During two meetings inJuly, the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners adopted all millage rateslevied in the county. The county’s portion of the overall millage rate is 7.936mills, the same as last year.

During a July 23 specialcalled meeting, the Board of Commissioners adopted a required resolution forall millage rates levied in the county, including the Board of Education andthe new South Forsyth CID along with the county’s rates adopted July 18.

At the July 18 meeting, theboard voted to adopt the county’s Maintenance and Operations (M&O) millagerate of 4.791 mills. Due to the growth in the tax digest, M&O propertytaxes levied by the county this year will increase by a net 7.42% over therollback millage rate. The Board of Commissioners voted to approve the Firerate of 2.175 mills and a reduced Bond rate of 0.970 mills.

These rates will fund thecounty’s 2020 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 8.37% is thetotal growth over the 2018 tax digest, which means the anticipated 2019 totalcollections will increase. Of the 8.37% growth, 4.11% is due to newconstruction in 2018 and the remaining 4.26% derives from increased values fromreassessments on non-homesteadedproperties.

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 ofproperty tax bills.

Forsyth County staff,Finance Committee and Board of Commissioners will continue preparing thecounty’s preliminary 2020 budget, which is slated for adoption in October.