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JAN HART | REALTOR® c: 678.596.3684 o: 404.480.HOME
JAN HART | REALTOR® c: 678.596.3684 o: 404.480.HOME
GEORGIA RAE HART | REALTOR® c: 678.266.8241 o: 404.480.HOME
GEORGIA RAE HART | REALTOR® Sandy Springs considers c: 678.266.8241 o: 404.480.HOME
ANSLEYRE.COM | 404.480.HOME | 3035 PEACHTREE ROAD, SUITE 202, ATLANTA, GA 30305 Equal housing opportunity. If you have an existing brokerage relationship, this is not intended as a solicitation. All data believed to be accurate but not warranted.
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► PAGE 4 ANSLEYRE.COM | 404.480.HOME | 3035 PEACHTREE ROAD, SUITE 202, ATLANTA, GA 30305 Equal housing opportunity. If you have an existing brokerage relationship, this is not intended as a solicitation. All data believed to be accurate but not warranted. J u l y 2 , 2 0 2 6 | A p p e n M e d i a . c o m | A n A p p e n M e d i a G r o u p P u b l i c a t i o n | 5 0 ¢ | Vo l u m e 5 , N o . 2 7
Sandy Springs adopts budget of $1.08 billion
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ANSLEYRE.COM | 404.480.HOME | 3035 PEACHTREE ROAD, SUITE 202, ATLANTA, GA 303 Equal housing opportunity. If you have an existing brokerage relationship, this is not intended as a solicitation. A
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By DYANA BAGBY dyana@appenmedia.com SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — The Sandy Springs City Council approved its fiscal year 2027 budget totaling $1.089 billion at its June 16 meeting. There was no comment from the public or from council members during the public hearing. The city’s fiscal year runs from July to June. The budget includes $170.4 million in the general fund to pay for day-today city operations. The city’s property tax rate, or millage rate, is staying the same as it has since Sandy Springs was founded 20 years ago at 4.731 mills, City Manager Eden Freeman told the council. A tax rate of one mill represents a tax liability of one dollar per $1,000 of assessed value. Revenue sources More than $124 million in taxes fund the city’s general fund in FY 2027. Property tax revenues are projected at $49.5 million — a 4 percent increase over the 2026 budget. The Local Option Sales Tax (LOST), the city’s second-largest revenue source, is projected at $36 million, a 14 percent increase from last year. LOST is the 1 percent Fulton County sales tax added to retail purchases to offset property taxes and used to fund local government services.
See BUDGET, Page 7
RUSTY PAUL/PROVIDED
Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul, left, visits Heards Ferry Elementary School each Earth Day in his beekeeper suit to teach students about honeybees, beekeeping and the insects’ role in the ecosystem.
Mayor enjoys sweetest of pastimes BY DYANA BAGBY dyana@appenmedia.com SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul has been keeping bees since he was a teenager and currently maintains hives in Georgia and Alabama. The four-term mayor started beekeeping when he was 15 — after his dad brought home five hives and told him they were his
responsibility — and he “learned by doing” as he kept the hives through college. “About 25 years ago, I decided to take up beekeeping again and started doing it as a hobby and to provide the family with honey,” he said. Paul currently has one hive at his Sandy Springs home and 15 at his farm in North Alabama. Memorial Day weekend is his
traditional honey harvest — and now he gets help from his grandchildren. “The farm has been in our family since my great-grandfather bought it in 1880. My grandsons, who help me harvest honey and blueberries, are the sixth generation to ‘farm’ on this land,” he said.
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