A report in the Atlanta Journal Constitution says that while Brookhaven’s claim that city residents will pay less in taxes this year than residents of unincorporated DeKalb is true, the savings aren’t as big as the young city claims.
Earlier this year, Brookhaven approved lowering the millage rate to 2.795 from last year’s rate of 2.85. However, that rate was higher than the rollback millage rate of 2.569.
But Mayor J. Max Davis said decreasing the millage rate to that level could be problematic.
“If we roll back our millage rate before we know what our revenue actually is, and then the revenue comes in just a few points less – we have 1,500 more people living in the city – not only will we have less than we had last year but we will be servicing more people. So [decreasing the millage rate] would be kind of a dangerous and irresponsible thing,” he said at a June 17 public tax hearing.
Earlier this month the city of Brookhaven mailed a flier to its residents touting the tax savings city residents would see. But according to the AJC, while residents will save some money, DeKalb HOST tax credits for county residents are higher than what the flier states. And, the flier doesn’t take into account 1.67 mill tax that county residents must pay toward the debt of new park and libraries. Brookhaven residents have to contribute since the city wasn’t incorporated when the money was borrowed.
See the AJC’s full report here.