During their July 23meeting, the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners adopted all millage rateslevied in the County. The County’s portion of the overall millage rate is 7.896mills, which is slightly less than last year.

During the meeting, theBoard of Commissioners adopted a required resolution for all millage rateslevied in the County, including the Board of Education.

During the meeting, theboard voted to adopt the County’s Maintenance and Operations (M&O) millagerate of 4.791 mills, the same as last year. Due to the growth in the taxdigest, Maintenance & Operating property taxes levied by the County thisyear will increase by a net 2.07% over the rollback millage rate. The Board ofCommissioners voted to approve the Fire rate of 2.175 mills (same as last year)and a Bond rate of 0.930 mills (slightly less than last year).

These rates will fund thecounty’s 2021 general operating budget, which is currently in the preliminarystages of development. Forsyth County continues to have millage rates among thelowest in metro Atlanta.

A growth of 4.67% inForsyth County’s tax digest means that, while the county is maintaining thesame millage rates with no change, the anticipated total collections willincrease. Of the 4.67% growth, 2.55% is due to new construction in 2019 and theremaining 2.12% comes from increased values from reassessments.

Any change in anindividual tax bill will depend upon the change in assessed valuation for thatproperty, and the value of any Homestead Exemption, which may also change withthe assessed value. Forsyth County has a “floating” Homestead Exemption, whichis designed to keep the net taxable value at the prior year’s amount. This “floating”exemption only applies to the county M&O and fire portions of property taxbills.

Forsyth County staff,Finance Committee and Board of Commissioners will continue preparing thecounty’s proposed 2021 budget, which is slated for adoption in October.