Fulton County property owners will get their first chance to tell county commissioners what they think of a proposal that might raise taxes by more than 10 percent during the first of three public hearings on Wednesday, July 9.
The commission voted on June 18 for a proposed millage rate of 9.87, a full mill higher than the staff recommendation. That would raise $78.9 million more in property tax revenue. When the commission sets the final millage rate, it could adopt a lower rate, but it can’t go any higher than the proposed rate.
If the commissioners adopted the 8.87 millage rate that staff proposed, increases in tax assessments would still bring in $7.8 million more in property taxes.
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• Fulton County increased property taxes by 3.74 percent
• Fulton Commission finally approves property tax millage rate
Commissioners Bridget Thorne, Bob Ellis, and Chairman Robb Pitts voted against the higher millage rate. Thorne said he trusts the county’s finance team, who spoke with every department, and examined historical spending and future spending before giving the commission its recommendation.
“People are already spending enough, and they’re getting higher assessed values,” Thorne told Rough Draft Atlanta. “We have a lot of uncertainty in the economy right now. Home prices are just skyrocketing. Rents are skyrocketing because of the home prices, the cost of living is up – we just don’t need to burden people with higher taxes.”
During the June 18 commission meeting, Commissioner Dana Barrett said she thought it was prudent to propose a higher millage rate to give commissioners more “wiggle room.” She was concerned about what expenses might come out of the consent decree the county has with the U.S. Department of Justice over the Fulton County Jail.
Commissioner Mo Ivory, who made the motion to set the millage rate proposal higher, said during that meeting constituents asking the commission for more services, but not to raise taxes, don’t understand how the budget works.
“I feel like fundamentally, when our citizens completely understand how it works, they would be in support of spreading out the cost of raising the millage rate amongst all property owners so that everybody could get more [of] the services that we provide, which continue to go up and up in expense, could be spread out and given to everybody,” Ivory said during the meeting.
Ellis said he was at a loss during the last meeting on how the commission got to the point of raising the millage rate when five of their members adopted a budget based on the staff’s millage rate proposal.
“There’s nothing that’s sort of gone off track in terms of our projected spend or whatever, that would suggest that we are going to run out of money and be in a financial crunch in 2025 in such a way that it would necessitate us having to raise taxes at all,” Ellis said, “and certainly not to the grade of 10 percent.”
The commission will set the 2025 millage rate on Aug. 6. The proposed rate is 9.87 mills. The 2024 rate was 8.87 mills.
Property owners can attend the public hearings at the Government Center at 141 Pryor St., SW, Atlanta, or use the following links to join virtually to offer input on the millage rate:
