City residents will pay lower property taxes for DeKalb County services next year, according to Interim DeKalb CEO Lee May's proposed budget.
The decline in city tax rates reverses an increase earlier this year as the county attempts to stabilize its $1.31 billion budget.
Property taxes are projected to dip in all 11 cities in DeKalb. Atlanta residents will see the most significant drop, at 17 percent, while Pine Lake residents’ taxes will go down by 10 percent.
Over the last three years, city taxes have fluctuated, but they're beginning to even out. Since 2014, city tax rates for county services have fallen 6 percent in Brookhaven and Dunwoody, and risen as much as 5 percent in Decatur.
"Our goal is to prevent that millage instability, that up and down, and jacking up one year and reduction the next year," May said last week. "It is an outcome of cityhood and annexation. It's one of those sheer realities that we have to deal with."
Property tax rates will remain unchanged for the majority of DeKalb’s 722,000 residents who live outside of city borders.
Cities provide various services through their tax collections, but county taxes cover libraries, courts, jails, the sheriff’s department, elections, water and sewer. Some services, like police, are covered by either the county or cities depending on the jurisdiction.
The county’s proposed 2016 budget is about 2 percent smaller than this year’s budget.
The DeKalb Commission will vote on the budget and tax rates by the end of February.
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