Forsyth County taxpayers can speak up at public hearings about the proposed millage rates and budget

Forsyth County residents will have three opportunities to give their input on the County’s preliminary 2023 budget and millage rate(Image by Michelle Hall)

(Forsyth County, GA) Forsyth County residents will have three opportunities to give their input on the County’s preliminary 2023 budget and the final millage rate decided by the Board of Commissioners.

According to a press release from the County, the following rates remain the same and the BOC intends to keep it that way:

• The proposed County Maintenance & Operations rate remains unchanged at 4.791 mills
• The proposed Fire rate remains unchanged at 2.175 mills.
• The proposed Bond rate remains unchanged at 0.930 mills

These rates make up the 2023 County budget, which is currently under development.

However, the County’s tax digest has grown 13.46 percent due to new construction in 2021 (4.62 percent) and increased values from home reassessments (8.84 percent). This means that while the County’s millage rates remain the same, total collections will increase for the County.

Due to changes in the tax digest, the County’s millage rates remain the same but total collections will increase for the County(Image by Forsyth County Government)

According to the press release:

“When the total digest of taxable property is prepared, Georgia law requires that a rollback millage rate must be computed that will produce the same total revenue on the current year’s digest that last year’s millage rate would have produced had no reassessments or growth occurred.

Due to the growth in the tax digest, Maintenance & Operations taxes will increase by a net 8.44% over the rollback millage rate. The preliminary 2023 budget presented to the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners is based on a millage rate higher than the rollback millage rate, therefore before the Board of Commissioners may set a final millage rate, Georgia law requires three public hearings to be held to allow the public an opportunity to express their opinions on the increase.”

The public hearings will be held on the following dates and times:

• Thursday, July 7 at 11 a.m.
• Thursday, July 7 at 5 p.m.
• Thursday, July 21 at 6 p.m.

All three public hearings will take place at the Forsyth County Administration Building located at 110 E. Main Street, Suite 220, in Cumming.

The final millage rate will be decided during the BOC regular meeting on July 21 at 6:30 p.m.

If you have a news tip in Forsyth County, contact Justine Lookenott at justine.lookenott@newsbreak.com.

To learn more about tax assessments in Forsyth County, read “Higher Forsyth County property tax assessment? Find out why it's gone up, plus get tax tips.”