County schools’ rollback not enough to avoid tax hike

The Laurens County Board of Education announced Monday a plan to set its millage rate at 14.0, down from 14.2 a year ago but still technically a tax increase.

The 2025 property taxes levied by the board will increase by 3.47 percent over the rollback millage rate that would have fully offset growth in the county’s tax digest. 

Even though the board is looking at a 14.0 rate, the taxes levied will bring in $17,951,208, said Laurens County Finance Director Mary McCollough.

“It is a decrease in the millage rate, but it is not rolled all the way back,” McCollough said after Monday’s called meeting. “It’s a partial rollback.” 

To have a true rollback, the board would have had to set it at 13.190. She explained that it is important to keep the rate at 14.0 because they are looking for money to help the county school system with health insurance.

“We were going to use money from our fund balance to balance the budget this year when we passed it,” McCollough said. “We used $1.281 million of our fund balance to balance the budget.” 

In 2024, the millage rate was at 14.2 which brought in $16,082,885. If the board had kept the millage rate at 14.2 this year, it would have brought in $18,207,654 in taxes levied.

The proposed tax increase for a home valued at $100,000 would be about $18.76.

The school board will hold three required public hearings on the millage rate increase – at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Nov. 6 and at 5 p.m. on Nov. 13. McCollough said the board will vote on the millage rate during its board meeting, also Nov. 13, at 5:30 p.m. 

All of these meetings will be held at the LCBOE building located at 467 Firetower Road. McCollough will give a brief presentation during the millage rate meetings and will allow time for the public to ask questions.