2024 Tax Millage Rate Public Hearings

The City of Statesboro has tentatively adopted a millage rate that will require an increase in property taxes by 24.56 percent. All citizens are invited to the public hearings on this tax increase, which will be held at City Hall Council Chambers, 50 East Main Street, on September 10, 2024, at 12:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., and September 17, 2024, at 5:30 p.m. This tentative increase will result in a millage rate of 9.125 mills, an increase of 1.799 mills from the 2023 rate. Without this tentative tax increase, the millage rate will be no more than 7.326 mills. The proposed tax increase for a home with a fair market value of $200,000 is approximately $140.32, and the proposed tax increase for a non-homestead property with a fair market value of $200,000 is approximately $143.92.

City of Statesboro Making Changes to Utility Billing Schedule

City of Statesboro utility customers will soon see a change in their utility bills starting in April. Currently, when a customer receives their utility bill, the total amount due is for services rendered almost two months ago. The current service schedule is a holdover from a time when meter readers had to physically go out to each customer’s meter, take a reading, then submit those readings to the finance department to be keyed for billing. With the advent of digital meter monitoring, the city can now receive readings in real-time from a computer which makes billing turnaround a lot quicker.

To get to a point where customers’ bills will reflect the past 30 days of service, the city will have to essentially “catch up” on their billing to bring it into compliance with the new schedule. The new schedule change will see customers being charged for 35 days of service instead of the usual 30 days of service in their monthly bills. Because the bill will include an additional five days of service, customers’ bills will be slightly higher than usual.

Residential customers with average water and sewer usage could see an increase of roughly $6 to their monthly bill during the transitional period. In comparison, a residential customer that utilized average amounts of water, sewer, and natural gas could see an increase of around $23 a month. It’s important to note that this is not a rate increase but a change in the number of service days billed. This is a temporary change and will take around 10 months to complete the billing schedule transition. After 10 months, the city’s utility billing cycles will be fully caught up and when a customer receives a bill, it will be for the previous month of service.

Under the current service schedule, a customer could receive a higher-than-usual monthly bill only to discover that they had a water leak for almost two months and were unaware. This new schedule will help customers to have more active management of their utility usage and will help city staff to identify unusual usage readings more quickly. Being able to bill customers for the previous month will make for a better customer experience and will ultimately help the city’s Public Utilities department with diagnosing unusual meter readings.

For questions regarding the service date change, customers can contact the City of Statesboro Utility Billing Department at 912-764-5468.

City Hall Lobby Hours:

Monday through Friday

8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

City Hall Drive -Thru Hours:

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8:00 a.m.  – 5:30 p.m.