Taxes are about to go up in Polk
Property tax millage rates set by County Commission for residents with an increase Over three public hearings, the public let the Polk County Commission know that any increase in taxes was going to come with consequences for local residents – especially seniors who live on fixed incomes and can’t eat the cost. But despite that, […]
Property tax millage rates set by County Commission for residents with an increase
Over three public hearings, the public let the Polk County Commission know that any increase in taxes was going to come with consequences for local residents – especially seniors who live on fixed incomes and can’t eat the cost.
But despite that, the County Commission admitted they needed the money in order to keep up with bills and avoid having to eat further into reserve funds, so a millage rate increase was required and thus property tax millage rates went up countywide to 7.5 mills last week. Couple with the 15 mills set for the rate for the Board of Education for property tax bills to fund local contributions to schools, tax bills are set to go up.
The Commission admitted they had no choice but to pass the 15 mill rate as just a pass-through vote so they could go on tax bills, and had no authority to change that rate that went into effect alongside the rate set by the County Commission.
One of the reasons that this year’s tax bills will see increases also coincides with a double whammy: recent years where property evaluations for residences and commercial buildings have gone up after years of remaining flat.
Rockmart resident Mark Lusted questioned why the millage rate was going up despite the budget figures going down, but only got “come see me answers” from County Administration over specifics in the budget as to why certain areas were increasing, and others were decreasing.
Another resident (whose name I couldn’t catch in the limited video I had from the third public hearing – KtE) did also ask why the county hadn’t recruited new industrial firms to bring in jobs and new tax revenue to offset what residents are having to pay.
County Manager Matt Denton was only able to say that the county had tried to recruit new industrial partners, but so far “hadn’t had any luck.”
New industries who move to the area have in the years past made tax deals that delay their full payments for property taxes based on the value of their buildings, equipment and warehoused products, decreasing the amount of collections the county receives annually. This is provided as an incentive to help bring industries into the area and increase the number of locally-available jobs.
General complaints about increases in property values over the past years suddenly jumping alongside the increase in the millage rate were the theme for three of the county’s public hearing allowing for comment on the increase approved on August 14.
One positive for seniors who are facing the increased tax bills this year is a ballot measure being decided locally in November during off-year elections to allow Polk to provide a senior exemption on taxes for those elderly residents who no longer have children in the Polk School District.