Stephens County school tax decision remains undocumented after three scheduled hearings

Stephens County’s school district scheduled its third public hearing on the proposed fiscal-year 2025 millage rate for July 18, 2024, following hearings listed for July 11 and July 16. That three-hearing process put a school-property-tax decision before county residents, but the official agenda notices do not establish that the hearings occurred or show whether the district adopted a final rate.

The unresolved decision matters to homeowners, businesses and other property owners because the school district’s millage rate helps determine the property-tax revenue it raises. The hearings were the formal public venue for residents to follow and comment on the proposal. Without a final rate or vote in the notices, however, the public record here does not show the size or certainty of any FY25 tax change.

The official agenda notices first listed a July 11 hearing, then separate hearings on July 16 and July 18, indicating a planned sequence of public consideration rather than a single meeting. WNEG Radio reported on July 11 that the district intended to keep the current-year 14.76-mill rate while the rollback rate was 14.074 mills; the station said that difference would amount to an estimated 4.87 percent increase in property taxes levied over the rollback rate. The hearing notices themselves did not include those figures.

The Stephens County Board of Education, according to WNEG Radio reporting, was advancing a tentative budget that required a rate higher than the rollback rate and inviting citizens to speak at three hearings. Property owners had a direct interest in the proposal because their tax bills could be affected by the rate and assessed values. No resident testimony, board-member position or organized opposition is documented in the hearing notices, so the record does not establish how the proposal was received.

What is established is a proposal and a schedule: the district listed three FY25 millage-rate hearings in July. WNEG Radio reported the proposed 14.76-mill rate, the 14.074-mill rollback rate and the estimated 4.87 percent increase, but those figures are not established by the official agenda notices. The notices do not document a completed hearing, a board vote, an adopted rate, an implementation date or a decision to revise or reject the proposal.

The concrete next step is an official district record tied to the July 2024 process, such as meeting minutes or a final millage-rate action, that identifies what the board did and the FY25 rate it adopted, if any. Until that record is located, it remains unresolved in the public account whether the proposal described by WNEG Radio was approved unchanged, amended or settled another way.