Habersham County property owners will get their final say Wednesday on a pending tax increase. County commissioners will hold two public hearings on the proposed millage rate at 11:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. on July 26.
The morning meeting will be held in the Commissioners Conference Room in the Administration Building at 130 Jacobs Way in Clarkesville. The evening meeting will be held in the Jury Assembly Room in the Courthouse at 295 Llewellyn Street in Clarkesville.
School and state tax breaks
County officials have touted that the county will see a decrease in the overall millage rate. The decrease is due to the tax rollback the Habersham County Board of Education approved at their July board meeting. The BOE rolled back its millage rate to 10.354 mills, a millage rate reduction of 1.372 mills.
Property owners with homestead exemptions will see an additional decrease in their tax bills due to a one-time grant approved by state legislators. The Homestead Tax Relief Grant will reduce the assessed value for qualified property owners by $18,000. According to Habersham County Manager Alicia Vaughn, those property owners in the unincorporated areas of the county could see as much as a $450 reduction on their tax bill.
While the state and board of education are reducing property taxes, the county intends to raise them.
Hike in EMS millage rate
A closer look at Habersham’s proposed millage rate schedule shows an increase in the Emergency Services millage rate. The General Fund M & O millage rate is proposed to stay the same at 12.682 mills. The Hospital Debt Fund (Bonds) will remain static as well at 0.842 mills. However, the Emergency Services millage rate will increase from 0.825 to 1.124 mills, an increase of 0.299 mills.
The millage rate increase will generate approximately $515,988 for the Emergency Services Fund. At the first public hearing last week, Finance Administrator Kiani Holden stated why the increase: “The general fund actually supplemented the Emergency Services department for some of their salary increases and some of their inflationary costs last year. So we’re just going to up their millage to cover their increased costs of their department.”
Habersham County Commissioners Bruce Harkness and Jimmy Tench have indicated that they are in favor of a millage rate rollback, whereas Commissioners Bruce Palmer and Ty Akins have indicated that they want to hold the county’s millage rate at its current rate. Commissioner Dustin Mealor has yet to indicate where he stands on the issue.
