Greg HoganCHATSWORTH, Ga. — Despite having cash reserves of less than $1 million and facing the growing possibility that he may have to furlough county employees, Murray County Sole Commissioner Greg Hogan did not raise the county’s property tax rate Friday morning.
“I didn’t want to put an extra tax burden on people who are barely paying their taxes already,” Hogan said after a meeting to set the millage rate for 2011. “A lot of people are out of work, and a lot of people are skimping to buy what they need.”
The net millage rate remained at 5.8 and is expected to bring in $4.8 million, about $443,000 less than last year. That is an almost 81/2 percent decrease over last year.
Murray County’s millage rate is one of the lowest in the state, ranking 14th from the bottom out of 159 counties.
The Murray County school board met Wednesday to set the schools’ millage rate and left that rate unchanged at 15.5.