2024 Property Taxes

The Whitfield County Board of Education has tentatively adopted a millage rate which will require an increase in property taxes by 12.06 percent. All concerned citizens are invited to the public hearings on this tax increase to be held at the Whitfield County Schools District Office, located at 3264 Cleveland Highway, Dalton, Georgia 30721 on October 23, 2024 at noon and 6:00 p.m. Times and places of additional public hearings on this tax increase are at the Whitfield County Schools District Office, located at 3264 Cleveland Highway, Dalton, Georgia 30721 on November 6, 2024 at 7:30 a.m. This tentative increase will result in a millage rate of 18.850 mills, an increase of 2.028 mills. Without this tentative tax increase, the millage rate will be no more than 16.822 mills. The proposed tax increase for a home with a fair market value of $175,000 is approximately $142 and the proposed tax increase for non-homestead property with a fair market value of $132,143 is approximately $107.

Tuesday, October 15 — The Whitfield County Board of Education today announces its consideration to increase the millage rate of 18.50 mills to 18.850 using an estimated 2024 tax digest. 

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 indicates 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 2024 estimated tax digest is based on a 10% increase of the 2023 tax digest.

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.

The Fiscal Year 2025 began on July 1, 2024.  The General Fund budget adopted by the Whitfield County Board of Education includes a projected revenue increase from property taxes of 17% which helped to compensate for increased expenditures.  The 2024 estimated tax digest is based on a 10% increase of the 2023 tax digest.  To help offset the deficit in property tax revenue, and to ensure sufficient funding to cover the budgeted expenses, a millage rate higher than the rollback rate is necessary. 

Georgia law requires three public hearings to be held to allow the public an opportunity to express their opinions on the proposed millage rate.  All concerned citizens are invited to the public hearings on the proposed millage rate to be held at the Whitfield County Schools District Office, located at 3264 Cleveland Highway, Dalton, Georgia 30721 on October 23 at noon and 6:00 p.m., and November 6 at 7:30 a.m.