Bulloch County Commissioners held the first of three hearings Tuesday morning on the proposed millage rate for the 2026 tax digest.
Commissioners Toby Conner and Timmy Rushing were not present.
Commissioner Ray Davis led the invocation by asking for wisdom in addressing the matters before them and asked God to bless the citizens of Bulloch County with patience to “understand the task before us.”
“Grant us as commissioners the ability to balance the vital needs of our county with deep respect to the hard earned dollars of our taxpayers and citizens,” he prayed.
Brief Presentation on Proposed Millage Rate
Chairman David Bennett presented a brief powerpoint ahead of public comment, sharing that the county is required by law to hold three hearings before adopting the millage rate due to the state’s classification of a partial rollback as a ‘tax increase.’
The rollback rate is the millage rate that would need to be assessed for the county to collect the same amount of money collected in the year prior.
- The current millage rate is 11.350.
- The rollback millage rate would be 9.485 mills.
The county is planning to set a millage rate of 10.26 mills, a decrease of a little more than one mill but not a full rollback.
- Inflationary costs of goods and services, particularly fuel
- County was over budget by ~ $3 million last year, which was paid out of reserves. The FY 2027 budget includes a payback of the $3 million to reserves to ensure the county has ample funds in the amount of a storm or some kind of emergency.
Additionally, commissioners already adopted a a budget for FY 2027, which began July 1, which requires a millage rate above the rollback rate.
As a result, the millage rate as proposed is a tax increase because, despite the county’s lower millage rate, the county will collect more money due to higher property values, improvements on homes, and growth within the county.
According to the county, the proposed tax increase for a home with a fair market value of $325,000 will result in an increase of approximately $100.13, and the proposed tax increase for a non-homestead property with a fair market value of $300,000 will result in an increase of approximately $93.00.
The powerpoint presentation was not available in the agenda packet and could not be seen on the screen from the county stream, however, Chairman Bennett stated that powerpoint slides showed FLOST collections totaled $5.8 million last year. As a result, property owners, he said, can expect to see $163, on average, off of their tax bills for this year.
The average homestead value increased approximately $8,200 in Bulloch County, according to Bennett. The savings expected on the tax bill, due to FLOST, is roughly $122.
The average non-homestead value increased $5,400 with an expected $187 savings on property taxes.
CUVA properties increased in value, on average, about $35,000 and the average savings, due to FLOST, is around $212.
Bennett told fellow commissioners and the public in attendance that the partial rollback plus the offset from FLOST will result in about 1.5 mill reduction.
Bennett also said some people will see an increase in property taxes, particularly those who made improvements to their property.
- 92% of homestead properties will see a property tax decrease
- 234 properties will see no change
- 530 properties will see an increase, largely due to improvements made to their property
Non-Homestead
- 63% will see decrease in property taxes
- 35% will see increase due to improvements
- 852, or 3%, with no change
CUVA properties
- 93% will see decrease
- 6% will see an increase in property taxes
Without FLOST, Bennett said, the millage rate would increase roughly 8.17%.
In an example provided with a $150,000, the millage rate for the county* portion of taxes would remain at 11.826 mills. The property tax would be $709.56, up $93.95 from the $615.60 that would be due at a millage rate of 10.26 due to the offset of FLOST. The chart shows that $22,550.40 would have to be spent in Bulloch County to account for the $93.96 in sales tax savings from FLOST.
Homestead properties, however, will be capped at 2.7% increase
Public Hearing
Only one citizen signed up to address commissioners during Tuesday’s meeting.
Linda Christy asked about the county’s budget and how it relates to property tax collections. She asked why the collections are going down when there has been both growth and a spending increase.
County CFO Kristie King said that’s where the FLOST comes into play. The $5.8 million in FLOST collected from sales tax offsets what would have been collected in property taxes. The county is not rolling back the millage rate on the full $5.8 million, however.
At 11:22 a.m., the public hearing was closed to public comments.
Commissioner Comments
Commissioner Nick Newkirk asked what the millage rate would have been if they did the full rollback and had cut spending off. King answered that the full rollback rate would be 9.485 mills.
Newkirk also asked that the powerpoint slides be provided to commissioners ahead of the meeting and posted on the website for the public. Bennett said the slides were being worked on until Tuesday morning, but they would be distributed Tuesday afternoon.
Commissioner Ray Davis added that state legislators ‘deal the cards’ and the county has no control over the rules they have to abide by.
The meeting adjourned at 11:25 a.m.
A second hearing is scheduled for August 11 at 6:00 p.m. and a third hearing ahead of the regular meeting on August 18, 2026 at 8:30 a.m.
