City Council - Special Meeting

There you go. Okay.

Okay.

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah.

This is.

It's something I might've loved my dad would share. So I'll let him get that. That's a good place to go. So I did this ever since I got there.

Good evening. It is six o'clock on July 1st and I call this regularly scheduled Dunwoody City Council meeting to order unless there is an objection. Seeing none, this meeting is called to order. Catherine Lautenbacher, can you please lead us in the invocation and the pledge?

Yes, please stand if you are able. At this meeting, help us to make decisions which keep us faithful to our mission and reflect our values. Give us strength to hold to our purpose, wisdom to guide us, and a keen perception to lead us. And above all, keep us charitable as we deliberate. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

Thank you.

Sharon, is there anything you need to read for this?

A resolution of the Mayor and Council of the City of Dunwoody, Georgia to fix the ad valorem tax rate of the City of Dunwoody for fiscal year 2026 and for other purposes. Thank you. Richard, whenever you're ready. Sure.

hopefully they'll put the presentation up oh in the back they need the presentation oh there we go you're good okay good evening mayor and council this is the third and final public hearing for the adoption of the 2026 millage rate uh it is the same presentation for the as the first two meetings so I can go as quick or slow as you would like um Real quickly, the millage rate is one mil is a dollar per 1,000 assessed values. For calculation purposes, the millage rate is stated as 0.001 and millage rate is set by the living authority each year. City of Dunwoody is proposing to keep the millage rate steady at 3.040 mils. To give a little bit of background, 85%, approximately 85% of Dunwoody residential properties have applied for the homestead exemption. The assessment freeze will still be in place as well for city taxes. Based on the advertisement that we showed, it is a $3.75, $3.75 increase for all residential homeowners. The rollback rate was calculated, we'll get that S in the advertisement, as 3.015, so it's a half a percent increase is what we are advertising. And again, based on the homestead freeze, the exemption, and everything, residents will see a zero increase to their tax bill, assuming that it is a homesteaded property. This comparison chart is for 2025 rates, but if you look on the left, that's the aggregate tax rates for all cities as well as unincorporated DeKalb. Within DeKalb County, again, Dunwoody is the lowest rate. on within the city, within the county. We also noted down at the bottom that we assembly and Brookhaven did and propose a military increase this year from twenty five to twenty six. On the right hand side is the breakdown of the millage rate what goes to the county what goes to the schools and then ultimately what goes to the city the total millage rate is 40.165 and on the next chart will show kind of a better breakdown of where percentage-wise where that money goes again it's based on 2025 rates but approximately 80 percent of a residential home within dunwoody their property tax bill goes to school operations If you look at the top right and the kind of dark blue section there, city operations, that's what Dunwoody gets, and that's about 5% of the total tax bill for a residential property. Just as a point of reference, so the general fund is where property tax revenue is collected. This is a breakdown of revenue by source. Taxes is a bigger bucket that we'll get to in just a second, but it's approximately 80% of the revenue within the general fund. We'll break down that $30 million on the next slide. And then there's other smaller sources, license and permits, contribution development, charges for services, miscellaneous revenue, and other financing sources. Within that tax revenue bucket of $30 million, this is the breakdown. You'll notice the big blue slice on the right, $11.8 million is real property tax with another $471,000 in personal property tax. That's the estimated revenue. So as we've said before, roughly a third of the general fund revenue comes from property taxes. And that's a trend that we're continuing to see in 2026. This was the notice of the increase that was published. It was a 3.025, I'm sorry, it was a 3.025 was the rollback rate. So that means that would, with that rate, we would have collected the same amount of revenue in 2026 as we did in 2025. But because we're going to keep the millage rate at 3.04, we advertised an increase of 0.015 mils, which again is half a percent. And then it has the impact $3.75 to a homesteaded property valued at $650,000 and a $15.75 increase to a property valued at $2.6 million. This is the five-year history. So 21 through 25 are based on the final approved digest that we received from the tax commissioner's office. 2026 is the most recent one that we have received. Final appeals and things of that nature are not included in that 2026 total yet. We'll get the final one toward the end of July, the middle to end of July is when we'll get the final digest.

approved assessment digest I should say so and recommendation is to adopt a rate of 3.04 mils for 2026. all right unless uh there is an objection I will open the public hearing uh there'll be 10 minutes per side All right, there's public here, but I will ask the questions. Is there anyone who would like to speak for maintaining the millage rate? Seeing none. Is there anyone who would like to speak in opposition? Seeing none. I close the public hearing unless there's an objection. Seeing none. All right, council discussion, questions of staff. I wanted to point out, can you put your chart back up for one minute, please?

Which chart do you want to read?

Go back one page. Let me see if it's this one. So a couple of things, just in case anyone's listening at home, not this one. Wait, the one with the ad from the paper. So somehow I think we. So I think the chart.

Okay.

The next one.

Hmm.

Yes. So I think it's important to know that in 2025, at this time of reporting, the number of the net tax dollar increase actually showed as like $1.2 million. Is that correct? Yes, yes. And then there were appeals and also maybe an error on the tax commissioners on what they had given us to begin with. It dropped to about 25% of that. So though it's showing 690,000 and change, we actually don't know for sure. And if it did the same thing, the same kind of drop, it would be around $100,000, which is basically no growth at all. So I just thought I'd point that out. Yes. If I have any questions, I'd have one more. In a class this weekend, I learned that starting 27, they're going to take 1.5% of the insurance premium tax. Anybody else hear that? Did you know that? Anyway.

I'll have to go look at that.

So just so you know, they're going to take it to fund something for police, for the police, not pension, but that.

Yeah.

What did you say? Peace officer benefit. It's way underfunded. Okay. All right. Anything else? All right. This is actually an action item. Moved by Joe.

Second.

Second by Rob. Is there any, Tom? I'm so sorry. It's really bad. Second by Tom. Any further discussion or comments? Seeing none, I'll call the question. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the motion carries unanimously, Sharon. All right. Eric, any comments?

No additional comments, Mayor. Thank you for the meeting tonight.

Council, anybody? Come to the concert tomorrow night. It starts at 7. What? 5.30 is the presentation of the Blue Star. 7 is the concert. And, of course, the parade on Friday. Saturday. The parade is Saturday. All right. Anyone else? Seeing none, I need a motion to adjourn.

Move to adjourn. Moved by Stacey. Second.

Second by Rob. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, we stand adjourned. Yay, y'all.