LaVista Park community to get millage rate decrease

Special Tax District drops from 3.5 to 1.6 in 2023, then 0 in 2024

Brookhaven, GA, June 7, 2023 – With improved roads, sidewalks, and stormwater facilities now in place, Brookhaven’s most recently annexed community will also enjoy a millage rate cut this year, and next year.

The LaVista Park Special Tax District is 675 parcels totaling 264.28 acres and believed to be the largest annexation in Georgia history using the resident-driven 60 percent method. When the LaVista Park community annexed into the City of Brookhaven in December 2019, property owners did not see an immediate decrease in their tax millage rate.

In order to immediately address infrastructure issues from years of neglect, Brookhaven’s annexation policy automatically established a special tax district for newly incorporated areas.  In the LaVista Park tax district, property owners continued to pay DeKalb County’s higher tax rates to cover costs for infrastructure improvements in their neighborhoods. LaVista Park was the first area to be placed into such a special tax district.

The City analyzed conditions of the LaVista Park community, including its roads, parks, stormwater, and sidewalks; to ascertain what deficiencies there were and how much it would cost to upgrade them to at least the same level as the rest of Brookhaven.  In LaVista Park’s case, it was estimated that it would take $1.2 million dollars to improve the infrastructure to Brookhaven standards.

“Brookhaven’s annexation policy ensures that existing property owners aren’t having their tax dollars siphoned off to instantly address decades of infrastructure neglect,” said City Manager Christian Sigman.

Beginning in 2020, the Special Tax District millage rate for LaVista Park was set to match the unincorporated DeKalb rate of 3.50 mills, with the funding dedicated to paying for infrastructure upgrades.

Sigman explains now that parity is reached, the Special Tax District rate for LaVista Park drops from 3.5 mills last year to 1.6 mills this year.

“We dove into infrastructure work immediately, enabled by a loan from the City’s General Fund,” said Sigman. “The first three years almost paid it off – there is only the need for a partial payment this year, then the tax district dissolves next year, and LaVista Park pays the same rate as the rest of Brookhaven.”

The 2023 millage rate decrease based on the difference between last year and this year for a homesteaded property with a fair market value of $625,000 would be approximately $475, and the decrease for a non-homesteaded property with a fair market value of $1.3 million is about $988.

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