After hearing from 31 citizens during the last of its three tax increase hearings, the Bulloch County Board of Education voted 6-2 Thursday night to adopt a “3-mill” property tax rate increase, making the rate going to fund the school system 10.4 mills.

School system Chief Financial Officer Alison Boatright first gave a slideshow presentation on the basic facts of the proposed increase and the rationale behind it. It’s a 2.468-mill direct rate increase from last year’s 7.932 mills for school maintenance and operations, but under the Georgia law known as the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, it had to be advertised as an increase from the “rollback rate” of 7.446 mills that the county tax assessors’ staff determined would have been needed to offset average inflation in property values. So in that sense it’s an increase of 2.954 mills, or 39.67%.

Complying with requirements in the tax law, Boatright cited these examples, that the increase in tax will amount to approximately $349 on a Bulloch County “average homestead property” (market value $300,000) and $325 added tax on an “average non-homestead property” (market value $275,000).

The slideshow also included the total school tax – the portion of a total Bulloch County property tax bill that goes for school operations – that will result from the increase. The total “school M&O” tax will be $1,227 on a $300,000 homestead property, or owner-occupied home – and $1,144 on a $275,000 non-homestead parcel, a category that includes rental housing and second or vacation homes, as well as businesses.

The board had held the first of three required tax increase hearings at noon on Aug. 14, with six citizens signing up to speak and offering a range of views, including some opposed to the tax increase, as previously reported. For the second hearing, at 9 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 21, the Statesboro Herald did not have a reporter present, but roughly 40 to 50  people attended, and 15 signed up to speak, according to the school superintendent’s administrative assistant.

But the final hearing, which started at 6 p.m. and doubled as the voting meeting for setting the final millage rate, drew a larger crowd. A large majority of those who spoke were in favor of the tax increase, and the 31 speakers included a number of faculty members, as well as some students and parents, representing the Transitions Learning Center, or TLC, alternative-school program and the LIFE program, both of which were threatened with elimination not this year but next school year in an earlier version of the budgeting, when not a tax hike but a rollback was planned.

With the speakers assigned three minutes each, the public comments lasted about 80 minutes, and then most of the eight board members spoke for several minutes, some from prepared remarks.

Then board member Glennera Martin made the motion to adopt the 10.4-mill tax rate, and member Donna Clifton seconded that motion. As with the tentative action three weeks ago, members Jimmy “Jay” Cook and Maurice Hill, as well as Chair Elizabeth Williams, also raised their hands for the tax increase.

But Lannie Lanier, who had voted “no” when the board voted 5-3 back on July 30 to propose the 3-mill increase, changed his vote to “yes” this time, for reasons he explained. Jennifer C. Mock and Lisha Nevil, after stating their reasons, again voted “no.”

So the final vote to set the tax rate at 10.4 mills was 6-2.