Villa Rica presentation recommends keeping millage at 5.588 mills; final adoption set for Aug. 25

Mr. Chamberlin recommended that Villa Rica maintain the 2025 millage rate of 5.588 mills instead of applying the calculated rollback to 5.388.

"The recommendation is that we maintain the same millage as 2025 at 5.588 mills," Mr. Chamberlin said during the public hearing presentation, citing budget pressures including a projected debt-service shortfall and rising operating costs.

Mr. Chamberlin told the governing body that Villa Rica faces roughly an $824,000 gap in the debt-service fund this year that would otherwise need to be covered by the general fund. He also cited personnel costs (COLA and merit increases), planned capital projects and a $100,000 increase in payments to Carroll County for fire services as reasons to avoid the rollback.

City staff reiterated that state law requires public notices when a jurisdiction does not roll back its millage, so residents will receive a "notice of property tax increase" even though the city is proposing to maintain its millage rather than raise it. Mr. Chamberlin said the city will hold a final public hearing on Tuesday, Aug. 25 at 6:00 p.m., at which point the council will be asked to adopt the millage.

No formal millage adoption vote occurred at this meeting. The session included a public comment period in which a resident urged the council to keep the rate to fund infrastructure and safety needs; the hearing was then closed and the meeting adjourned.