NAHUNTA — Brantley County’s Board of Education approved to accept the rollback of the tax millage during a called meeting Friday morning.
Board members had previously approved to accept a rollback of 15.1280 when an error was learned by the Tax Assessors office at a state meeting and passed on to Tax Commissioner Pat Tompkins.
During the October 16 called meeting, the board accepted the new rollback of 15.1020 on the recommendation of Superintendent Dr. Walker Todd.
If the board had not accepted the new rollback number, it would have been considered a tax increase. The BOE would have had to advertise the tax increase and hold three public meetings delaying the passage.
To maintain stability and ensure meeting specific timelines, the recommendation was made to accept a rollback rather than pursuing a tax increase advertisement.
Board members present were Chairman Mike Kersey and board members David Herrin, Teresa Lairsey, Teri Gibson and Kathy Hendrix.
According to Director of Finance and Federal Programs Blake Johns, the reduction of .0260 in the FY26 millage rate is approximately $32,000 short of the approved budget.
“It’s going to save tax payers between $1 and $3,” said Johns.
The board discussed past difficulties in January regarding the ability to offset the 2.0 taxes and the importance of receiving collection orders by November 20 to avoid cash flow issues.
“We have anywhere from $400,000 to $700,000 shortfall each month between what the state sends and what we send out,” explained Johns. “When you start getting to the end of the January, that’s when it gets like, ‘Oh, we we need that little bit of collection order to come in.’ That way we don’t have a cash flow issue.”
Johns is hopeful the delay in cash The confusion of paperwork stems from the Save Our Homes Act (HB 581) passed by the General Assembly in 2024 and approved by Georgia voters in the statewide referendum held in November 2024.
Tompkins said her primary goal is to maintain a January 20 being the earliest possible date for collection, though it could be pushed to February 20. She hopes all entities can submit information by Monday, November 2 and the digest can be submitted to the state for approval.
She hopes to have the tax bills to the printer by Friday, November 20 and in the mail by the second week of December.
The board will officially adopt the millage rate during a Thursday morning, October 29 called meeting at 8:30 a.m.
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