County approves slight rollback for 2019 millage rate

The Polk County Commission has finally decided on the 2019 county wide tax levy, and citizens are looking at a rate of 13.951 mills with a rollback of 2.760 mills for a net rate of 11.191 mills. The rate is officially a rollback from last year’s 11.475 mills.

A tax rate of one mill represents a property tax liability of one dollar per $1,000 of assessed value. Under the new value, a house worth $1,000 would incur roughly $11 in property taxes from the county; a house worth $100,000 would incur roughly $1,100 in property taxes from the county.

However, while the rate is lower, the county isn’t expecting to lose money. Thanks to the growth of the county tax digest — the amount of people subject to paying property taxes – Polk is set to bring in about the same amount of property taxes as last year.

“Because the digest increased by some $60,000,000, the 11.191 is actually approximately $250,000 more revenue than we generated from last year’s digest,” County Manager Matt Denton explained. “But it’s also $250,000 less than what we would have generated at 11.475, also.”

While the county’s rate wasn’t much higher than the municipalities, the rollback does bring them even closer. The City of Cedartown recently voted to keep their rate at 11.2 mills, and while the City of Aragon is considering increasing theirs for 2019, they currently sit at 11.1 mills.

The school district remains the entity with the highest tax levy, and the commissioners also approved their new 2019 rate of 15.664 mills during the special-called August 29 meeting. It should be noted that, while the county must approve the rate, the school board itself decides which rate they will send for approval.

The meeting saw discussion of taxes outside of the millage rate, and the commissioners agreed to allocate the $1,680,510.05 they brought in from their insurance premium tax to the operation of the Polk County Police Department. The funds are likely to be used for basic costs of running, and the allocation is one of many steps the county has taken to better equip their police in recent days.

Those interested in hearing more updates about county news can visit the commissioner’s next work session on September 9 beginning at 5:15 p.m. and their regular meeting on Sept. 10 beginning at 7 p.m.