County Commission announces a proposed property tax increase

The Cook County Board of Commissioners has announced their intention to increase the 2022 property taxes that the County will levy this year by 6.13 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 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 redetermine the value of such property and adjust the assessment. This is called a reassessment.

When the total digest of taxable property is prepared, Georgia law requires 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 budget tentatively adopted by the Cook County Board of Commissioners requires a millage rate higher than the rollback millage rate; therefore, before the Cook County Board of Commissioners may finalize the tentative budget and set the 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.  

All concerned citizens are invited to the public hearings on this tax increase to be held at the County Administration Building, 1200 S. Hutchinson Ave., Adel, on Aug. 8, 2022, at 6 p.m., and on Aug. 15, 2022, at 10 a.m. and 6  p.m.