Forsyth County Taxes To Increase, 3 Public Meetings Slated

FORSYTH COUNTY, GA — The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners today announces its intention to maintain the county’s Maintenance & Operating and Fire millage rates currently in place with no change. The Bond Rate is advertised to be reduced. Due to growth in the tax digest, Maintenance & Operating property taxes levied by the County this year will increase by a net 4.46 percent over the rollback millage rate.

The proposed county Maintenance & Operations rate remains unchanged at 4.642 mills. The proposed Fire rate remains unchanged at 1.975 mills. The proposed Bond rate will be reduced one tenth of a mill to 1.319 mills. These rates will fund the county’s 2019 general operating budget, which is currently in the preliminary stages of development. Forsyth County continues to have millage rates among the lowest in metro Atlanta.

A growth of 8.02% in Forsyth County’s tax digest means that, while the county is maintaining the same millage rates with no change, the anticipated total collections will increase. Of the 8.02 percent growth, new construction in 2017 has added 3.41 percent to the tax digest. The remaining 4.61 percent comes from increased values from reassessments.

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Any change in an individual tax bill will depend upon the change in assessed valuation for that property.

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 or growth occurred.

The preliminary 2019 budget presented to the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners is based on a millage rate higher than the rollback millage rate, therefore before the Board of Commissioners may set a final millage rate, Georgia law requires three public hearings to be held to allow the public an opportunity to express their opinions on the increase.

All concerned citizens are invited and encouraged to attend the public hearings:

Thursday, July 5 at 11 a.m.

Thursday, July 5 at 5 p.m.

Thursday, July 19 at 6 p.m.

All three public hearings will be held at the Forsyth County Administration Building located at 110 E. Main Street, Suite 220, in Cumming. Adoption of the millage rate is slated for July 19 at 6:30 p.m. as part of the Board of Commissioners’ regular meeting.

Notice of Property Tax Increase
Current 2018 Tax Digest and 5 Year History of Levy

Graphic courtesy Forsyth County