Under Georgia law, the Board of Public Education for the City of Savannah and the County of Chatham is a “recommending authority" that exercises the power to cause the levying authority (the Chatham County Commission) to levy property taxes to carry out the purposes of the Board of Education.
What is a millage rate?
Millage is a relatively obscure term that represents the tax rate levied on real estate or other property. A mill is one thousandth of a dollar, or one tenth of one cent.
The millage rate is the number of dollars of tax assessed for each $1,000 of property value. A rate of 10 mills means that $10 in tax is levied on every $1,000 in assessed value. A school district typically will set the millage rate each spring as it calculates what it needs to fund its final budget. Some years, the rate stays the same; other years, there’s an increase.
What else goes into setting my tax bill?The other key figure is the assessed valuation. Every property has one. It is set by each county in Georgia. How much one mill raises in a district is determined by the district’s total wealth in assessed property value. The size of the district and the relative value of the property both come into play.
There is no change to the proposed millage rate for Chatham County Schools for FY24.
Revenues from the local tax digest will continue based on the 17.631 millage rate, which remains flat compared to the FY23 budget year. A comparison of millage rates from the top 10 largest school districts in the state is provided. The top ten largest school districts in Georgia and their 2022 Millage Rates are listed below.
Savannah-Chatham County Public School System has one of the lowest total millage rates of any of the comparable sized school districts in Georgia. While Effingham and Bryan are not comparable in size, they are neighboring counties and are often compared to SCCPSS. 
