Archived story
As originally published
Franklin County commissioners approved a resolution levying 8.352 mills for county purposes in a 4-0 vote at their Aug. 20 special-called meeting. Commissioner Busby made the motion and Commissioner Thompson seconded it. The meeting minutes identify the 8.352-mill county levy as the substance of the millage-rate item, giving residents a documented rate after an earlier staff estimate had left the final figure unsettled.
The county millage rate is a central component of property-tax bills, so the difference between an estimate and the rate stated in the adopted resolution matters to property owners across Franklin County. The 8.352-mill levy is slightly higher than the 8.350-mill rollback estimate staff presented in July, though both figures sit below the then-current 8.364-mill rate. The records do not show how the rate will affect any particular parcel or tax bill.
At a July 28 work session, county staff recommended an estimated FY2027 rollback rate of 8.350 mills, described as 0.014 mills below the existing 8.364-mill rate. That was a recommendation, not an adoption. Staff also said commissioners should wait until after the Board of Education’s scheduled Aug. 20 millage-rate vote and proposed a special county meeting after the required notice period. Commissioners then acted at that proposed Aug. 20 meeting.
County staff’s July position was to advertise and consider an estimated rollback rate after the school board’s planned action; the minutes do not record staff advocating the later 8.352-mill figure in that work-session discussion. Commissioners ultimately approved the county resolution unanimously among the four members voting. The Aug. 20 minutes also recite a 14.760-mill Board of Education levy for education, but that reference does not document the school board’s deliberations or vote.
The commission’s Aug. 20 approval is a completed act, and the resolution language in the meeting minutes states an 8.352-mill county levy. By contrast, the 8.350-mill number from July remained an estimate and staff recommendation at the time it was presented. The differing figures should not be treated as interchangeable: the minutes establish that the final resolution stated 8.352 mills, but do not explain why it differed from the earlier estimate.
The next useful public record would be the complete adopted resolution, any required millage notice, or later county action showing how the 8.352-mill levy is implemented. What remains undecided in the published meeting account is not whether commissioners approved a county rate; it is whether the county will provide further explanation of the change from staff’s 8.350-mill estimate and details that let individual taxpayers calculate their own impact.