Property Tax Increase Hearings Start Tuesday

CANTON, GA -- Cherokee County commissioners have scheduled three public hearings to allow citizens to weigh in on a proposal to increase taxes.

The tentatively adopted millage rate will require an increase in property taxes by 4.88 percent, so the county is required to host the hearings.

Residents can speak out on the proposal at 6 p.m. July 5, July 19 and July 21. All hearings will be held at the Cherokee County administration building at 1130 Bluffs Parkway in Canton.

This tentative increase will result in a general fund millage rate of 5.825, an increase of 0.271 mills. Without tentative increase, the millage rate will be no more than 5.554.

That proposed increase would fund a 2.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment for employees.

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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 show 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.

According to figures provided by the county, the proposed tax increase for a home valued at $200,000 is $20.33, and the proposed tax increase for a non-homestead property with a fair market value of $175,000 is
$18.97.

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