County passes tax rate, budget for upcoming fiscal year

Stephens County Commissioners approved the county’s budget and tax rate for the upcoming 2023 fiscal year during a public hearing held last Monday, Aug. 22. The fiscal year will begin Jan. 1, 2023.

No members of the public spoke during the hearing, and both the budget and tax rate passed unanimously.

The county adopted a rate of $0.6408 per $100 of valuation, which is a decrease of $0.1592, from the 2022 rate of $0.8 per $100 of valuation.

According to a tax rate worksheet, the no-new-revenue rate was $0.609 per $100 in valuation. The no-new-revenue rate is the tax rate which will raise the same amount of property tax revenue from the same properties in both the 2022 and 2023 tax years.

The voter-approval rate was $0.6408 per $100 valuation, according to the same worksheet. The voter- approval rate is the highest tax rate that the county could adopt without holding an election to seek voter approval.

According to the county’s tax rate notice, the approved rate decreases the tax on the average homestead by $74.76, from $741.37 in 2022 to $666.61 in 2023. The total tax levy on all properties will rise from $4,156,404 in 2022 to $4,360,116 in 2023, an increase of $203,712.

For more on the county’s approved budget, see next Wednesday’s edition of the Breckenridge American.