Richmond County Tax Hike

The Augusta Chronicle reported today that the Augusta Commission is poised to raise the County Maintenance and Operation portion of the property taxes by roughly 25%. Read the article here. The article points out that while Columbia County’s tax rate is much lower, the new Richmond County rate will be lower than rates in Fulton, Bulloch, Chatham, Dougherty, Bibb, Clarke, and Muscogee. While this is technically true,  it doesn’t show is the amount of overall property tax paid in those counties. A look at the millage rates reveals a different picture. The school millage rate in Richmond County is 19.982. Compare this to the other counties listed in the Chronicle’s article. Fulton’s is 18.502, Bulloch’s is 9.95, Chatham’s is 15.881, Dougherty’s is 18.445, Bibb’s is 17.945. Only Clarke and Muscogee Counties had higher education millage rates than Richmond County. So while it is true, that the county maintenance portion of the property tax will be lower than the other counties mentioned, the  overall tax burden in Richmond County is still higher than at least several of those counties (it is also unclear whether solid waste collection is a separate fee in the other counties).

 

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