SPRINGFIELD -- The City of Springfield mayor and council members on Thursday announced their intention to increase the property taxes it will levy this year by 2.74 percentage over the rollback millage rate.

Each year, the mayor and council review the value for property tax purposes of taxable property in the city. The City of Springfield has maintained the same tax levy millage rate in 2014-2017 at 4.80 mills).

The 2018 tax digest increase is due to new or improved properties and not an increase of the City of Springfield millage rate.

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 digest that last year’s millage rate would have produced had no reassessments occurred.

The budget adopted by the City of Springfield mayor and council requires that a millage rate higher than the rollback millage rat. Therefore, before the City of Springfield mayor and council may set a final millage rate, Georgia law requires three public hearings to be held to allow the public an opportunity to express their opinions on the increase.

All concerned citizens are invited to the public hearings on this tax increase to be held at the City of Springfield Council Chambers, 130 South Laurel St. on July 5 at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and July 17  at 6 p.m.