Fulton County Votes To Raise Property Taxes

The Fulton County Board of Commissioners have approved a 17 percent property tax increase.

The commission on Wednesday voted 4-3 to increase its millage rate 11.781 mills from 10.211 mills.

Commissioners Robb Pitts, Joan Garner and Liz Hausmann voted against the increase while Chairman John Eaves and commissioners Bill Edwards, Emma Darnell and Tom Lowe supported the measure, according to WSB-TV.

Now that the rate is adopted, property owners can expect to see higher tax bills. For example, a home valued at $275,000 will pay an additional $140 in property taxes. A home valued at $375,000 would pay $263 more in taxes.

The county was originally set to approve the 2014 millage rate in July. However, the commission decided to delay the vote and schedule three additional hearings to give the public more chances to weigh in.

Each year, the Board of Tax Assessors is required to review the assessed value for property tax purposes of taxable property in the county.

When the trend of prices on properties that have recently sold in the county indicate there has been an increase in the fair market value of any specific property, the board of tax assessors is required by law to re‐determine the value of such property and adjust the assessment. This is called a reassessment.

When the total digest of taxable property is prepared, Georgia law requires that a rollback millage rate must be computed that will produce the same total revenue on the current year’s digest that last year’s millage rate would have produced had no reassessments occurred.

The budget tentatively adopted by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners required a millage rate higher than a rollback millage rate. So, Georgia law required the county to hold three public hearings before it can finalize its budget and set its millage rate.