Gilmer Moves Trash Costs to Your Tax Bill, Ends Exact Change at the Convenience Centers

Gilmer County commissioners voted unanimously in a special called meeting on Wednesday, July 29, to raise the general Maintenance and Operation millage rate from 5.829 to 6.079 mills, and the change comes bundled with something almost every household here has grumbled about: the cash-only, exact-change rule at the convenience centers is going away. Trash costs move onto the property tax bill instead.

The board left the General Obligation Bond rate at 0.5 mills. Combined, that puts the county portion at 6.579 mills, or roughly $6.58 for every $1,000 of assessed value. School taxes and city taxes are separate and are not part of this vote.

What changes at the gate

The county currently pulls in just under $600,000 a year from garbage disposal payments. That entire amount shifts onto the tax digest. Commission Chairman Charlie Paris said residents have made clear they dislike the current setup, which takes no checks and no cards and requires exact change at the window.

For a homeowner with a $500,000 house, the new M&O rate works out to about $50 more per year, minus whatever that household now hands over at the convenience center. Paris said the tax-funded version will run slightly more than paying your own way, on purpose, so the system has cushion for costs nobody has budgeted for yet.

There is a catch. Under the new arrangement, people dropping off trash will have to show they are Gilmer County residents or short-term renters. Paris said he does not want out-of-state travelers unloading a bag of garbage on their way home. The county has not spelled out what form that proof will take or when the requirement starts.

Gilmer runs seven convenience centers plus the scale house at the Tower Road landfill. Tower Road is the only site open on Sunday, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tails Creek, Whitepath and Whitestone are open only Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. Until the switch takes effect, the county's solid waste page still says the same thing it has for years: exact change only.

Three hearings in August

The county posted its official Notice of Property Tax Increase on Aug. 3. The tentative 6.079-mill rate sits 0.440 mills above the computed 2026 rollback rate of 5.639 mills, which Georgia law counts as a 7.80% property tax increase and triggers three public hearings.

All three are at the Gilmer County Community Center, 824 Industrial Blvd., Ellijay.

Date	Time
Thu., Aug. 13	5:00 p.m.
Wed., Aug. 19	6:00 p.m.
Mon., Aug. 31	9:00 a.m.

The notice puts the increase over rollback at approximately $73.92 for a homestead property with a fair market value of $425,000, and approximately $35.20 for a non-homestead property valued at $200,000.

Insurance is driving part of it

Paris tied a chunk of the increase to insurance. The county expects those costs to climb somewhere between $800,000 and $1.2 million next year, and negotiations with carriers are still underway. Gilmer has already squeezed what it can out of that line item, he said, and there is a floor if the county wants to stay competitive with its neighbors on employee coverage.

On the debt side, Paris said he believes the county can retire its $11 million in general obligation bonds within four years.

Where Gilmer sits

Last year Gilmer had the ninth-lowest millage rate among Georgia's 159 counties. The statewide county average, according to the Georgia Department of Revenue, is about 30 mills. Surrounding counties also rank near the bottom of the state.

Paris traced part of the current squeeze to the county's financial trouble roughly 15 years ago, when Gilmer sold off equipment it has since had to buy back. Rebuilding, he said, costs more than maintaining. Because every Georgia county is setting its rate right now, there is no way yet to say where 6.079 mills leaves Gilmer in the 2026 rankings.

The rate is tentative until the board adopts it, which follows the last hearing on Aug. 31. Anyone who wants the trash question on the record has three chances to say so before then. The full notice is posted on the county's Finance & Accounting page.

Stay with Ellijay Georgia Community Website for what happens at the August hearings, and tell us how the change hits your household in our Community Forum. For more on county budgets and board decisions, read our government and politics stories.

Header photo: Thomsonmg2000 / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)