The Bulloch County Board of Education has announced its intention to increase the 2025 property taxes it will levy this year by 39.67 percent over the rollback millage rate.
Each year, the Bulloch County Board of Assessors is required to review the assessed value of property tax purposes of taxable property in the county. When the trend of prices on properties that have recently sold in the county indicate there has been an increase in the fair market value of any specific property, the board of assessors is required by law to re-determine the value of such property and adjust the assessment. This is called a reassessment. When the total digest of taxable property is prepared, Georgia law requires a rollback millage rate to 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.
Due to a recent substantial decrease in state equalization funds of $5.9M resulting from recent increases in property values, an increase in the local fair share of $2M required by law, and the decrease in property tax revenues of an estimated $1M resulting from HB 581, as well as inflationary cost adjustments for retirement and health insurance benefits and additional board initiatives, the school district cannot continue to support current expenditure levels while maintaining adequate cash flow.
As a result, the school district is faced with a choice between massive cost reductions involving a reduction in force and substantial program cuts, both of which would negatively impact students in Bulloch County Schools, or an increase in the property tax millage rate.
To prevent the negative impact on students, the Bulloch County Board of Education plans to increase the millage rate to 10.400 mills which will increase property tax revenues, while also still implementing cost reductions of over $3 million. The combination of an increase in property tax revenues and expenditure reductions will help the school district achieve a balanced budget.
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 the Bulloch County Board of Education at 150 Williams Road, Statesboro, Georgia on Thursday, August 14, 2025 at 12:00 noon and on Thursday, August 21, 2025 at 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.