Decatur, GA — The Decatur City Commission is meeting twice today. The board will meet at 3:30 p.m. via Zoom for a public hearing on the 2020-2021 revised budgets, the 2021-2022 proposed budgets and the millage rates.

To access the meeting, follow these instructions: 

Participants must register in advance through Zoom to receive the meeting link. To register, click here.

The meeting will also be livestreamed on the city’s website.

To view the meeting agenda, click here.

At its May 17 meeting, the City Commission adopted a tentative millage rate of 13.92 mills for fiscal year 2021-2022, which is the same rate for the current fiscal year. The funds collected through the millage rate are used for general operations, capital improvements, downtown development authority operations and debt service.

The millage rate will result in a tax increase of 2.81%.

The millage rate and property taxes vary from property to property. An individual’s taxes are based on their property value.

“If someone’s property value remains the same from 2020 to 2021 and the millage rate doesn’t change, then the tax amount remains the same,” City Manager Andrea Arnold previously told Decaturish. “If someone’s property value increases from 2020 to 2021 and the millage rate doesn’t change, the tax amount will increase. Individual property values may also decrease which would result in lower taxes.”

For example, if a property value increases by 10%, then the increase in taxes would be 10%. If the property value does not change, then the taxes would also not change, Arnold said.

State law requires that cities and counties calculate a rollback millage rate, which accounts for the increase in tax revenue due to property revaluation. If the city doesn’t adopt the rollback rate, and even if the millage rate stays the same, the city is required to advertise a tax increase. Although, not every property would experience a tax increase, she said.

The overall increase in the real property digest for the Decatur is 5.5% but only a portion of the tax digest increase is due to revaluation and that is the portion the city has to apply to the roll back millage rate. So the advertised tax increase is 2.81%.

The City Commission will meet again at 6 p.m. for a work session and will hear the initial draft presentation of the strategic plan. The regular meeting begins at 7:30 p.m.

To access the meetings, follow these instructions: 

Participants must register in advance through Zoom to receive the meeting link. To register, click here.

The meeting will also be livestreamed on the city’s website.

To view the meeting agendas, click here.

The City Commission will host another public hearing on the budgets and the millage rate during the regular meeting and will vote on these items tonight.

Also, on the agenda for the regular meeting is establishing the financing procedures and polices for tax allocation district number one, which is East Decatur. The TAD was created in December 2015 for the purpose of encouraging private investment within the area. The TAD is designed to collect the tax digest growth of new investments with in the redevelopment area and use the funds to help provide infrastructure improvements, according to the agenda packet.

The financing procedures and policies lays out the process for requests.

An amendment to the city manager’s contract is on the agenda as well for the regular meeting. The City Commission is considering a 5% salary increase for Arnold. Her base salary is $170,000 and that would increase to $178,500 effective July 1, according to the agenda packet.

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