By a 5-0 vote Thursday evening, the Bulloch County Board of Education is proposing a property tax millage that represents a full rollback to offset annual inflation in assessed values.

That does not mean the board is fully reversing last year’s roughly 2.5-mill increase in the school maintenance and operations millage. In 2024 the rate was 7.932 mills, and the 2025 rate hike made it 10.4 mills. (But at the time, that was announced as an almost 3-mill increase above what would have been last year’s rollback rate.)

Now, by adopting in full the 2026 “rollback rate” of 10.125 mills calculated by the county Board of Tax Assessors’ staff, the Bulloch County Schools leadership expects to counteract the 2025-2026 overall, average inflation in property values in regard to school-funding portion of the tax.

It will be a little more than a quarter-mill decrease, or 0.275 mill to be exact, in terms of the rate.

With that 10.125-mill levy, the net property tax revenue for the schools is projected at a little over $42.6 million, up from almost $39.3 million last year.

This was shown as an 8.55% “net tax increase” in the “current tax digest and five-year history” chart that school district Chief Financial Officer Alison Boatright showed the board and public during Thursday evening’s meeting. But that results mostly from real growth in the digest of tax values, such as from new construction and improvements to buildings, not the pure inflation to be offset by the rollback.

“The superintendent is recommending the full rollback rate, calculated at 10.125 mills,” said Boatright, “which means that $10.13 in tax is levied on every $1,000 of assessed property value.”

As she explained, the millage rate is the number of dollars of tax levied on each $1,000 of assessed value. Boatright supplied some examples for certain property values.

Tax cost examples

The first example was for a home with a market value of $300,000, reportedly about the recent average for new homes in Bulloch County. In Georgia, most property is assessed at 40% of its county-appraised market value. So, a $300,000 market-value property carries an assessed value of $120,000, and without any exemption, the school tax on that at the proposed 10.125-mill rate would be $1,215.

Boatright actually specified this example property as a $300,000 owner-occupied home with a standard $2,000 homestead exemption, which reduces the assessed value to $118,000 and would make the projected school tax $1,195 at 10.125 mills.

Based on that value, a slide in her presentation showed $32.45 as the “annual decrease in school tax by adopting the rollback rate.” Another way of looking at it is, this will be the avoided increase when a property that was priced a little less last year is valued at $300,000 this year because of the average amount of inflation.

The second example she gave was of a “non-homestead” property, in other words one with no homestead exemption, with a market value of $275,000. This could be rental housing or commercial or farm property.

At the 10.125-mill rate, the school tax on that property would be $1,114, and the “annual decrease,” or avoided increase because of the rollback, would be $30.25.

Dr. Torian White, the new Bulloch County Schools superintendent, was able to recommend tentative adoption of this tax rate rollback at just his second Board of Education meeting.

A motion made by District 5 member Glennera Martin and seconded by District 8 member Maurice Hill to tentatively adopt the 10.125-mill rate was approved 5-0, with three of the eight members absent.

Now the tentative rate must be advertised along with information about the tax digest and rate history before the board is expected to vote for final adoption during the 6:30 p.m. Aug. 13 meeting.

Because a full rollback is proposed, no public hearing is required, but citizens may still voice any concerns during regular public comments time at the Aug. 13 meeting. A higher millage rate would have triggered a requirement for three tax increase hearings.

A quick meeting

Including the tentative millage vote, the entire July 23 evening meeting lasted almost exactly 15 minutes.

“I think you might want to make a note that this is probably one of the quickest meetings that we’ve had,” said board Chair Elizabeth Williams.

After the meeting was adjourned, she and Superintendent White answered a few questions from reporters about the millage rate.

“We were waiting on the information from the tax assessors’ office,” White said, explaining why the decision wasn’t made earlier. “There’s always a calculation for what that rollback would be, so in reviewing the financials with our CFO and looking at all the property values, we do believe that it is in the best interest of our citizens and the board to make this recommendation.”

The board enacted a budget in June for its fiscal year 2027, which began July 1, 2026, also White’s official first day on the job as superintendent. But every year or almost every year, the millage rate is set later, in late July or August, just as is occurring now.

The board and staff began developing the budget during longtime Superintendent Charles Wilson’s last few months on the job, before his retirement took effect March 31, and completed it during Richard Smith’s service as interim superintendent. White expressed appreciation for Smith’s work and that of Boatright and other staffers.

“Any amount of savings for our taxpayers is welcome. …,” White said. “This is purely based upon the information we reviewed with the tax assessors’ office, and just looking at the property values, we’re excited about some of the growth coming to the community, but we also want to keep our eye out to keep our taxes as low as possible for our citizens.”

Last year’s challenges

Calendar year 2025 had brought multiple financial pressures on the board in Wilson’s last full year as superintendent. These included a decrease of $5.9 million in state equalization funding triggered by Bulloch County’s record inflation in property values the two previous years; an estimated $1 million drop in property tax revenue because of state House Bill 581, which created a special exemption capping assessment increases on homesteads at a lower, national inflation rate; and increased costs for school employee benefits.

The school board and staff also sought to limit further spending from the general fund reserve, which had been built up during the post-pandemic years with special federal grants, no longer available.

With last year’s tax hike, the board avoided deeper cuts, once suggested to include up to 100 regular teaching jobs, but still eliminated 23 “central office” positions and six other jobs by the close of the fiscal 2026 budget. By then, promised state funding to the schools for fiscal 2027 had exceeded the earliest predictions.

The Bulloch County Schools will be funded sufficiently with this budget after the millage rollback, Williams said.

“We will still be looking as time goes and we continue to prepare our budget for next year to see if we can still make cuts, because there’s probably a need for us to continue to look at making cuts in different areas,” she told the Statesboro Herald after the meeting.

“So we will continue to do that, but as far as the schools being totally funded, they are,” Williams said. “They have what they need, and that has been our focus, to provide the resources that are needed at the schools in order for them to be effective.”