Forsyth County To Keep Tax Rate Steady

An increase in the Forsyth County tax digest could mean no property tax increases for residents.

The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners on Friday announced its plans to maintain the county’s current millage rate and, due to the growth in the tax digest, increase the property taxes it will levy this year by 0.40% over the rollback millage rate.

An increase of 3.1% in the county's tax digest means that while the county is hold the millage rate steady, the anticipated total collections will increase. 

Of the 3.1% growth, new construction last year added 2.7% to the tax digest. The remaining 0.40% came from increased values from reassessments.

Any change in a person's individual tax bill will depend upon whether there was a change int he assessed valuation of that property. 

Once the total digest of taxable property is prepared, Georgia law requires that a rollback millage rate must be tabulated, which will produce the same total revenue on the current year’s digest that last year’s millage rate would have shown that no growth had occurred. 

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

Those public hearings are set for 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Tuesday July 2 and 5 p.m. Thursday July 18 at the county administration building. The millage rate is set to be adopted at 6 p.m. July 18.