Chattooga County to Roll Back Millage Rate

Chattooga County Sole Commissioner Blake Elsberry will hold a public meeting on August 16, 2022 at 5 p.m. at the Chattooga County Civic Center. The purpose of the meeting is to provide citizens with a better understanding of a proposed millage rate reduction, “roll back”,  to offset the impact of inflation.

“As we continue to see increasing inflation and look towards a possible recession people are struggling,” Commissioner Elsberry said. “I felt that it was important to do what we could at the local level to help.”

Commissioner Elsberry proposes to roll back the millage rate used to calculate property taxes to the lowest point it has been in five years.

“The county government has seen large increases in costs, but luckily we have great elected officials, department directors, and staff that have helped in making it possible to continue with a roll back this year,” Elsberry said.

The proposed millage rate of 16.0706  is the lowest rate in five years.

Regarding the financial health of the county and the past trend of dependence on Tax Anticipation Notes (TAN) Elsberry pointed out, “in previous years the county has had to pull a TAN in January. My first year in office we didn’t have to pull from the TAN until April. This year we didn’t have to pull from it until July and that was with $300,000 less revenue from rolling back the milage the year before, and during the current inflation. We hope to continue this trending down of the TAN in the years to come.”