For Immediate Release
Date: July 15, 2015

The Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Savannah have tentatively adopted a millage rate which will require an increase in property taxes by 7.12 percent over the rollback millage rate. The 7.12 percent increase over the rollback millage rate will maintain the current 12.48 mills, which was tentatively adopted on December 11, 2014.

The proposed millage rate of 12.48 mills is the lowest millage rate in the City of Savannah since 1987, and represents a 29 percent reduction over the past two decades.

When the total digest of taxable property is prepared, Georgia law requires that a rollback millage rate must be computed that will produce the same total revenue on the current year’s digest that last year’s millage rate would have produced had no reassessments occurred. The proposed millage rate of 12.48 mills is an increase of .83 mills over the rollback millage rate of 11.65 mills. The proposed tax increase for a home with a fair market value of $125,000 is approximately $39.58 and the proposed tax increase for a non-homestead property with a fair market value of $525,000 is approximately $177.68.

The 2015 budget adopted by the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Savannah requires a millage rate higher than the rollback millage rate. Therefore, before the Mayor and Aldermen may set a final millage rate, Georgia law requires three public hearings to be held to allow the public an opportunity to express their opinions on the increase.

All concerned citizens are invited to the public hearings on this tax increase to be held at City Hall, located at the corner of Bay and Bull Streets, Savannah, Georgia, on July 23, 2015 at 10:00 AM; July 23, 2015 at 6:00 PM, and August 6, 2015 at 2:00 p.m.