Commissioners Tentatively Approve Millage Rate Reduction of More than 1.2 Mills; Final Vote Slated for Aug. 23

Monroe County Commissioners approved by a 4-1 vote on Tuesday, Aug. 6 to reduce the county's millage rate by 1.2008 mills in 2024.

At the recommendation of County Manager Jim Hedges, Commissioners approved by a 4-1 vote to set tentatively the 2024 millage rate at 10.803 mills, a 1.2008-mill reduction from the 2023 millage rate of 12.004 mills.

The final millage is slated to be approved in a called meeting at 9 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 23.

Once formally approved on Aug. 23, it will be the seventh consecutive year that Monroe County Commissioners have either maintained the same millage rate or lowered the millage rate.

County Manager Jim Hedges said due to a total of over $10.2 million in SPLOST collection overages, he proposed moving just over $2 million in excess SPLOST funds into the county's general fund to be used for a reduction of the millage rate in 2024.

County Manager Hedges said the county's net digest value has increased by just over $143.4 million in 2024 with just over $104.3 million related to reassessments and just over $46.9 million a result of new growth. He said exemptions partially off-set the increase by just under $7.8 million.

County Manager Hedges said the value of 1 mill has also increased from just under $1.55 million in 2023 to just under $1.69 million in 2024, about a 9 percent increase.

With those factors considered, County Manager Hedges recommended a one-time millage reduction of just over 1.2 mills from 12.004 mills in 2023 to 10.803 mills in 2024. County Manager Hedges said the rollback rate for 2024 is 11.263 mills, which is the millage rate that would generate the same amount of revenue in 2024 that last year's millage rate would have produced without any reassessments. He said he did not recommend a rollback for 2024 but did recommend reducing the millage rate beyond the rollback amount to 10.803 mills. He said 10.803 mills would generate just over $18.2 million in property taxes, which when combined with just over $2 million in SPLOST funds would generate total proceeds of just over $20.2 million. He said the $20.2 million total would be an increase of just over $1.7 million in total proceeds from 2023 when Monroe County netted just over $18.5 million in property taxes.

Under the proposed millage, a Monroe County homeowner with a home valued at $300,000 and a Homestead Exemption will pay $1,166 in county property taxes for 2024, a reduction of $130 from the $1,296 the same homeowner paid in 2023. The only way that a homeowner would pay more in county property taxes in 2024 than he/she did in 2023 is if the homeowner's valuation has risen due to reassessment.

District 4 Commissioner George Emami said he wanted not only to reduce the millage rate by 1.2 mills to match the $2 million SPLOST overage but also to rollback the millage rate, which would have created a millage amount of 10.062 mills, a nearly 2-mill reduction from 2023. However, County Manager Hedges cautioned that Monroe County dipped considerably into existing reserves last year to balance the 2024 budget and said he preferred not using so much of the county's reserve fund again in 2025.

After about 10 minutes of discussion, District 3 Commissioner John Ambrose motioned to approve County Manager Hedges' recommendation to set tentatively the 2024 millage at 10.803 mills. Commissioner Ambrose's motion was then seconded by District 2 Commissioner Eddie Rowland and approved 4-1 with Commissioner Emami the lone dissenter.

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