- In Georgia, property taxes play
a
major role in funding county and
city governments and the public school system. Ad
valorem
taxes, or taxes levied on the
basis of value, are determined for real and personal
property such as land, buildings and
cars.
- The value assigned to individual
property parcels provides a basis
for distributing the burden of funding local government
expenses. So the procedures used
to determine that value are major concerns of property
owners.
- The tax assessor sets values for
taxable property. The tax
commissioner sends out bills based on those values and
collects the taxes.
- The tax digest equals the sum of
all assessments. The state digest
increased from $131.7 billion in 1993, to $171.8 billion
in 1998. That’s a 30.4-percent
increase over the six years.
- Millage equals the county digest
or budget. The 1998 average
county millage rate of 24.76 mills decreased 1.6 percent
from 1997 to 1998. But from ’93
to ’98, it increased 2.2 percent. One mill is one-tenth
of a penny, or $0.001.
- The tax equals the assessed
value
times the millage rate. Georgia
property tax revenues increased 67.7 percent from $3.1
billion to $5.2 billion from 1993
to 1998.
- About 57 percent of property
taxes goes to fund the school
systems. Another 34 percent goes to county
governments.
- In Georgia, all property is
subject to ad valorem taxes based on
fair market value unless it is specifically exempted by
the state constitution or entered
into an alternative valuation program.
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