The government of the City of Sugar Hill consistently tries to mislead people by myopically focusing on the unchanged millage rate and acting like that means your taxes are not going up.
They take advantage of the fact that many citizens don't really understand how millage rates and property taxes work. There's no shame in that. No one's born knowing this stuff, and it's not like they teach this in school. Many people seem to think it's more complicated than it really is. But, knowledge empowers us.
At one time, I was an algebra teacher, so I will break this all down and hopefully help everyone understand it better. Don't worry, this lesson is easy, even if you don't like algebra! I promise!
It all starts with the Appraised Fair Market Value of your property as assessed by the Gwinnett County Tax Assessor's Office.
But, you are taxed on the Assessed Value of your property, which is established by Georgia Law to be 40% of your Fair Market Value.
The millage rate is the amount you pay for each $1000 "chunk" of your assessed property value. If a government charges 1 mill, then that is $1 in tax for every thousand dollars of your assessed property value. 3.8 mills, as Sugar Hill charges, is $3.80 per thousand dollars of assessed property value.
To calculate your property tax, you obtain the Fair Market Value. You multiply that value by .4 to find out your Assessed Value. Divide the Assessed Value by 1000 to find out how many $1000 chunks are in your Assessed Value. Multiply that number by the millage rate.
There's your property tax amount.
Example
Fair Market Value: 375,000
Multiply by 0.4 to obtain the Assessed Value: 375,000 x 0.4 = 150,000
Divide the Assessed Value by 1000: ๐ญ๐ฑ๐ฌ,๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฌ/๐ญ๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฌ = ๐ญ๐ฑ๐ฌ
Multiply by the Millage Rate: ๐ญ๐ฑ๐ฌ ๐ ๐ฏ.๐ด = ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฌ
Your Property Tax: $๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฌ
(๐๐ค๐ฉ๐: ๐๐ฏ ๐ต๐ข๐น ๐ฃ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ด, ๐ช๐ฏ๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฅ๐ช๐ท๐ช๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ท๐ข๐ญ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐บ 1000 ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ญ๐ต๐ช๐ฑ๐ญ๐บ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ต ๐ฃ๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ง๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ท๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐บ 1000. ๐๐ต ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐บ.
๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐๐ข๐บ: ๐ญ๐ฑ๐ฌ,๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ (๐ฏ.๐ด/๐ญ๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฌ) = ๐ญ๐ฑ๐ฌ,๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ .๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ด = ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฌ
๐๐บ ๐๐ข๐บ: (๐ญ๐ฑ๐ฌ,๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฌ/๐ญ๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฌ) ๐ ๐ฏ.๐ด = ๐ญ๐ฑ๐ฌ ๐ ๐ฏ.๐ด = ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฌ
๐ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ช๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐บ ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ค๐ข๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฌ'๐ด ๐ช๐ต'๐ด ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ช๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ.)
In 2022, the Gwinnett Tax Assessor's Office reappraised all Sugar Hill properties. Most increased in value, and often by a pretty high percentage. The City was well aware of that when they decided on their proposed millage rate, because they had to use that information to make calculations required by State Law prior to the millage rate hearings.
In the example above, I used a Fair Market Value of $375,000. If that value increased by 15%, the new Fair Market Value would be $431,250.
Lets' calculate the property tax on THAT value, using the same millage rate.
Example
Fair Market Value: ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ญ,๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฌ
Multiply by 0.4 to obtain the Assessed Value: ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ญ,๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฌ ๐ ๐ฌ.๐ฐ = ๐ญ๐ณ๐ฎ,๐ฑ๐ฌ๐ฌ
Divide the Assessed Value by 1000: ๐ญ๐ณ๐ฎ,๐ฑ๐ฌ๐ฌ/๐ญ๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฌ = ๐ญ๐ณ๐ฎ.๐ฑ
Multiply by the Millage Rate: ๐ญ๐ณ๐ฎ.๐ฑ ๐ ๐ฏ.๐ด = ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ฑ.๐ฑ๐ฌ
Your Property Tax: $๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ฑ.๐ฑ๐ฌ
That's an extra $๐ด๐ฑ.๐ฑ๐ฌ in property taxes, a ๐ญ๐ฑ% increase over the $570 property tax at the previous fair market value. All with no changes whatsoever to the millage rate.
As you can see, when the millage rate stays the same, your property taxes do increase ... ๐ฏ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐บ๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐บ๐ผ๐๐ป๐ ๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ ๐๐ฎ๐น๐๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐.