At its regular monthly meeting this evening, the Tift County Board of Education approved the 2025 Millage Rate for the School System. The digest, provided by Chad Alexander, Tax Commissioner for Tift County, calculated the school system’s rollback rate at 14.0036 MILLS, which is higher than the 2024 rate of 14.000 MILLS. Instead of adopting the rollback rate, the Board of Education elected to set the Millage Rate at 12.275 providing a 12% reduction in taxes for Tift County Property owners. To facilitate this tax relief, the Board of Education is utilizing reserve funds, which are essentially funds in the school system’s savings account, to balance this year’s budget.
Superintendent Gore explains, “The Tift County Board of Education has adopted a millage rate that prioritizes taxpayer relief over accumulating substantial cash reserves. This decision will result in the school system utilizing some of its fund balance (aka cash reserves) to balance the budget in order to pass along a tax break to its citizens. The system will maintain approximately 1.9 months of operating costs in its fund balance. The Board members, recognizing their role as the second-largest employer in Tift, believe this current fund balance offers essential stability for employees and operations. This stability is crucial should an economic downturn necessitate using the fund balance to offset revenue losses.”
“The Board remains committed to maintaining a level of stability that enables us to serve our students and community responsibly. Despite rising living expenses, increasing school operating costs, and the growing complexity of preparing students for a rapidly changing world, the Board has made the conscious decision to reduce the millage rate beyond the rollback rate. This choice reflects a careful balance providing meaningful tax relief for our citizens while ensuring that Tift County Schools continue to have the resources necessary to educate and support our children for the challenges ahead” Deputy Superintendent of Business Operations, Klinton Guess, said.
Tift County Schools is dedicated to providing a quality education at a good value. In 2024, with 180 school systems in the state, there were only 19 school systems that spent less dollars per pupil on education, yielding Tift a high financial efficiency rating.
Property owners should contact the Tift County Tax Commissioner’s Office for information on when property taxes will be due or an updated tax bill reflective of the newly adopted MILL Rate.
Tift County School’s Historical Millage Rates for past 5 years:
2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
16.932 | 16.598 | 16.505 | 16.501 | 14.00 | 12.275 |