The Atlanta school board will postpone Monday’s vote to set a property tax rate after the district failed to give proper legal notice for the meeting.
Atlanta Public Schools announced Saturday afternoon that the school board still would hold a public hearing Monday but would wait until Aug. 6 to vote on the millage rate.
Monday’s public hearing begins at 6 p.m. at the APS headquarters, 130 Trinity Ave. S.W.
That hearing, the third this month regarding the school millage rate, was to have been followed by a vote to adopt the property tax rate. But APS officials said Saturday that the district "inadvertently" only sent out a public hearing notice advertisement and not a notice of tax increase for the July 23 meeting.
The district must follow specific state laws when notifying the public about tax rates. It publishes its legally required advertisements in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The mistake was made by the APS finance team, the district said.
“This was an oversight,” said Angela Smith, APS chief engagement officer. “There’s requirements that we need to do… to make sure that we are in compliance and to make sure that we are communicating with the community.”
The district now plans to hold a fourth public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 6, followed by a vote to adopt the property tax rate.
She said APS was in compliance with advertisement requirements for the first two hearings, both held on July 16.
The delayed tax rate vote will not affect district finances, Smith said.
Residents have been closely following the tax discussion this year because many homeowners are seeing higher estimated tax bills because of soaring Fulton County assessments.
The school district administration has recommended the school board reduce the current rate from from 21.74-mills to 20.74-mills. Even though the rate would be 1-mill lower than it is now, it would still be a tax increase of 8.23 percent because the rate wouldn't be dropped enough to completely offset the property value growth from reassessments and reevaluations. A complete rollback of the millage rate would bring it down to 19.163-mills.
The proposed property tax increase would cost the owner of a $300,000 home an additional $142.
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