Commission approves Fayette County millage rate

Fayette County’s Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution adopting the 2020 property tax millage rate at its Aug. 27 meeting. The rate for General Fund maintenance and operations will be 4.277 mills, a rollback reduction of 2.62 percent from last year’s 4.392-mill rate. The rates for fire, EMS and E-911 services will remain unchanged at 3.070, 0.456 and 0.210 mills, respectively. Chief Financial Officer Sheryl Weinmann told the commissioners that the tax digest for 2020 will be $6.67 billion, up from 2019′s digest of $6.35 billion.

Per state law, the resolution incorporates both the county’s own millage rate and that of the Board of Education, the latter of which will not be rolled back this year. Commissioner Eric Maxwell noted that the BOC has no influence over the school board’s millage decisions, and that the resolution vote was not an endorsement of any tax increase resulting from the school millage rate. School expenses will account for 71.7 percent of the property taxes paid by residents in unincorporated Fayette County.