The Effingham County Board of Education has announced its intention to increase the property taxes it will levy this year by 9.39 percent over the rollback millage rate.

Each year, the board of tax assessors is required to review the assessed value for property tax purposes of taxable property in the county. When the trend of prices on properties that have recently sold in the county indicate there has been an increase in the fair market value of any specific property, the board of tax assessors is required by law to re-determine the value of such property and increase the assessment. This is called a reassessment.

When the total digest of taxable property is prepared, Georgia law requires that a rollback millage rate must be computed that will produce the same total revenue on the current year’s new digest that last year’s millage rate would have produced had no reassessments occurred.

The budget under consideration by the Effingham County Board of Education requires a millage rate higher than the rollback millage rate. Therefore, before the Effingham County Board of Education may finalize the tentative budget or set a final millage rate, state law requires that three public meetings be held to allow the public an opportunity to express their opinions on this increase.

All concerned citizens are invited to the public hearings on this tax increase to be held at the following places and times:
• June 5 at 11:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. at the board of education boardroom
• June 18 at 6 p.m. at the board of education boardroom proceeding a special called meeting at 7 p.m.