Habersham property values rise to $1.2 billion

Governments in Habersham County will have to get by on less tax revenue in the coming year even though property values appear to be rising.

Now Habersham received a draft copy of the soon-to-be-released Tax Digest which lays out the value of all the property in Habersham County.

These initial figures show the current total value of all “Real and Personal” property in the county is more than $1.2 billion, an increase of about $17 million over 2014.

“You can see some growth as you go through here,” County Finance Director Trey Wood points out. “That’s a good thing in my opinion.”

Unfortunately, for the county government, the taxable value of cars, trucks and other motor vehicles dropped by right at $20 million and the value of mobile homes dipped slightly. The drop in motor vehicle taxes is not unexpected. In 2013, Georgia shifted from yearly ad valorem taxes to a one-time “title tax” on cars and trucks. That line item of the digest has dropped every year since.

Wood stresses that all these numbers are just a draft of the official digest, “They (Tax Commissioner and Tax Assessor) are still tweaking some of the numbers so it could adjust a little bit.” We expect to see a final version before the end of the month.

The draft digest suggests the county government will likely have less to spend in 2016. While real estate values trended higher, once you include homestead and other exemptions, the county expects to collect $105 thousand less in 2016 than they did this year.

Habersham County Commissioners have already said they won’t increase the millage rate so they’ll have to get by on about 1% less in property tax revenue. That’s not a surprise to Wood. His office developed the new 2016 county budget very conservatively, projecting no growth in property tax revenue at all.

Commissioners did the first reading and public hearing on the new spending plan at their regular meeting on Monday. In total, Habersham leaders expect to spend about $21 million over the next 12 months.