County, City of Osceola levy hearings next week

With three proposed property tax levy hearings conducted this week - Clarke and Murray Schools and the City of Murray - Clarke County and the City of Osceola are next on the docket.

As a reminder, the Clarke County Auditor’s Office has mailed out budget statements to all property owners or taxpayers in the city and county. The statement includes information regarding school, county and city proposed budget tax rates that are payable in September and March 2026, as well as information about scheduled public hearings regarding the proposed levy rates. Fiscal Year 2025-26 begins July 1.

The legislation also caps levy rates for both cities and counties. Cities have a cap at $8.10 per $1,000 in taxable value, and counties a cap of $3.50 per $1,000 for general services and $3.95 for rural services.

Local governments are placed into three tiers based on their revenue growth with different formulas to determine how much of the excess revenue must be dedicated to lowering property taxes, and the process for bringing existing property tax rates down to those set maximums.

For counties above the amounts, they have been suggested to incrementally lower the amount until 2029 when the law takes full effect.

The hearings are listed by date of occurrence. At these public hearings, only matters related to the levy can be discussed; public hearings for proposed budgets will be set for a later date. The public is invited to make comments at the hearings.

Clarke County

The Clarke County Board of Supervisors will hold their proposed property tax levy hearing at 9 a.m. on Monday, March 31 at the Clarke County Courthouse.

Current taxable valuations - general services - for Fiscal Year 2024-25 are $485,817,983, with a proposed amount in FY25-26 of $500,069,091. Taxable valuations - debt services - have a proposed increase from $503,187,843 in FY24-25 to $517,863,050 in FY25-26.

The current tax year countywide tax rate is set at 7.77886, with a proposed increase to 8.28624 in FY25-26. Taxable valuations on rural services have a proposed increase to $280,897,826 in FY25-26, up from $271,322,634 in FY45-25. The proposed rural additional tax rate has a small proposed increase from 5.28318 in FY24-25 to 5.34971 in FY25-26, for a total proposed rural rate of 13.63595 in FY25-26 from 13.06204 in FY24-25.

Residential property with an actual/assessed valuation of $100,000/$110,000 for urban taxpayers currently pay taxes in the amount of $360, and a proposed 20.00% increase would see those raise to $432 in FY25-26. In cases of rural taxpayers, the current amount of taxes paid are $605, and a 17.52% increase would raise that $711 in FY25-26.

Commercial property with an actual/assessed valuation of $300,000/$330,000 for urban taxpayers is currently $1,591 with FY25-26 proposed at $1,932, a 21.43% increase. Rural taxpayers have a proposed increase from $2,671 to $3,179 in FY25-26, a 19.02% change.

Reasons listed for proposed tax increase if it exceeds the current are to permit the continuance of programs and services to county residents and the debt service levy for the [communications] tower.

City of Osceola

The City of Osceola will hold their proposed tax levy hearing at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 1 at Osceola City Hall.

The current property tax for taxable valuations of non-debt services is $194,783,553, and is proposed at $199,013,133 for FY25-26. Debt service would see the largest proposed increase, from $596,582 in FY24-25 to $618,173 in FY25-26. Liability, property and self-insurance has a proposed increase to $220,618 in FY25-26 from $209,531 in FY24-25.

The certified FY24-25 city regular total property tax comes to $2,925,850 with a tax rate of 14.77027, with a proposed increase to total property tax in the amount of $2,991,550 and a rate of 14.77699 in FY25-26.

Taxable value for city ag land is currently certified at $2,571,562 with ag land at $7,724 and a tax rate of 3.00375. The proposed tax rate for FY25-26 would stay the same, with city ag land taxable value at $2,652,318 and ag land at $7,967.

Residential property with an actual/assessed valuation of $100,000/$110,000 for city regular residential in the current year pay taxes of $684. A proposed 12.72% change would have that increase to $771 in FY25-26. For Commercial property with an actual/assessed valuation of $300,000/$330,000, a proposed change of 14.04% would have taxes raise from $3,021 in FY24-25 to $3,445 in FY25-26.

In the note for the reasons for the tax increase if proposed exceeds current, the city listed that the proposed levy rate for FY26 represents an approximate increase of 2%.