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: 𝟭𝟱𝟬,𝟬𝟬𝟬/𝟭𝟬𝟬𝟬 = 𝟭𝟱𝟬
Multiply by the Millage Rate: 𝟭𝟱𝟬 𝘅 𝟯.𝟴 = 𝟱𝟳𝟬
Your Property Tax: $𝟱𝟳𝟬
(𝙉𝙤𝙩𝙚: 𝘖𝘯 𝘵𝘢𝘹 𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘴, 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘣𝘺 1000 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘱𝘭𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘣𝘺 1000. 𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺.
𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘞𝘢𝘺: 𝟭𝟱𝟬,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝘅 (𝟯.𝟴/𝟭𝟬𝟬𝟬) = 𝟭𝟱𝟬,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝘅 .𝟬𝟬𝟯𝟴 = 𝟱𝟳𝟬
𝘔𝘺 𝘞𝘢𝘺: (𝟭𝟱𝟬,𝟬𝟬𝟬/𝟭𝟬𝟬𝟬) 𝘅 𝟯.𝟴 = 𝟭𝟱𝟬 𝘅 𝟯.𝟴 = 𝟱𝟳𝟬
𝘐 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘐 𝘥𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬'𝘴 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥.)
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: 𝟰𝟯𝟭,𝟮𝟱𝟬
Multiply by 0.4 to obtain the Assessed Value: 𝟰𝟯𝟭,𝟮𝟱𝟬 𝘅 𝟬.𝟰 = 𝟭𝟳𝟮,𝟱𝟬𝟬
Divide the Assessed Value by 1000: 𝟭𝟳𝟮,𝟱𝟬𝟬/𝟭𝟬𝟬𝟬 = 𝟭𝟳𝟮.𝟱
Multiply by the Millage Rate: 𝟭𝟳𝟮.𝟱 𝘅 𝟯.𝟴 = 𝟲𝟱𝟱.𝟱𝟬
Your Property Tax: $𝟲𝟱𝟱.𝟱𝟬
That's an extra $𝟴𝟱.𝟱𝟬 in property taxes, a 𝟭𝟱% 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 ... 𝗯𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗺𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝘆 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘀.