Dalton Board of Education Chair Matt Evans said this week board members will not vote on a property tax rate for fiscal year 2025 until they receive a certified tax digest from the Whitfield County assessors office.
The fiscal year began July 1.
“We originally had scheduled to vote on a tentative millage (Monday) but (Superintendent Steven) Craft and I have met a few times with the mayor and the city administrator,” Evans said at a board meeting. “Whitfield County does not yet have a certified digest, so we don’t know the local property taxes that will come in.”
Board members discussed potentially keeping the property tax rate at eight mills at previous meetings, which Evans said they are still hopeful for. But those plans could shift because property values in Whitfield County were “under-assessed and undervalued” in the preliminary tax digest, he said.
“Typically, we get a certified digest sometime in July and we can set the millage in August,” Evans said. “We don’t have that certified digest, so it’s difficult for us when we’ve already approved our budget and began our Dalton Reads! (literacy) initiative … We don’t have an accurate understanding of what our local taxes will be.”
Because property values were under-assessed, Evans said the board members face a challenge that “hurts” the system in two ways.
“One, our local taxes that would come in normally are less … because property values are undervalued,” he said. “And then the state, where we get about 55 to 65% of our funding through the Quality Basic Education Act, expects the local districts to pay their local fair share. In the state’s eyes, because Whitfield County values are undervalued and under-assessed, then Dalton Public Schools and Whitfield County Schools are not paying their local fair shares, so we get less money from the state.”
That would mean the system would receive less money both locally and from the state, its two largest streams of revenue, Evans said.
“That’s what makes it difficult for us to be able to definitively say where we’re going to set the millage rate at this time,” he said.
Evans said board members are hopeful they’ll receive a certified tax digest in mid-September.
“Then we can see where that lands,” he said. “Since I’ve been a part of this board we’ve lowered the millage three of the last six years. However, there’s some conversations about throwing out part of the digest or reverting it back to 2023.”
He said the board members believe that is unlikely to happen.
“I think we just have to have what I would call ‘strategic patience’ to wait on the county, the tax assessors and the folks whose responsibility it is to assess property values,” Evans said. “Then at that time I think our board would be willing and ready to set the millage rate.”‘
Once board members receive the certified digest, Evans said they are fully committed to funding the fiscal year 2025 budget that was unanimously approved in June and includes a general fund budget of $114.3 million, a special fund budget of $7.5 million, a school nutrition fund budget of $7.1 million, a capital fund budget of $15.3 million and a debt service budget of $6.3 million.
“And we hope that doesn’t require any increase to the millage,” he said. “I would love to be able to reduce the millage if the budget and the digest allows but until we know where our assessors will be and what the digest will be we’re just kind of flying a little bit blind there.”
Craft said his hope is the board members keep the property tax rate at eight mills.
“Or potentially, if the tax digest is even better, then there’s always the possibility of rolling it back,” he said. “We had no intention of increasing it, but now we’re just in a holding pattern. But our intent is to keep the millage rate where it’s at.”
Craft said he believes it’s “important” to focus on the budget until the certified digest is available.
“We have a lot of things that we added to this budget for the Dalton Reads! initiative,” Craft said. “These are things that we are committed to … because this is the number one priority that we have academically in our district. For us, we have to make sure that we can support these positions and this current budget, so we will be evaluating once we have the data from the county and when we get a certified tax digest. Then we’ll be able to move forward at that time. We are hopeful mid-September, but it could be slightly later than that. The latest that we have heard is that they will try to do this as quickly as they possibly can.”
Craft said if the digest is “not where we want it to be” then important decisions will need to be made.
“Certain projects or plans could potentially get cut, delayed or moved,” Craft said. “We just don’t have any concrete answers at the moment.”
Evans said the board members will provide updates when they are available.
“We”ll keep talking about this in public,” he said. “We’ll keep being open to feedback, questions from our citizens and our taxpayers, and where we are in this process. And do so expeditiously and transparently.”
