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Dawsonville makes millage rollback official
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The city of Dawsonville can now officially say it is continuing its tradition of no city taxes for its residents.

The city gave its approval during its Monday regular called meeting for City Clerk Bonnie Warne to finalize the forms sent each year to the state to roll back the millage rate.

"If we had a millage, it would be set at 10.86 mills," Warne said. "But, since we don't, there will continue to be no city taxes."

The council voted during its May regularly called meeting to roll its millage rate back to zero for the upcoming year.

"We will have no city tax for fiscal year 2015-16," said Dawsonville Mayor James Grogan. "Because we effectively manage our [sales] tax revenue to provide for the cost of city government, the necessity of an ad valorem tax is not needed."

The city of approved a $4.1 million budget for fiscal year 2015-16 during its June 15 special called meeting.

The budget is an increase from last year's $2.6 million budget, due to the addition of $1,150,000 in special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) funds approved in a city-county negotiation in July 2014.

"The millage changes every year based upon the budget, but has always been rolled back to a net zero tax," Grogan said.

A mill is equal to $1 for each $1,000 in assessed property value. Assessed value is 40 percent of actual market value.

Governments determine millage rates by calculating the dollar amount needed to fund general operations for the year.

Dawsonville residents still must pay county property taxes, but the last municipal property tax was more than 30 years ago, according to city records.

There has been no change for city property owners since then, aside from any fluctuations they may have experienced after the county reassessed values.