County proposes rolled-back rate

Gwinnett officials announced late Friday the county commission’s intentions to roll back this year’s millage rate.

Generally speaking, that would mean lower prop- erty taxes for local home and business owners.

Officials said last month that the county’s projected tax digest had jumped to around $30.8 billion in 2018, an increase of approximately $1.6 billion over 2017. Commission Chairman Charlotte J. Nash said at the time that the county would either keep the general fund millage rate at 2017’s level or adopt a roll- back rate.

The latter involves lowering the millage rate to a level where the same amount of tax revenue is collected despite the increased digest — and it’s what the county plans to do, according to a news release issued Friday.

A rollback millage rate of 7.209 mills — which could, generally speaking, save the owner of a home assessed at $200,000 about $40 on property taxes — is expected to be voted on during the commission’s July 17 meeting.

No public meetings will be held on the millage rate before the commission meeting. A county spokeswoman said such meetings are not required if the advertised millage rate is a rollback rate.

The millage rate staying the same or being rolled back does not necessarily mean any individual’s property taxes will go down. If someone’s home, for instance, increased in value, they could end up paying more taxes despite the rate remaining the same.

Gwinnett County does, however, offer something called a value-offset exemption for many homeowners.

Gwinnett’s government last raised its millage rate last year, when it added about one-third of a mill in order to help cover the cost of pay raises for law enforcement personnel.