Toccoa Put a Tax Increase Before the Public Three Times, but the Final Millage Rate Is Still Unclear

Toccoa City Commission’s last documented step on its proposed 2024 millage rate and tax increase was a public hearing scheduled for Aug. 26, 2024. The city agenda placed the proposal before commissioners for a third hearing after earlier July and August listings, but it does not say whether the hearing occurred, whether the commission voted, or what rate ultimately took effect.

That unresolved outcome matters to property owners inside Toccoa because the city’s millage rate helps determine municipal property-tax bills. The hearing notices identified the meetings as the public venue for considering a proposed tax increase, yet the agendas do not give residents a confirmed final rate, the size of an adopted increase, or the effect on an individual bill.

The matter first appeared on a July 22 agenda as a public hearing on the proposed millage rate and tax increase. It returned for another scheduled hearing on Aug. 12 and then for the Aug. 26 hearing, a sequence that showed the proposal remained under public consideration into late August. WNEG Radio reported on Aug. 12 that the Aug. 26 session would be the third and final hearing, but that report is not a commission action record.

According to WNEG Radio’s reporting, City Manager Fredda Wheeler described a proposed increase from 5.20 to 6.0 mills, said the city rate applied to property owners within city limits, and attributed the need for a change to rising unavoidable expenses. She also said the millage process was separate from adoption of the FY2025 budget and that public input remained useful. For property owners, the core concern is whether that reported proposal became their actual city tax rate; the cited agendas do not answer it.

The documented acts are the scheduling and repeated listing of three public hearings, not adoption of a tax rate. The July 22 agenda material contains an “ADOPTED” label, but nothing in that material connects the label to final action on the millage proposal. WNEG Radio’s account supports that a 6.0-mill rate was proposed, not that commissioners approved it. No cited agenda records a motion, amendment, vote, rejection or final levy.

There is no newer official action or future hearing in the documented record. The next meaningful public step is the appearance of a commission record that identifies what happened after the Aug. 26 hearing—whether the proposal was changed, adopted or rejected, and the final millage rate, if any. Until then, the city’s hearing schedule establishes the process, but not its conclusion.