Press release announcing a proposed property tax increase

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The Emanuel County Board of Commissioners today announces its intentions to increase the 2023 property taxes it will levy this year by 12.93 percent over the rollback millage rate.

Each year, the board of tax assessors is required to review the assessed value for property tax purposes of taxable property in the county. When the trend of prices on properties that have recently sold in the county indicate there has been an increase in the fair market value of any specific property, the board of tax assessors is required by law to re-determine the value of such property and adjust the assessment. This is called a reassessment.

When the total digest of taxable property is prepared, Georgia law requires a rollback millage rate 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 reassessment occurred.

The budget tentatively adopted by the Emanuel County Board of Commissioners requires a millage rate higher than the rollback millage rate; therefore, before the Emanuel County Board of Commissions may finalize the tentative budget and 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.

All concerned citizens are invited to the public hearings on this tax increase to be held at the Coleman Hotel, 101 North Main Street, Swainsboro, GA, on August 28, 2023, at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., and on September 5, 2023, at 6 p.m.