Decatur School Board Raises Millage Rate
Decatur Metro | July 13, 2011 | 7:29 amOn the heels of the DeKalb County Commission’s final vote to raise taxes by 26% – though I believe we said Decatur residents’ county taxes would only increase around 7%, right? – Patch reports the Decatur School Board finalized the announced 1 millage point increase in their taxes. (Over the last couple months, CSD has cited the cost of the new 4/5 Academy, growing tuition, disappearing federal assistance, and shrinking State funding as the primary reasons for the increase.)
Patch also reports that CSD announced last night it would probably have to raise the millage again next year, though the article doesn’t give any detail as to why. Personally, I hadn’t heard that before. I’ll see what I can find out.
Only 7%? Considering the sustained decline in home values and the consistent high quality of Decatur’s public services and amenities, I think 7% is a bargain.
I’m confused. The 7% increase is for county, not city, taxes right? And Decatur’s public services and amenities are funded by city taxes, right?
You pay some DeKalb taxes for the services the County provides in lieu of the City, like the courts system, traffic engineering and some police services (SWAT team,K9 team, etc.).
Right, but Andisheh’s post seemed to link the 7% increase to city services. It should be linked only to county services, right?
Actually, the City millage rate went down slightly. I think he’s referring to the net increase in the County’s rate in the City.
The post was numerically correct, my comment was numerically wrong. I still mean the overall point, that, in the midst of a sustained downturn that we Decaturites are relatively well-off in the tax dept.
I don’t mean to be a heel, to cool your heels, or to go on hominem about how homonyms are perhaps your Achilles’ heel. However, we can hope that by raising the millage rates, Decatur and DeKalb can heal their budget shortfalls.
Or we could object, make our displeasure known, and ask DeKalb County and DCS to make do with what they have. The school system is expecting to increase spending on salary by $2.9 million next year, according to the Patch report. Meanwhile, as a business owner, I’m barely paying my own salary.
Yeah, those damn teachers got a 1.5% salary increase this year after not getting any the last 4 years…they’re rollin’ in it, I’m sure!
your kidding right? Spare me, it was a cost of living increase and it amounts to a nice gesture not much in the pocket, especially if your a teacher living in the city. I am sure you must be being sarcastic.
I’m sure it was sarcasm. This thread has posts about both the County Government and School System as well as the City Government and City Schools of Decatur and it can be hard to tell which one is the focus of which statement.
TOTAL SARCASM intended…I heart teachers:)!!! Most under-paid profession for sure!
Absolutely not true. Some excellent teachers earn way too little. Some crappy teachers earn way too much.
And in CSD that ratio is probably 95:1 earning too little:too much, at least among teachers.
I don’t know what my kids’ teachers earned, but I can tell you at least 20 percent of them chose the wrong line of work.
Current CSD teachers?
I just did a rough analysis of my children’s experience, counting each elementary school teacher experience as one student-year, and above that level, weighting each year with one of the teachers in the five main subjects (math, science, language arts, social studies, and Spanish) as .2 student-year, and came up with only 8.8% of our teachers who I think “chose the wrong line of work”. It would be a more complicated analysis if I factored in weighting for “excellent” vs. “good enough” but the latter distinction varies a lot by student and class composition, compared to “chose the wrong line of work”, which would get more agreement among parents. The numbers for CSD teachers would still look darn good.
Good grief, Karass . . . do you have a job?
My figure wasn’t derived with the same care you took to come up with yours. I just counted up teachers, remembered how many stunk, and divided one figure by the other. Of course, my recollection of school experiences is crowded out by plenty of other joyful debris left over from 20 years of child-rearing, but I think my figure, for our experience, is pretty accurate.
The number of truly excellent teachers, however, far exceeds the number of hacks.
So you are not talking about current CSD teachers? That was my interest.
C’mon SP! Just raise your millage rate, give all those around you the option of either paying it or going to jail, and then give your hard working employees a raise. Isn’t it just that simple?
Nicely put.
I believe Dekalb County lost the ability to reasonably borrow money when Standard & Poor downgraded the bond rating from AA- to BBB and then S&P then withdrew the rating altogether.
Though Decatur may be run as efficiently as possible (I’ve always noticed great results), the DeKalb County increase is unconscionable. Instead of making the hard decisions to cut services or reduce inefficiencies, DeKalb has foisted its irresponsibility on the landowners yet again.
The final adopted millage rate for Decatur was 10.74, which makes it a 6.47% increase over the “rollback rate,” which is the millage rate that would be revenue neutral taking into account changes in property assessments. Decatur’s nominal millage rate for 2010 was 10.66, so the 2011 millage rate is actually only a 0.7% increase.
The 2011 millage rate includes 9.43 mills to pay expenses of administration of County Government, build and repair public buildings and bridges, and pay expenses of Courts, Sheriffs, litigation and support of prisoners; 0.88 mills to provide for the expenditures designated in the contract with the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority and the DeKalb Hospital Authority; 0.18 mills to pay expenses of County nonbasic police protection (SWAT, K9, helicopter, etc.); and 0.25 mills to pay for street and road maintenance of curbs, sidewalks, streetlights, and devices to control the flow of traffic on streets and roads.
Of the 4.5 mill total increase, 3.43 of that increase was in the special services tax district, of which Decatur only pays into the nonbasic police protection (0.18 mills) and roads and drainage (0.25). The fire district millage rate also increased, but Decatur does not pay that millage either since they have their own fire department.
OK, so the County millage rate went up .08 and the City rate went down .035, (not counting CSD) making a net increase combined of plus .045. Pretty close to a wash at 0.2% increase overall.
So with the CSD increase of 1 millage point = .001, the net increase total in property taxes for City of Decatur residents is .001 + .045 = .046? If my property assessment is stable, I will be paying 4.6% more in property taxes?
No, my figures were in true fractions of a mill. CSD is 1 full mill increase, so the overall increase is 1.045 mills. The total rate is: CSD 20.90, County (per Moose) 10.74, City 13.00, for a total of 44.64. The net increase including CSD is 1.045 or a 2.3% increase in millage rate. Your mileage (not your millage) may differ depending on if your assessment changed.
I love that the phrase “per Moose” was just used in a serious conversation of taxes.
I’ve begun adding “per Moose” to most of my conversations. Adds gravitas.
I think it’s a 2.46% increase unless I’m missing something.
2010 2011
——– ——-
county 10.66 10.74
state .25 .25
general 10.215 10.215
capital 1.0 1.0
dda .38 .38
bond 1.44 1.44
school 19.90 20.90
——– ——–
43.845 44.925
DeKalb
Decatur
You’re taking your figures from your first half tax bill or somewhere else and some of the rates have been adjusted since.
Look on the City Commission minutes for 6/20/11 here:
http://www.decaturga.com/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=2424
2011 City General and Capital combined 11.30
2011 City Bond 1.32
2011 City DDA 0.38
Total City 13.00
I think the state portion was eliminated for 2011 so Sonny could say he did us a favor, at least it’s not on my first installment bill.
My calculations in my response to Karass are still good.
See, I was missing something
. Why taxes for 2011 are adopted in the middle of 2011 is beyond me. State millage is billed on your county property tax bill. I can’t find any information on the state tax being eliminated.
The rates cannot be finalized until the tax digest is finalized and accepted by the state. Since the assessments are as of January 1 and must be mailed with time for appeals, etc., it takes that long for the digest to be finalized. Decatur’s first half bills are based on last years millage and subject to revision and adjustment based upon the final rate adopted. You will pay the true correct amount based upon the final millage rates with credit given for whatever you paid with the first bill. Also, you will notice that your solid waste and storm water fees are billed in full on the first bill, so your second one will always be less.
Two things I get out of this thread after reading it, following the links, and searching around the County Tax Commissioner website:
1. Tax rates are not easy for the average educated citizen to follow, probably purposefully.
2. The Integrated Math curriculum that uses “discovery” instruction ought to use the County and City tax bill as a real life example of the application of rates, proportions, and interpretation thereof!
+1
(and if you haven’t tried Google+, please find someone to invite you to try)
BB knows what is good for you and thus works tirelessly to remove such senseless burdens.
@Andisheh, et al: You’re all kidding yourselves. We should congratulate ourselves for a 7% increase? Since I’ve moved to Decatur (which had great schools at the time) my taxes have risen over 100%. I’ve also witnessed a city spend money like no other. It sometimes seems like every square inch has been renovated (sometimes twice) without any regard to the impact on its citizens.
Personally I’m appealing my latest appraisal and working toward selling my house. Of more import to you, though, I’m no longer telling people Decatur is someplace you ought to consider living. I love the city, but they clearly have a different vision for the future than I do. I want to enjoy life–not struggle to get by.