Press Release Announcing a Proposed Property Tax Increase

The City of Blue Ridge today announces its intention to increase the 2016 property taxes it will levy this year by 3.75 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. The increase in 2016 property taxes is the result of property reassessments and not an increase in the millage rate from the prior year.

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 occurred.

All concerned citizens are invited to the public hearings on this tax increase to be held at City Hall, 480 West First Street, Blue Ridge, Georgia on October 11, 2016 at 10 am and 6:00 pm and on October 18, 2016 at 10:00 am.

The budget tentatively adopted by the City of Blue Ridge requires a millage rate higher than the rollback millage rate, therefore, before the City of Blue Ridge 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.

Kelsey Ledford

City Clerk

City of Blue Ridge