Stephens County’s proposed tax increase remained unresolved as a later millage rollback took effect

Stephens County commissioners later adopted a rollback of county millage rates for fiscal year 2027, according to WNEG Radio’s Aug. 14, 2026, report, marking a lower-rate decision in a subsequent budget cycle after the station had reported a proposed property-tax increase the year before. The 2026 account said the rollback was adopted at a called meeting and reduced total rates by 4% in unincorporated areas and 3.5% in incorporated areas from the prior fiscal year.

The later rollback does not settle the central unanswered question from 2025: whether Stephens County ultimately imposed the proposed increase then under discussion. Millage rates help determine the county portion of property-tax bills, so the issue carried countywide consequences for homeowners and other property owners, even though this account does not provide a rate, projected revenue figure or household-by-household tax effect for the 2025 proposal.

On July 14, 2025, WNEG Radio reported that the Board of Commissioners had tentatively adopted a millage rate that would require a property-tax increase. That report set three hearings for later that month and early August, placing the proposal before residents. More than a year later, WNEG reported that the commission had approved a fiscal year 2027 operating budget on June 23, 2026, then adopted a full millage rollback on Aug. 14 based on that budget. The latter action was a separate proceeding and fiscal year, not confirmation of what happened to the 2025 proposal.

County officials were the principal voices in WNEG’s 2025 coverage: the station said Commission Vice Chairman Chris Rickman explained the tentative rate’s implications, while County Administrator Christian Hamilton discussed the advertised property-tax increase notices and described the process as complicated. The report invited all concerned citizens to the hearings, giving residents a formal chance to comment. It did not document testimony, organized support or opposition, or the commissioners’ reasoning for the tentative increase.

The 2025 increase was reported as tentative, not final. WNEG’s 2025 report establishes that a proposal and hearing schedule were reported, but it is not an official item-result record and does not prove a commission vote, the completion of the hearings, or a final millage-rate outcome. By contrast, WNEG’s 2026 report described an adopted rollback, including rates of 9.956 mills for unincorporated maintenance and operations and 12.241 mills for incorporated maintenance and operations, plus 3.374 mills for the listed special districts. That reported action does not establish whether the 2025 increase was approved, revised or rejected.

The next public step identified in the July 2025 WNEG report was the final listed hearing, scheduled for 6 p.m. Aug. 4, 2025, at the Stephens County Historic Courthouse, 37 West Tugalo St. in Toccoa; earlier hearings were scheduled for July 28 at 8:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. The report does not establish whether those meetings occurred or what followed them. What remains undecided in this account is the final 2025 county millage rate and whether that reported property-tax increase ever took effect.