Monday, July 28, 2025–9:45 p.m.
-David Crowder, WRGA News-
The Rome City Commission has approved the 2025 millage rates.
Although the rates are the same as last year, there will be an increase in revenue due to growth in the tax digest.
The rates are 7.750 for city maintenance and operations, 1.750 for city capital, and 16.750 for city schools.
Rome City Manager Sammy Rich shared a pie chart that showed how the revenue is divided by each department.
Rome City Commissioner Randy Quick said that one of the new budget items was a pay raise for city employees, specifically public safety.
“We were training officers on a regular basis who were then leaving us after training because of better opportunities outside of Rome,” he said. “We knew what we had and we wanted to retain it. The retention factor has been dramatic since we made those changes.”
The vote to approve the millage rates was not unanimous, as Commissioner Mark Cochran voted “no.”
“I have a hard time voting for a tax increase when I hear that people are having to move out of their house due to the inability to pay property taxes,” he said.
While technically not a tax increase, state law requires it to be advertised as a tax increase if the millage rates are not set beyond the rollback rate, which is the rate that would keep tax payments flat compared to last year.
Before the approval, the commission conducted a third and final public hearing, where citizens were able to speak.
Mark Swanson challenged the legality of the notice advertising the millage rates.
“Does the notice of a property tax increase provided on the Rome City and Rome City Schools’ websites conform to the requirements provided in the Georgia statutes?” he asked.
Because the public hearing is for comments and not questions, no answer was provided at that time.
However, later in the meeting, Rome City Manager Sammy Rich addressed the question.
“Obviously, we work to meet all the rules and requirements of the state,” he said. “We are all trying to do the best we can, based on our understanding of the rules. We will go back to check and compare the advertisements. If they are in error, we will simply tell you that and endeavor to fix them.”
You can read the millage rate resolution here.
