With the fiscal year 2011 budget already approved, Effingham County commissioners have given their OK to the millage rate needed to fund their operations.

 

Commissioners approved a total millage of 28.118 for the unincorporated portions of the county. The millage includes the county’s rate of 8.558, 15.333 for the Effingham County Board of Education, 2 mills for the Effingham Industrial Development Authority and 1.977 for the Hospital Authority. Also included is the .25 mills dedicated to the state.

 

The portion that county receives from the millage has decreased over the last few years, County Administrator David Crawley said. In 2005, the county government received 33 percent of the property taxes collected. That amount has been trimmed to a little over 30 percent.

 

Under the current digest, a home assessed at $100,000 would be charged with $342 in county taxes. 

 

The millage rate approved by commissioners is a slight increase from last year’s 8.53 but the net result is the same since the digest shrank from last year.

 

Commissioners also approved a rise in the county’s sanitation fees by a $1 a month. The sanitation fees will be $180 per year. Additional carts will be $108 per year and the exemption for seniors and schools will be $90.

 

“We have not increased those for three years,” Crawley said. 

 

He also noted that fuel prices in that time have increased.

 

County attorney Eric Gotwalt, a Chatham County resident, noted his sanitation fees are $472 a year with trash pickup once a week.

 

Residential fire fees will not increase but fire fees for industrial and commercial customers will go up. The county’s industrial and commercial customers had been paying $50 for fire service fees. Those rates will rise to $100 a year for commercial and $500 a year for industrial.