Gilmer millage rate lower than Georgia average
Members of the Gilmer County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted to raise the General Maintenance and Operation millage rate in a Wednesday, July 29 special called meeting.
“Everybody wants roads, but nobody wants their taxes raised to pay for that road,” Gilmer County Commissioner Chairman Charlie Paris said.
The old rate was 5.829 mills, and the new rate will be 6.079.
This rate includes only the county government’s portion of taxes.
The County Commissioners also voted unanimously to leave the General Obligation Bond millage rate at .5 mills.
Paris said he believes the county will be able to pay off its general obligation bonds of $11 million in four years.
The millage rate measures the amount of property taxes a homeowner must pay. For the combined millage rate of 6.579, a resident has to pay about $6.58 for every $1,000 of assessed value.
According to the Georgia Department of Revenue, the county’s average millage rate is 30 mills.
Some of this property tax increase comes from rising insurance prices.
It’s likely that insurance costs will rise by somewhere between $1.2 million and $800,000 for the county next year.
Although the county has implemented cost-cutting measures in the past on insurance, there’s a limit on how far it can go.
“If we’re going to stay competitive with the other counties, there’s just so much we can do in that regard,” Paris said.
Negotiations with insurance companies are still in progress.
In addition, Paris pledged to eliminate the requirement for residents to pay in cash for waste disposal.
“It has to be exact change, no checks, no credit cards,” Paris said. “The citizens don’t like it.”
Instead, residents will have their trash payments included in property taxes.
“We’re bringing in just under $600,000 a year from this,” Paris said. “That’ll be the amount that will be moving from property taxes for it.”
For a homeowner with a $500,000 house, the new millage rate will mean paying $50 more each year, minus whatever they normally pay to the county for garbage disposal.
For taxpayers, this system will be slightly more expensive than paying for their own trash to ensure the system is ready for unforeseen costs, Paris said.
This new system will also come with some kind of requirement for people dropping off trash to prove they are residents or short-term renters in Gilmer County.
“I don’t want to have somebody come in who will not qualify under any of that but has a bag of smelly garbage in their car and they’re on their way back to Minnesota,” Paris said.
Given that it’s the time of year when every Georgia county calculates its millage rates, it’s not yet possible to compare Gilmer’s new rates with other counties.
But last year, Gilmer had the ninth-lowest millage rate out of Georgia’s 159 counties.
The counties around Gilmer also have some of the state’s lowest millage rates, Paris said.
Gilmer’s millage rate would be lower if it weren’t for the county’s bad financial situation 15 years ago.
At that time, the county sold off equipment it has since had to replace.
As the county government continues to financially recover, its millage rate will likely improve.
“It costs more to rebuild than it does just to maintain what you’ve got,” Paris said.