Toccoa’s 2022 Tax Rate Was Reported Approved, but Official Result Is Still Unconfirmed

Toccoa’s City Commission was scheduled to consider the city’s 2022 property-tax millage rate at its July 25, 2022 meeting, and WNEG Radio reported the following day that commissioners approved a 5.6-mill rate in a 4–0 vote. The city agenda establishes that the rate was before the commission; WNEG’s report attributes the proposed rate to City Manager Billy Morse and says Commissioner Terry Carter was absent.

The decision matters because the millage rate is a central part of the calculation behind city property-tax bills. Homeowners and other property owners need the final rate to understand what governed their 2022 tax liability, while the city needs a documented action to show how the rate moved from budget deliberations into tax administration. The agenda alone does not identify a proposed figure, a vote or a final rate.

The documented sequence begins with the July 25 agenda, which placed “Consideration” of the 2022 tax millage rate on the commission’s new-business agenda without recording an outcome. WNEG Radio then reported that Morse presented a proposed 5.6-mill rate during that regular meeting, that Commissioner Evan Hellenga moved for approval and Vice Mayor David Austin seconded it, and that the motion passed. The station also reported that the rate was lower than the 2021 rate.

According to WNEG Radio, Mayor Jeanette Jamieson said the commission’s fiscal-year 2023 budget work did not point to a need to increase residents’ tax liability and described the rollback as preventing an increase in property tax. Hellenga and Austin were reported as supporting the approval motion. Property owners are the people most directly affected by the result because their bills depend in part on the rate ultimately adopted and used.

What is official and established is limited: the July 25 agenda scheduled commission consideration of the 2022 millage rate. WNEG Radio reported that a 5.6-mill rate was approved 4–0, that bills would be mailed Sept. 15, 2022, and that taxes would be due Nov. 15. Those reported details do not substitute for an official item-result record, minutes or later city record confirming the vote, the rate’s implementation or any subsequent change.

The next concrete public step is to locate the July 25 meeting minutes, an official item-result record, or a later city tax document that states the rate set and used for 2022. Until then, the central unresolved questions are whether commissioners formally acted that night, whether the reported 5.6-mill figure was implemented without amendment, and what official record carried the decision into the city’s tax bills.