The City of Marietta held a series of committee meetings and a special called council meeting on April 29, 2025, beginning with a Special Called Council Meeting to address estimated millage rates under new state legislation, followed by the Finance/Investments, Parks/Recreation/Tourism, Judicial/Legislative, and Public Works Committees, and concluding with a Work Session and Executive Session. Key actions included setting estimated millage rates, forwarding development proposals, approving utility variances, and discussing an alcohol license expansion for Six Flags Whitewater.
I'd like to call the city council special call meeting to order, please. First item of business, Mr. Bootin, if y'all will present. Yes, sir. I've got uh actually Patina here with me. Um we've got uh an interesting situation where uh the new law that was passed with H B 92 um requires a little bit different process that we've done before as far as setting the millage uh for the city and the county uh and and everybody else in the state. And uh we just had a very quick call between GMA and HCCG where they put out so told everybody that we need to do it a little different than what everybody thought, and here's what you need to do. And so that necessitated this special call and special calls all over the state that people are having to do, which we thought initially we could just supply to the county our normal uh millage rate and say use that when you're putting out that notice of assessment that they do that everybody gets, and it's usually off a little bit, not because of what they do, but because of just how you figure the exemptions and everything in with the homestead freeze. Um and so they do everything right, but it just always gets people worried when they look at it. Well, the notice is going to be different this time, and that it's not gonna actually compute your estimated tax. It's instead that's if you set if you go ahead and set an estimated millage, and we do that tonight, we can supply it to them in time, and then what'll show up is what will show up all across the state, which will be your assessed values plus you know the 40% the valuation that you look at, and then it'll show exemptions, and then it's gonna show an estimated millage that the government is saying. It is not gonna compute that and say this is what we think your tax will be, which they used to do. Um so it'll just show that instead. So each one of the, and then obviously we'll go through the regular budget process, and then the council will set the millage, and we'll still have to go through those three public hearings uh like we've had to do uh before, and we will have to run those ads in the paper that say you know your taxes being increased because the the millage was not decreased, uh, but we'll you know have our ads that'll say the opposite, which is that um you know the taxes have not been increased for 23 years and they're still not being increased because you have a homestead freeze if you own the property and you're uh living in it uh on that. Um so basically we have to in front of you we see a general fund estimated millage, um, which we would um ask the council set that as an estimated millage, and then in a strange uh situation, um we also have to uh go in and set the school uh one. The uh you know that normally every year we have to approve the school millage uh going forward uh because of the relationship between the city and school system. Uh and so the school has given us an email uh that they sent to Bettina, and uh that says that they would like theirs to be set at 17.970 mills. And so our current is uh, and that's their current correct yeah. And so our current is 2.788. Um so if this is what happens with the bill itself when the bill is actually printed, um, if the actual millage that the government imposes with the bill is equal to or less than what we give the county now, and the school district gives the county now, then there's no notice on the bill. It just goes out as here's your tax. Um if the government goes back and actually imposes a millage, which is more than what we gave the county originally to put out to the public, then there has to be a notice on the bill that says that basically this is above what was estimated, and it's gonna it's a tax increase because a millage increase. Um there will have to be some language, um, which I'll let Tina explain as far as with the school system uh because of the way that it works with them. So that's gonna have to actually go on the bill. Correct. So with the school board, um, since they opted out of the HB 581, and they did not they do not currently have a homestead exemption that matches the state or exceeds the state. There will be verbiage on the bill that will indicate that they chose not to opt out and provide a telephone number for um taxpayers to contact the school board if they have questions in regards to why they chose not to opt out or chose not to provide a um exemption as it pertains to the school board millage. The City of Marietta, because we do their billing, of course, it'll include it on our bills, but it will specify they have asked for the verbiage to read Board of Education of the City of Marietta. And then it will go on to include the state required verbiage, says that they chose to opt out and provide a um telephone number for that. And so that is what we will have to provide in bold on the tax bills for this particular tax year. Well, you said not to opt out. They chose to opt out of it. They opted out. Yes. We we opted out, of course, as well, but because we opted out with a um exemption already in place, we do not have to include the verbiage. Okay. Right. As we've said, ours is better than the state uh option that they put out to everyone. So our citizens are still going to get a better deal than anybody else in the state. Correct. Uh by using the existing one we've had in place since the early 2000s. And a small question, if I think the school board is considering about the unlimited acreage. Oh, okay. Could they raise their millage and go to unlimited millage with without a problem? Well, they still could. Um what a tax increase because it needed. Yeah, they'd have to but one's very Pacific, but still a tax is a tax. Right. And so I I hate to say it that way, but it they're gonna already have to put that on the bill saying that it's gonna be a tax increase because they did they did opt out. So even if they decided to go more eventually, it still would say it's a tax increase on the bills.