The City of Marietta announced in a news release that the three hearings for their proposed millage rate will be held on July 21, 2020 at 9:00 am and 6:00 pm and on July 28, 2020 at 9:00 am.

All three meetings will be held at Marietta City Hall, 205 Lawrence Street, Marietta, Georgia in the Council Chamber.

The news release states that while the city is required by state law to advertise their proposed millage rate as a tax increase because the amount of taxes collected will be higher than the amount generated by the “rollback rate,” (explained in their news release reprinted below) total taxes will decrease by 1.14 percent this year.

Here is the complete statement, reprinted from the City of Marietta website:

The Marietta City Council announces its intention to increase the property taxes it will levy this year by 3.68 percent over the rollback millage rate by levying the General Fund tax rates the same as last year. However, the overall millage rate for property owners in the City of Marietta will decrease so that property owners will actually pay less in property taxes this year than last year.

When the total digest of taxable property is prepared, Georgia law requires that a rollback millage rate must be computed that will produce the same total revenue on the current year’s digest that last year’s millage rate would have produced had no reassessments occurred.

The budget tentatively adopted by the Marietta City Council contains a General Fund millage rate which differs from the rollback millage rate; therefore, before the Marietta City Council may finalize the tentative budget and set a final millage rate, Georgia law requires three public hearings to be held to allow the public an opportunity to express their opinions on the General Fund. Because City Council voted to decrease the bond millage rate, total taxes will actually decrease by 1.14%. 

According to Georgia law, all taxing agencies must advertise a tax increase and hold three public hearings to claim taxes on reassessed properties even if the millage rate remains unchanged as is the case in Marietta. The current General Fund millage rate has remained the same for the last 19 years.

All concerned citizens are invited to the public hearings on what Georgia law defines as this General Fund tax increase to be held at Marietta City Hall, 205 Lawrence Street, Marietta, Georgia in the Council Chamber on July 21, 2020 at 9:00 am and 6:00 pm and on July 28, 2020 at 9:00 am. Citizens are also invited to comment on the overall tax decrease for Marietta property owners for 2020. If citizens cannot attend the public hearings they can always watch the meetings live on the City website or view at a later date.

City Council adopted a balanced budget on June 10, 2020 without raising taxes or establishing new fees, which also included no service reductions.