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(April, 2025) Was there “opposition from the Coweta County School Board” to local legislation to increase senior tax exemptions for Coweta residents?
No. The Coweta County Board of Education called for it. The board unanimously voted to expand senior tax exemptions in a February 14, 2025, school board resolution, which initiated the Coweta tax exemption referendum scheduled for November. The school board's resolution also called for local voters to consider a 5 percent annual valuation cap on all homestead properties, and greater local millage and reserve flexibility, but those measures have not yet been approved by state legislators for a local referendum.
The social media post at left falsifies the factual record in a number of ways.
The school board’s February 14th Resolution was approved 7-0 by board members following the board’s February 11 vote to opt out of HB 581. It was passed as an alternative to the provisions of HB 581.
The board opted out of 581’s provisions, in part, because opting in to the state-proposed exemption caps would have prevented the board from offering an expansion of local senior tax exemptions.
The board's resolution called for local legislation to establish a 5 percent annual cap (maximum) for both property value growth or decrease for Coweta homeowners, and a significant increase to homestead exemptions for all senior citizens 65 and older (including 100 percent exemptions for those 75 and older). It also called for removing the property tax cap for schools now set at 20 mills (as already allowed for cities and counties), and increasing local school system reserve limits from 15 percent to 20 percent (compared to unlimited reserves for local cities and counties).
The resolution approved by the board on February 14 was submitted to Coweta County’s local legislative delegation. The senior tax exemption portion of the resolution was approved by the legislature at the end of this year’s 2025 General Assembly Session (HB 836 Coweta County; School District ad valorem tax; raise homestead exemption amounts).
This version of the legislation approved by the General Assembly allows the Coweta senior tax exemption increases to be considered by local voters this November. If approved, the new exemptions will take effect in 2026.
Per Georgia law, local homestead exemptions must be approved by local voters in a referendum, following local and state approval. The school board followed a similar process to call for and establish Coweta's current senior citizen homestead tax exemptions for schools in 2001 and 2020.
While the local legislation approved by the state legislature did not include the board's 5 percent valuation cap, millage rate and reserve balance proposals set forth in their February 14th resolution, school board members have said that those proposals still stand. Board members have urged state legislators to approve those measures in future legislative sessions, so that Coweta voters can make the final decision.
(October, 2021, updated 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025) 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 15.00 mills) in our state and region, and the lowest Coweta County School Systems Maintenance and Operations tax rate since 1982. As of August, 2025, the school board has lowered tax rates for five of the last six years, and voted again in 2025 to lower the millage rate from 15.41 in 2024 to 15.00 for the current tax year.
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 2025 budget is funded by state school revenues and local property taxes based on the 15.00 mill ad valorem local tax rate (and 0.00 bonded indebtedness tax rate). More information on the FY2025 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 consistently over the past six years as the local tax digest has increased, even though increases in the local tax digest lead to decreases in rates of state education funding (Local Fair Share). 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, 15.41 mills in 2023, maintained at 15.41 in 2024, and 15.00 in 2025.
This 19% cumulative reduction in property tax rates has left Coweta County with the lowest school property tax rates in the metro Atlanta region and one of the lowest 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. Further Senior Tax Exemption increases have also been placed on Coweta's 2025 ballot for local approval.
To see more financial information for the school system go here, here or here.
(October, 2021, updated 2022, 2023, 2025) Does Coweta County have a sales tax rate higher than most other counties in our state/nation?
No. Coweta is in the lowest 1/3rd of Georgia counties in terms of sales taxes.
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 (165 counties/sales tax districts in all, including subdistricts).
As of 2025, 46 of of Georgia's 159 counties/tax districts had 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 29 percent of all other Georgia counties.
3 Georgia counties/tax districts had a 6 percent local tax rate. That means that only 1.9 percent of Georgia counties have a lower sales tax rate than Coweta.
110 of Georgia's counties/tax districts currently have an 8 percent local tax rate or higher (including Fulton and its various tax subdistricts). 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 69 percent of Georgia counties have a higher sales tax rate than Coweta.
Only 2 Georgia counties (Bibb and Burke) do not have a current ESPLOST. All other Georgia counties or tax districts have an approved Educational sales tax currently in place. Of the 3 Georgia counties with a current 6 percent tax rate, 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 or here.
(May, 2019, updated 2024) Did the Coweta County School System overpay for artificial turf field projects installed at the three high schools in 2018, or otherwise act inappropriately regarding these projects?
No. In 2019, a legal investigation - initiated by the school board itself, and conducted by an independent firm - determined that there was no legitimate basis for any allegation of misconduct made against the school system and board regarding these 2018 projects. The investigation and subsequent 2019 legal report by Wilson, Morton and Downs, LLC, concluded that the costs incurred for Coweta’s high school synthetic turf fields were in line with similar projects at other school systems, that the process for awarding the bids was designed and conducted appropriately, and that there was no misconduct on the part of the board or school system personnel concerning the artificial turf project.
The allegations of misconduct were made generally during an election season earlier in 2018, and then specifically in a letter received by the school system on August 7, 2018, which threatened legal action. The letter accused unspecified Coweta County Board of Education members and school system staff of serious misconduct related to the system’s request for bids for track and field work, including installation of synthetic turf fields, at the three county high schools. At the board’s request, the Georgia-based legal firm of Wilson, Morton and Downs investigated the allegations thoroughly over an 8 month period, independently of the school system or board. Their report concluded that allegations of misconduct had no basis in fact, and had originated with “a small group of people” attempting to “create a scandal where none exists” for political purposes.
The full report and history of the matter can be found in the link below:
“Report to the Coweta County Board of Education: Investigative Findings Regarding
Allegations of Bid Rigging, Conspiracy to Defraud and Racketeering”
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