The Atlanta Board of Education will hold two public hearings Thursday regarding its millage rate.
The hearings will take place at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. at the board auditorium at 130 Trinity Ave.
District officials previously said the board intends to adopt the same millage rate -- 21.74 -- as last year.
The board is expected to hold a third and final public hearing at 6 p.m. Sept. 21 and then vote to adopt the rate.
The district must compute a rollback millage rate, which is the amount of the previous year’s rate minus the millage equivalent without increases from inflation and reassessments, according to district documents.
This year, the calculation shows an increase due to reassessments of .098 of a mill.
The proposed tax increase will cost the owner of a home with a fair market value of $300,000 about $8.82, the district said in a notice.
“...Either we can rollback that millage rate which is basically just to lower the millage rate down to the amount that cancels out the added value due to reassessments or we can advertise a property tax increase and then hold three public hearings before a final millage rate adoption,” said Lisa Bracken, chief financial officer, during a school board meeting last week.
APS initially projected a budget shortfall of up to $18 million after Fulton County mostly froze property values. But better-than-expected residential and commercial growth closed the revenue hole to about $4 million, officials reported earlier this month.
The public hearings are a chance for residents to give input to school board members on the millage rate.
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