School System Finance

(October, 2021, updated May, 2022, August, 2023)  Does the Coweta County School System have one of the highest property tax rates in the region/state?

No.   In fact, Coweta County actually has one of the lowest rates of school property taxes (currently 15.41 mills) in our region, and the lowest Coweta County School Systems Maintenance and Operations tax rate since 1983.  As of August, 2023, the school board has lowered tax rates in each of the last four years.

Our school system operates on a fiscal year that extends from July 1 until June 30 of the following year.  The system’s Maintenance and Operations budget is funded by state educational funding and local property tax revenue. Over 91 percent of this budget is directed towards personnel costs. The school system's FY 2024 budget is funded by state school revenues and local property taxes based on a 15.41 mill ad valorem local tax rate (and 0.00 bonded indebtedness tax rate).  More information on the FY2024 budget can be found on the school system’s website (Budget, Financial, and SPLOST Info).

The Board of Education has decreased our community’s M&O millage rate for the past four years.  The Board maintained an 18.59 millage rate for local property taxes from 2005 through 2020.  In 2020, in response to significant state-mandated property re-valuations in the county, the Coweta school board reduced the local school property tax rate by 1.29 mills (from 18.59 to 17.30 mills). In 2021, the board again reduced property tax rates by 0.16 mills, to the full rollback rate (from 17.30 mills to the current 17.14 mills), then to 16.00 mills in 2022 and 15.41 mills in 2023.

This 17% cumulative reduction in property tax rates has left Coweta County with one of the lowest school property tax rates in the metro Atlanta region or in Coweta County’s immediate West Georgia region, with the exception of the Heard County School System. Additionally, in 2020, the school board significantly expanded our school system’s Homestead Property Tax Exemption for Senior Citizens, increasing the original senior homestead exemptions for school taxes established in 2002.  This was done along with 2020 property tax rollbacks, and extended significant additional property tax reduction benefits to all senior citizens.

To see more financial information for the school system go here or here.

(October, 2021, updated May, 2022, and August, 2023)  Does Coweta County have a sales tax rate higher than most other counties in our state/nation?

No.    In November of 2021, Coweta voters approved a sixth iteration of the Coweta County Special Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST).  Most of the Coweta County School System’s capital projects are funded by revenues from this one-cent sales tax, which has been in place since 1997 (approved each time by a majority of Coweta voters in a general referendum).

Revenues from this sales tax are used only for capital projects (construction of new schools, refurbishment and expansion of existing schools and facilities, student and teacher, technology, transportation, school improvements), but not personnel (employees salaries or benefits).  More information about Coweta’s 1 cent sales tax can be found here and here.

Georgia counties have cumulative sales taxes of between 6 percent and 9 percent applied to local retail sales, and can include several state and local sales taxes. ESPLOST is one of several state or local one-cent sales taxes applied to retail sales, leases or rentals of most goods in Coweta County. The Georgia Department of Revenue maintains a listing of all sales tax rates for Georgia's 159 counties here.  The most current listing for all of Georgia’s 159 counties can be found there.

Coweta County has a 7 percent county sales tax rate made up of the 4 percent state sales tax, a 1 percent LOST (city/county sales tax), 1 percent SPLOST (city/county), and 1 percent ESPLOST (school sales tax).  

Georgia has 159 counties and several additional specialized tax districts, for 165 counties/sales tax districts in all.  As of 2023, 52 of of these 165 counties/districts have a 7 percent tax rate, including Coweta County.  Most of the rest have higher sales tax rates, which leaves Coweta County with one of the lower county-wide sales tax rates in Georgia, and the same tax rate as about 32 percent of all other Georgia counties.

2 Georgia counties/tax districts have a 6 percent local tax rate.  That means that only 1.2 percent of Georgia counties have a lower sales tax rate than Coweta.  

111 of these Georgia counties/tax districts currently have an 8 percent local tax rate or higher (including non-Atlanta Fulton, with a 7.75 percent total sales tax rate, and Atlanta, with 8.5).  This is generally because they have the same sales tax mix as Coweta, but also have a transportation or other sales tax in addition to those. That also means that 67 percent of Georgia counties have a higher sales tax rate than Coweta.

Only 2 counties do not have a current ESPLOST.  All other Georgia counties or tax districts have an approved ESPLOST sales tax currently in place. Of the 2 Georgia counties with a current 6 percent tax rate, both of those counties have a current voter-approved ESPLOST (schools sales tax) as one of their local sales taxes.

To see more sales tax information for the school system, including annual ESPLOST audits, go here.