Catoosa County commissioners approve millage increase

Arkansas-Georgia Live Blog

Less than 24 hours after the Catoosa County Schools board voted to raise taxes, the County Commission voted for its own tax increase.

In a special called meeting this morning, commissioners voted 3-1 to increase the county-levied tax rate by .9 mills. That increase means Catoosa taxpayers will be stuck with a combined millage increase of 2.85 mills for the coming year, which translates to around $135 in additional annual taxes for the owner of a home assessed at $100,000.

"The federal government has operated for many years on a deficit budget, and we just can't operate the county that way," Commissioner Jim Cutler said of the county's budget that has been running on a deficit since 2010. "It's not being fiscally responsible. We decided to trim the budget as much as we can and pull the county away from a deficit spending mentality."

For complete details, see tomorrow's Chattanooga Times Free Press.

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