(Lawrenceville, Ga., July 16, 2013) – Commissioners voted Tuesday to adopt the millage rates to support the services Gwinnett County government provides to residents and businesses. The rates were anticipated during financial planning last fall and formed the basis for the 2013 budget.

Property tax bills will look a little different this year because millage rates will vary based on the location of the property and what services the county provides. The bill will be broken out into service districts that include Fire and Emergency Medical Services, Police, Development/Code Enforcement and Loganville EMS. In addition, each property will continue to be assessed a levy for general operations and voter-approved debt and recreation. This billing method will give homeowners the ability to see exactly what services they are paying for and receiving from the County. 

In unincorporated areas, the millage rate will be 13.75, up .73 mills from last year. The effect on a typical $157,000 home in unincorporated Gwinnett will be an increase of about $38 a year, up 5.5 percent in the county portion. A mill is one dollar of tax for every $1,000 of the assessed property value. The millage rate was 13.25 in 2009 and 2010, and it has been 13.02 the past two years. Before the recession, it had gradually declined from 14.95 in 1996 to 10.97 in 2007. The total taxable value of all property within the County is down another 1.2 percent this year and 20 percent overall since 2008.

Residents of cities that operate a police department will see an approximate 9 percent reduction in the tax rate, while residents of the city of Loganville, which has its own police and fire departments, will have the largest decrease of about 33 percent. Those who live in a city that does not provide police services will see a millage increase of slightly less than 3 percent. The new districts are the result of state-mandated service delivery agreements negotiated last year.

“County staff has worked hard over the years to hold the cost of services down, but the creation of service districts and the need to maintain public safety services necessitated an increase for some taxpayers this year,” said Board Chairman Charlotte Nash. “Even as the economy recovers, we will continue to look for ways to further reduce expenses and find more efficient ways to operate.”

Nash added that the Board of Commissioners held three informational meetings to help explain the service districts and associated millage rates and put detailed information on the County’s website at www.gwinnettcounty.com.

The board’s action allows the Tax Commissioner’s Office to prepare property tax bills for mailing on schedule in early August. Property owners or their mortgage lenders will have two months to pay.