Fulton County Sets 2018 Millage Rate

FULTON COUNTY, GA — A divided Fulton County Commission voted on Wednesday to adopted its 2018 general fund millage rate. The board voted 4-3, with Commissioners Lee Morris, Bob Ellis and Liz Hausmann opposing, to set the rate at 10.20 mills.

The county notes this is a reduction from the 2017 rate of 10.38 mills, and the proposal adopted by commissioners encourages Fulton County to pursue additional rollbacks in upcoming years through 2022.

“We heard a message from taxpayers all over the County that the tax bills they received included assessment increases that were just too much to bear,” said Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts. “We are responsible for heading off the steep increases those residents faced and ensuring no reduction in services to citizens. This decision ensures those citizens need not worry about the county demonstrating fiscal restraint and confronting the initial 'sticker shock' in those notices.”

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However, the new rate will still result in a 6 percent tax increase, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The newspaper also reported the county commission voted to apply for a temporary court order to collect 2018 property taxes. This was agreed upon because the county has had 40,000 people file appeals of their property assessments, which represents more than 8 percent of its tax digest, the report indicates. This threshold means the county can't submit the 2018 digest to the state Department of Revenue for approval.

As readers recall, Fulton County had to go to court to obtain a collection order in 2017 since the tax digest from that year had been rejected by the state.

The vote to raise property taxes came down to a party-line decision, with all Democrats voting in favor of the new millage rate. Fulton District 2 Commissioner Bob Ellis, a Republican, said on his Facebook page that those voting in the affirmative believe an increase that "wasn’t needed to meet a budget, wasn’t need to maintain a reserve and went exactly against what they weren’t going to do a month ago a win."

"Sadly, yesterday the Fulton County taxpayers were the losers," he said Thursday.

The Board also adopted a Bond Fund millage rate of 0.23 mills, a reduction of 0.02 mills. The Bond Fund provides continued support of the Library Referendum General Obligation Bonds’ annual debt service requirements, as approved by Fulton County voters in 2008.

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