Waycross will be the last of Ware County’s three governmental bodies to approve a millage rate for 2024.
The Waycross City Commission meets at 5 p.m. today (Wednesday, November 6) in City Hall to consider the proposed rate of 8.748 mils for 2024.
The Ware County Commission approved a proposed rate of 11.736 mils for the county during a called meeting November 1. The commission also accepted a rate of 14.0 mils for the Ware County Board of Education at Friday’s session. The school board approved its millage rate of 14 during a Thursday, October 31 called meeting.
The city’s rate is a millage rollback that will still realize the city $254,477 in revenue despite not being a tax increase, Finance Director Greg Smith said when he presented the proposal to city commissioners last month. The revenue is the result of higher property evaluations in the city.
It’s the first time since 2020’s rate of 11.876 the city will realized six figures in tax revenue. That year the net tax was $215,224.
The proposed rate is a significant drop over the 2023 figure of 11.013 that brought the city $85,048 in revenue over 2022. Revenue from the 2024 proposal would be a 6.53 percent increase over the 2023 earnings.
Gross digest for 2024 shows a valuation of $528,502,378 with a net value of $474,556,447 after exemptions of $53,945,931. Real and personal property account for all but about $3.8 million of the gross digest.
By comparison, the 2023 gross digest was $383,621,085. Its net was $353,849,316 after $29,771,769 in exemptions.
The Ware County rate is a drop of nearly two mils (13.826 in 2023) over last year. The county still will realize a net increase in taxes of $751,890 with the rate or a 6.01 percent hike over the 2023 figure.
The board of education rate will realize the school system $16,378,839, an increase of $2.25 million or 15.93 percent over 2023 when the rate was 15.064.
The rate had to be at least 14.0 in order to retain state funding at current levels.
