SPRINGFIELD, Ga. — Effingham County school property owners could see a much larger tax cut than previously expected, with the Effingham County School District proposing to lower its millage rate to 16.45 mills using tax-relief money generated by the sale of land for the proposed OpenAI data center.
The district will hold a special meeting Aug. 31 at 8:30 a.m. at the school district's central office, 405 N. Ash St., Springfield, to ask the Effingham County Board of Education to reconsider the 18.018-mill rate it approved Aug. 20 and lower it by another 1.568 mills.
The proposed rate would be 2 mills below the 18.45 mills the district charged last year.
Superintendent Yancy Ford said the additional reduction is possible because of the tax-relief money being returned to the county from the sale of land for Project Camellia.
“We are thankful for this opportunity. Because of IDA's sale of land to OpenAI, the county is giving us back 2 mills, and we are going to give it to the taxpayers,” Ford said. “That's what I am going to ask the board to do Monday.”
The additional reduction is part of a new countywide property tax-relief plan announced Monday by the Effingham County Industrial Development Authority, the Effingham County Board of Commissioners and the Effingham County School District.
Under the plan, ECIDA will provide $30 million annually to the county for three years, with approximately 2 mills of that funding used to reduce the school district's millage rate.
The combined plan could provide approximately 6 mills in local property tax relief this year.
From land sale to tax relief
The additional school tax relief comes from the sale of property for Project Camellia, OpenAI's proposed $20 billion data center campus at the Savannah Gateway Industrial Hub in Rincon.
ECIDA CEO Brandt Herndon said at the authority's Aug. 20 meeting that the agency's public funds increased by about $350 million following the sale of the property to Octans Ga. LLC, the listed developer for Project Camellia.
The authority subsequently proposed using some of those proceeds to reduce local property taxes.
Under the plan announced Monday, ECIDA will provide $30 million annually to the county for three years, or $90 million total, to support property tax reductions.
About 2 mills of that funding is expected to go toward the Effingham County School District.
The ECIDA also plans to suspend its 2-mill property tax levy for the duration of OpenAI's 15-year tax abatement agreement. The Effingham County Board of Commissioners is expected to consider reducing its own millage rate by approximately 2 mills Sept. 1.
Combined, the measures are expected to provide approximately 6 mills in local property tax relief.
Just days after rollback vote
The board's Aug. 20 vote had already marked the first school millage-rate reduction since 2024.
The board lowered the rate from 18.45 mills to 18.018 mills while approving a $211.06 million operating budget for fiscal 2027, an increase of about $8 million from the previous year.
That rollback followed two consecutive years of millage-rate increases, driven largely by rising state-mandated employee health insurance costs.
The district's health insurance cost increased from $1,885 to $1,935 per employee per month.
At the time, district officials said growth in the county's tax digest allowed the school system to generate the revenue needed to operate while lowering the millage rate.
The newly proposed 16.45-mill rate would take that rollback substantially further.
District worked to control costs
The district also worked to control spending while preparing to open Creekside Elementary School.
At the Aug. 11 school board meeting, Finance Director Lauren Cain described the approach to the fiscal 2027 budget as “pause and prioritize.”
“We wanted to be flat,” Cain said. “We knew we were opening Creekside Elementary, and we wanted to see how we can do that by not increasing costs and not increasing headcount.”
Student enrollment has remained relatively stable, allowing the district to open Creekside primarily by redistricting students and redistributing staff rather than adding a large number of employees.
The new school still brings additional operating costs, including electricity, water and school resource officer expenses.
The district also is budgeting for higher teacher salaries as employees move up the salary schedule and additional substitute-teacher costs following a state-mandated increase in teacher leave from three days to five days.
The fiscal 2027 budget includes capital projects such as upgrades to the tennis courts at South Effingham High School and South Effingham Middle School and construction of a new maintenance facility on Hodgeville Road.
Following the Aug. 20 vote, Ford said the rollback delivered on a commitment made after last year's millage increase.
“Following last year’s unexpected state health insurance cost increase, which forced us to raise the millage rate, we knew we had to take proactive steps to ease the tax burden on our residents,” Ford said.
Board Chair Vickie Decker said the board had promised taxpayers it would work to roll back the rate.
“As a Board, we made a promise to our taxpayers that we would work to roll the millage rate back, and I am proud that we kept that promise,” Decker said.
What the new rate could mean
A mill equals $1 in taxes for every $1,000 of assessed property value.
The proposed school millage rate of 16.45 mills would be 2 mills lower than the rate the board approved Aug. 20 and 2 mills lower than the 18.45 mills charged last year.
The actual dollar savings for individual property owners will depend on the property's assessed value and the tax districts that apply to it.
The school district's proposed reduction is separate from a $500 state property tax credit available to qualifying homestead properties under a program approved by the Georgia General Assembly.
