a reassessment. When the total digest of taxable property is prepared, Georgia law requires that a rollback millage rate be computed to produce the same total revenue on the current year’s digest that last year’s millage rate would have made no reassessments occur.

The budget requires the DCBE to tentatively adopt a millage rate higher than the rollback millage rate. Therefore, before the DCBE can finalize the tentative budget and set a final millage rate, Georgia law requires three public hearings to allow the public to express their opinions on the increase.

All citizens are invited to attend three millage hearings regarding a tax increase. Two in-person meetings will take place at the DeKalb County School District (DCSD) Administrative and Instructional Complex, located at 1701 Mountain Industrial Boulevard in Stone Mountain, and a virtual meeting will also be held. Below are the details regarding the deadline and methods for registering to speak at the meetings.

Details on how to speak in the public hearing by virtual technology will also be made available on the District’s website before the time of the hearing at: www.dekalbschoolsga.org

Citizens can also send comments and questions to:

DeKalb County School District Finance Office – Budget Information

1701 Mountain Industrial Boulevard
Stone Mountain, Georgia 30083