Council Votes to Increase Millage Rate

Some property owners in the City of Dacula may be faced with higher tax bills after a 3-1 vote by the Dacula City Council to increase the millage rate to 5.128 from the current 4.67.

was the lone dissenting vote. Reeves said he would have preferred to see the city tap into reserves rather than increasing the tax rate.

The vote followed a public hearing in which only one Dacula property owner addressed the council.

said she did not believe it was appropriate to increase the millage rate given the current economic conditions.

“It is unfair to hurt those that are already hurting,” Montgomery said. “You just can’t keep raising the millage rate.”

Montgomery said she wanted city leaders to find ways to cut costs further rather than asking the taxpayers for additional revenue.

explained most residents will not see a change in their property tax bills.

“The bottom line is that most people in Dacula will be paying less with the new millage rate than before,” Wilbanks said.

The after learning revenue for 2011 would be negatively affected by the decrease in the city's tax digest. According to Wilbanks, council considered three scenarios: leaving the millage rate unchanged, increasing it to 5.128 mills or increasing it to 5.3 mills.

Wilbanks said more layoffs would have been necessary if the millage rate was left unchanged due to a projected $80,000 revenue shortfall. Increasing the rate to 5.3 mills would have resulted in the city collecting approximately the same amount as last year.

With the new 5.128 rate, the city will take in approximately $22,300 less in property taxes than in 2010. Though the new rate is higher, it does not legally constitute a tax increase due to the amount of money that will be collected.

“We’re trying to make it as easy on the citizenry as we can without doing a tax increase,” Wilbanks said.

The .