Tax is applied to the assessed value after exemptions have been applied. This tax rate is called the Millage Rate.  The word mill has latin roots and means one thousandth of a US Dollar, or 0.001 .  Just as a cent is one hundreth of a US Dollar.  A mill is one tenth of a cent.  Ten mills is equal to one penny.  When speaking about taxes, a tax rate of  1 mill is equal to $1 tax for every $1000 of assessed value. A millage rate of 20.0 mills means a tax of $0.02 on every dollar of taxable property.

The state's share of property taxes is .25 mills or $0.25 for every $1000 of assessed value.  For a $100,000 home, with standard homestead exemption, would have an assessed value of $38,000.  The state millage rate is applied, $38,000 x .00025 (.25 mills) = $9.50  The portion of property taxes due to the state would be $9.50. The millage rates that apply to you are based on the location of the property and they are set by the various taxing authorities. The county wide taxing authorities are the Douglas County Board of Commissioners and The Douglas County School Board.  The Mayor of Douglasville and the Douglasville City Council, the Mayor of Austell and the Austell City Council, the Mayor of Villa Rica and the Villa Rica City Council are taxing authorities of property within their city limits.

The purpose of the millage rate is to generate the needed funds of the taxing authority's maintenance and operational budget portion funded through our property taxes.  To calculate a millage rate of the taxing authority, use the the authority's M&O budget to be funded by property taxes, and divide this by the most current or projected net tax digest.  The result is the millage rate needed to generate the budgeted revenue.  The Douglas County Net Tax Digest is a report of the assessed property in Douglas County.  In simple terms, divide the budget, by the taxable value of property, to calculate the millage rate needed to raise said funds with said property.  While this method determines the millage rate needed to fund the budget, taxing authorities are free to set the millage at a rate higher or lower as they see fit to create a budget surplus or deficit.  Both situations reflect poor management, by creating over taxation or underfunding the services provided.