Houston County adopts millage rate on Tuesday morning 

PERRY —  On Tuesday, August 26, the Houston County Board of Commissioners held its last public hearing on the millage rate. The Board unanimously approved the millage rate of 8.45, a slight decrease from last year’s rate. 

Chairman Dan Perdue gave a presentation on the millage rate, explaining how property taxes are calculated. He said that you first take the appraised value of a property at fair market value and multiply it times 40%. 

“You then deduct any homestead or other exemptions from that value, and then multiply that number by the millage rate, then divide the total by 1,000 because a mill generates $1 for every $1,000 of taxable value in a property,” Perdue said. 

In terms of appraised value, Perdue said that state law requires the Board of Tax Assessors to appraise property at fair market value and must undergo a sales ratio audit to determine how well they are doing. 

The county has fallen short in previous years. Perdue said the acceptable range of a sales ratio audit is 38 to 42. 

“Anything below 38 means your property values are significantly under fair market value and anything above 42 that means your property [values] are significantly over fair market value,” he said. “In 2022, we dipped down to about 34.7, and the Board of Tax Assessors has been working diligently to get property values appraised appropriately.” 

Perdue also mentioned there is no relief from this specific requirement due to the unstable property values in the post-COVID real estate market. 

He then explained House Bill 581, or the floating homestead exemption, which the county decided not to opt out of. 

“This new law is designed to not allow a homeowner’s taxes to rise faster than inflation based on irregularities in the real estate market,” he said. “It also is designed to shift the burden of property taxes from single-family and homeowner occupied residences to commercial, multi-family and industrial properties.” 

Perdue said that if an owner has a homesteaded property, there will be no tax growth allowed from the county or city in which they reside.

“If you are a homesteaded property owner in Houston County, you’re going to pay no additional dollars of property tax on the county’s maintenance and operations millage rate,” he said. 

The county has continued to lower the millage rate every year for the last four years.

“As far as our research shows, it is certainly the lowest millage rate over the last 40 years in Houston County, and we really can’t go back much further than that in our meeting minutes to determine when a lower millage rate was in Houston County,” he said. 

According to Perdue, the new millage rate will fund the merit system for county employee raises, six new Sheriff’s deputies, one receptionist in the State Court Solicitor’s Office and also fund the FY26 budget. 

The fire millage rate will be increasing from 1.177 to 1.677. Perdue said this millage rate will fund nine new full-time firefighters. 

“That takes every fire station in Houston County to 24/7/365 coverage right now as several of our fire stations only have staffing during business hours,” he said. 

The next meeting of the Houston County Commissioners will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 2, at 9 a.m. at the Houston County Courthouse in Perry.