City approves fee increases

The Decatur City Commission has approved an increase in residential sanitation and storm water utility fees for 2016. These fees are added to property tax bills. The typical household will have a $50 increase in October on their 2nd installment bill for 2016.

Residential sanitation fees are for garbage pick-up. The fee adopted earlier this year was $250 per household. The newly approved rate is $275.  The purpose of the increase is to cover curbside glass recycling beginning July 1. 

Storm water utility fees are used to make storm drainage improvements. Properties are assessed a storm water utility fee based on the amount of paved and covered areas on the property. The storm water utility fee has been $75 annually for each single-family residence for over 10 years. Commercial, institutional and multiple-family properties with larger paved areas pay proportionately more in fees. Utility fees are charged to all property owners, including tax-exempt properties. The newly approved fee is $100 per equivalent residential unit.

Most property owners have already paid the original amount of the fees for these services during the 1st installment property tax billing this year and will only owe the difference of the increase during the 2nd installment.

City manager proposes fee waiver for senior homeowners

The City Commission will consider a proposal tonight from city manager Peggy Merriss to offer a credit on bills for eligible seniors. Under the proposal, homeowners in Decatur over the age of 70 who have the S-3 homestead exemption may be eligible for a waiver of municipal fees for garbage pick-up and storm water utility services for 2015.

The typical owner of a single-family dwelling in Decatur was charged $240 for sanitation services and $75 for storm water drainage during our 1st installment billing of 2015. Some property owners, such as condo and town home owners, may have been charged less for fees based on the characteristics of their property. The proposal would waive the fees that the property owner was charged, resulting in (assuming that the charges have been paid) a credit on the taxpayer’s 2nd installment bill.

The measure is designed to help seniors cope with the cost of rising property assessments. More information about the context and reasons for this proposal are spelled out in Ms. Merriss’s memo to the City Commission here.  The meeting will take place at 7:30 tonight at City Hall.

Update:  The fee waiver was approved unanimously be the City Commission on Monday night.

Decatur bills for sanitation services for 2015

Decatur has sent out bills to businesses that receive commercial sanitation services from the City for 2015. The rates were adopted by the City Commission during a public meeting last month. The base rate for 95-gallon cart collection has changed from $710 last year to $720 this year. The base charge for 3-cubic yard containers has changed from $1,070 last year to $1,080 this year. Fees for containers of other sizes, which make up the majority of accounts, are unchanged in 2015 compared to 2014.  Payment is due by June 1, 2015.

The following stuffer was enclosed in commercial sanitation bills and provides more information for reference:



Businesses that are interested in signing-up or adjusting their sanitation or recycling service for 2015 should notify the Sanitation Office at 404-377-5571 prior to May 1.

For residential trash pick-up, the fee per household for 2015 is $240. Duplexes are charged double. The residential sanitation fee is included in Decatur's 1st installment 2015 tax bills which were mailed out late last week.

How fees on tax bills work in Decatur

Apart from taxes themselves, the only fees that appear on Decatur's tax bills are for residential sanitation and stormwater (runoff/drainage). The fee amounts are adopted by the City Commission annually.

For 2014, the residential sanitation charge was $237.  The sanitation fluctuates a little each year but has generally been around $230 for the last several years.  Residential sanitation service is a "per household" charge.  For example, a duplex owner would be billed $474 rather than $237; a quadraplex would be billed $948, etc.

The standard stormwater charge for a single family dwelling is $75 annually.  The stormwater has been consistent for many years.  The stormwater assessment for non-single family dwellings, including commercial properties, is based on the amount of impervious surface at the property.  Properties without structures still have stormwater charges because of pavement, driveways, parking decks, or other impervious surfaces onsite.

Local businesses have a stormwater charge but no residential sanitation charges (although any business can sign up for commercial sanitation and recycling with the city). Tax-exempt entities such as government entities, schools, and churches have to pay a stormwater bill.

The City doesn't add fees to tax bills for street lamps, sidewalks, speed bumps, or sewer services.

How Decatur's fees appear on 1st and 2nd installment tax bills

One of the questions in our new FAQs deserves elaboration since it causes confusion every year and it's hard to explain without visuals:

If Decatur only bills for sanitation and stormwater during the 1st installment tax billing, why are these fees showing up on my 2nd installment bill? Aren’t you double-charging me? The short answer is no, because the 2nd installment bill is always a re-statement of the entire bill for the year, including all taxes, fees, and payments made over the course of the year.

As an illustration, let's assume that your base property tax charges are $1,000 for the 1st installment, plus $312 in fees (residential sanitation and stormwater), and another $1,000 in taxes for the 2nd installment, ie $1,000 + $312 + $1,000 = $2,312 in total city taxes and fees for the year.  Here's how that would appear on your bills:

The line-by-line amounts during the second installment all appear to be "doubled," at first glance, but those are actually the full year's charges (1st + 2nd installments), which are partly cancelled out by what was already paid during the 1st installment.  The sanitation and stormwater charges are re-printed on your 2nd installment bill so that you know what the total year’s charges and payments have been.

Another way of looking at it would be that if the fees were being charged twice a year, the total bill would have been $2,624 ($1000 + $312 + $1000 + 312) rather than $2,312.

How Decatur compares in online payments

The City of Decatur accepted approximately $1.4 million in online payments from July 2011 to June 2012.  This included 9,000 separate web-based transactions involving $600K in fees for recreation and after-school programs, $500K in court fines and fees, and $300K for property taxes.

The Center for Performance Management reports that the average volume of payments made last year was $482,140 for cities like ours with populations under 25,000, suggesting that more payments are made online to Decatur compared to other cities our size.  However, online payments to municipalities can vary significantly depending on whether the jurisdiction does its own tax or utility billing.  For example, the City of Cartersville, Georgia, took in over $4 million in online payments last year, but that included online payments for electric, water and sewer bills.  Decatur does its own tax billing but does not do utility billing.

Online payment options are offered to provide convenience for individuals and businesses making payments to the city.  The Revenue Division intends to expand online payment options by allowing businesses to renew their licenses online beginning this fall.

State rep seeks to separate taxes from fees

Rep. Brett Harrell (R-Snellville) has introduced a bill in the state House that would require Georgia cities and counties to remove any nontax fees from property tax bills. Such fees would have to be billed separately, or on two separate sheets within the same envelope.

In addition to concerns that have been raised about local implementation costs and the adverse impact this would have on collecting fees, this would also mean that most Decatur residents would probably receive five local government bills annually:  three city bills (two installments of city property tax bills and a city fee bill) and two county bills (a county tax bill and a county fee bill).

This would almost certainly require us to create separate resident accounts to track your fees separately from your taxes, which means residents would have two city account IDs (your property or parcel ID plus a fee ID).  I'm not sure if DeKalb's system would work the same way, but if they do, that would mean that most residents would have four local government tax and fee accounts to keep up with.

This proposal is somewhat different from Rep. Harrell’s House Bill 291 last year, which would have required partial payments to be applied to taxes prior to being applied to nontax fees. That bill died in the House in 2011.

The Patch has this report:

Should Non-Tax Fees Be Removed From Property Tax Bills?

House Bill 159 would limit what type of fees municipalities could add to residents' property tax bills.

A bill introduced in the Georgia General Assembly last week by state Rep. Brett Harrell would prohibit municipalities from adding non-tax fees to property tax bills. Harrell initially introduced the bill in 2011 with nearly 60 co-signers.

“Too often citizens across Georgia experience increased property tax bills, higher monthly mortgage payments, and, in some cases, liens against their property, all resulting from the addition of non-tax fees added to their property tax bills,” Harrell said. “The type and number of fees continues to increase each year.  This legislation will help ease the burden on Georgia households and increase government transparency.”

Harrell said House Bill 159 addresses a growing concern among property owners statewide as home prices remain low. He said Georgians have to carefully budget their money and it doesn't help to have to face increasing property tax bills.

The municipalities, however, argue that fees are bills that have to be paid -- such as for the sanitation services in Gwinnett that caused so much controversy when first introduced. Robert Mesteller, a Snellville resident, took on the county on this issue last year, claiming it was illegal and unconstitutional to collect fees for sanitation services on property tax bills. His lawsuit was not successful, but is currently under appeal and awaiting a ruling from the Georgia Supreme Court. Gwinnett County officials cautioned that a change in the system could actually end up costing some taxpayers more in the long run.

When Mesteller filed his appeal, Gwinnett County communications director Joe Sorenson said a new billing system would have to be created if sanitation services could no longer be collected on property tax bills -- and that it would be costly.

Concerned about online fees?

Over 22,379 visitors have used our online tax look-up website, www.decaturgatax.com since it was launched in late 2010.  December 2011 was a record month with 1,916 visitors alone (and Decatur only has about 8,000 properties)!

Although people increasingly turn to our website to look up tax information, we hear occasional concerns from the public about the online payment option.  The City of Decatur’s third party payment processor charges 2.2 percent plus 30¢ for online credit card payments through Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express.

Through our online survey, we’ve even received a comment that “The County has never charged a fee for payment.”  Actually, DeKalb County’s website says “Payments may be accepted via VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover, but a 2.5 percent transaction fee will be added to the payment.”

The perception that Decatur charges a fee that the county doesn’t charge may stem from the fact that DeKalb doesn’t charge a fee for online checks.

While that function is not directly supported by the city’s third party processor, you may be able to issue an online check to the City of Decatur through your personal bank at no charge to you.  Several major and local banks or credit unions offer account services such as online checking that would enable you to pay through the Internet without incurring a fee.  In other words, you could use our website to look up how much money you owe, then use your own online bank account to issue a payment without having to write out your own paper check.  Please contact your bank for terms and details.

Decatur taxpayers can also pay online through PayPal, which I noticed is currently offering a “Bill Me Later” feature that offers six months to pay on payments of $99 or more.  I’m not endorsing any one payment method over another, but that feature may be an option worth looking into for some Decatur residents or business taxpayers facing short-term cash flow problems.  Details on that program can be found here.

And of course we still take payments the old-fashioned way—from checks by mail, payments in person, or payments from your mortgage lender!

Taxes and fees? Part II

Stormwater fees

When it comes to City stormwater fees, everybody pays. Even tax-exempt property such as churches, DeKalb County property, and MARTA are required to pay stormwater fees to the City of Decatur. Even the City of Decatur pays stormwater fees to itself for the roads and other City-owned property!

But how are stormwater fees calculated? The stormwater fee for 2009 was $75 per “ERU”—an acronym that refers to the quantity or amount of impervious surface at your property. Impervious surface such as pavement leads to run-off that has to be drained by the City’s stormwater infrastructure. A single-family dwelling is “assessed” at a quantity of 1 ERU. Larger properties are charged a proportionately increasing ERU figure. For example, an office building with a parking deck may have more than 50 ERUs.

To see how many stormwater units you are paying for, look at this portion of your last tax bill:

For questions about the City’s stormwater policies, please contact the City’s Stormwater Utility.

Taxes and fees?! A two-part series

In addition to your property tax, most owners in Decatur have two additional fees on their accounts every year: residential sanitation (trash pick-up) and stormwater (for drainage).

Part I: Sanitation

Most residential properties have one sanitation charge, which for 2009 was $225. Condo associations or multi-family dwellings may have arranged their own commercial sanitation service separately, in which case no residential charges should appear on your account. Dwellings such as duplexes or homes with carriage houses should have two sanitation charges (for a total of $450). You can double-check how many units you are being charged for by looking at your last tax bill:

If you have general questions about trash pick-ups or about how the City arrived at $225 as the current annual fee, please contact our Public Works Department at 404-377-5571. If you have a question specifically about your sanitation payment or the arithmetic on your tax bill, please contact the Revenue Division.

My next post will focus on stormwater fees.