Peachtree City holds second public hearing on 2024 millage rate; no public comment

Peachtree City held its second public hearing on the proposed 2024 maintenance and operations millage rate, where staff presented a proposed rate of 5.983 mills and outlined the potential taxpayer impact. The presiding officer opened the hearing, no members of the public spoke, and the council closed the hearing and adjourned; a vote on the millage is scheduled for the council’s regular meeting next Thursday.

Staff told council the city’s digest increased 8.6% from the prior year, with 6.61% attributed to reassessments and 1.99% to new growth. Speaker 4 said that, without a complete rollback, ‘‘if you have an average home with a fair market value of $500,000 the tax increase ... would be about $61.60.’’ The presenter also reported 663 active appeals for Peachtree City properties, with a combined fair-market value of $681,669,580 and an assessed value of $272,667,832, representing roughly 7% of the digest.

Council members asked detailed questions about appeals and rollback options. One council member (Speaker 5) summarized numbers discussed earlier, noting ‘‘about $310,000,000 of additional value that is being taxed’’ between 2023 and 2024 and querying whether the city could increase the rollback beyond the proposed 0.06 mills. Staff clarified that the larger tax-dollar figure cited would apply under a full rollback scenario and not to the partial rollback currently proposed. The city manager stated staff could not recommend a deeper rollback without revisiting the already-adopted budget and the services funded by it.

Council asked staff to provide multi-year data showing how much prior reassessment increases were specific to Peachtree City and what typical appeal reductions have been; staff agreed to prepare a report. The manager also noted possible statewide change if HB 581 passes, which could alter valuation calculations in future years.

The presiding officer opened the hearing for public comment, asked first for supporters and then for opponents; seeing none, the presiding officer closed the public hearing. A motion to adjourn was moved and seconded; the presiding officer called a voice vote and the meeting was adjourned.

The council is scheduled to consider and vote on the millage rate at its next regular meeting. The city will report final vote results and any changes to the proposed rollback at that time.