Notices: Actual tax bills depend on action by commission, school board
Assessment notices that were mailed to Fannin County property owners Friday, June 28, include a tax estimate based on last year’s millage rates.
But the actual tax bill will be based on the millage rates that have not yet been adopted by the current boards of commissioners and education.
‘Don’t be alarmed by the tax bill estimate on the assessment notices’ is the message being sent by county officials.
Numerous factors go into individual tax bills that hinge on the millage rate and exemptions.
Chief Tax Appraiser Dawn Cochran and Commission Chairman Jamie Hensley reviewed assessments and the corresponding notices last week.
“The chances are your assessment notice shows an increase in your property value accompanied by a tax increase, but that doesn’t mean that the tax increase is correct. It’s on the bill because the state requires it,” Cochran said.
Cochran began by explaining all residential properties have been re-assessed this year for the first time since 2022. The base for assessments is now $180 per heated square foot compared $135 two years ago.
The increase was required as the county must maintain the assessment to fair market value ratio established by the state.
Tax assessors must look at both real growth and inflationary growth in determining property values. “We’re seeing a significant increase in both,” Cochran said.
Real growth is actual construction while inflationary growth is tied to market prices.
Because of these factors, many assessment notices look like a taxpayer faces a double-digit percentage increase in their tax bill. “But that will likely not be the case when tax bills go out,” Cochran said.
Bills will be effected by whether or not county commissioners and school board members adopt a complete millage rollback – reducing their millage rates to a level corresponding with last year’s rates.
Cochran said a rollback “works to absorb inflationary growth.”
She provided an example using preliminary numbers of a complete rollback by the county and school system that showed the county’s millage rate dropping from 2.757 to 2.464 and the school system’s from 7.439 to 6.697, for a total millage rate of 10.196 in 2023 to 9.161 in 2024.
Using those millage rates on a property with a $350,000 value, but with no change in assessed value or exemptions, the tax bill would actually reduce by $144.90 from $1,427.44 in 2023 to $1,282.54 in 2024. This example would reflect a best case scenario.
Exemptions also play heavily into tax bills, especially the homestead exemption, which reflects a property owner declaring their Fannin County home to be their primary residence.
Cochran gave an example of a 70-year-old property owner with all assessment reductions offered by the homestead exemption on a property with a fair market value of $573,000. That 70-year-old would save 56% off his or her tax bill.
One change Cochran urges property owners to be aware of this year is that the state will not provide the additional exemption called the Homestead Relief Grant, which appeared last year.
Hensley said, “As long as we can, we should go with the full rollback.” He said the rollback decision weighs heavily on money coming in from the Hotel/Motel Tax and associated tourism dollars, the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, and Local Option Sales Tax as essential to keeping the property tax bills rolled back.
The county’s highest millage rate in recent history, 7.97 mills, was levied in 1994.
The school system’s highest rate, 13.95 mills, was steady in 2003 through 2007.
Susan Wynn, the school system’s director of finance, said setting the timeline for adopting the millage rate is on the agenda for the school board’s July 13 meeting.