Gilmer School Board's Tentative Millage Means a 3.79% Property Tax Increase, and Hearings Come First

The Gilmer County Board of Education has tentatively adopted a millage rate that will raise property taxes by 3.79 percent, according to a Notice of Property Tax Increase the district posted July 31 on gilmerschools.com and on the Ellijay Elementary School site. The school levy is the largest single line on most Gilmer tax bills, so the number matters to every property owner in the county. Before the board can finalize it, state law requires public hearings, and the notice invites all concerned citizens to attend.

The timing is tight. The notice went up the same week Gilmer County Schools opens the 2026-2027 year, with 4,017 students returning Monday, Aug. 3 to Mountain View Elementary, Clear Creek Elementary, Clear Creek Middle, Ellijay Elementary, Gilmer High and the county Pre-K.

Why it counts as an increase

In Georgia, a "tax increase" does not have to mean the board moved the rate. Each year the state computes a rollback millage rate, the rate that would bring in roughly the same money from the same properties after reassessments. Adopt anything above that rollback figure and, under state law, you have levied a tax increase and you owe the public hearings that go with it.

That is the mechanism here. When appraised values across the county climb, holding a millage rate steady still produces bigger bills, and the notice is the legally required admission that the board is not giving that growth back.

For a homeowner whose appraisal did not budge this year, adopting a rate 3.79 percent above rollback means paying about 3.79 percent more in school taxes than the rollback rate would have charged. If your appraisal went up, your bill goes up more than that.

The school rate versus the county rate

Two different elected bodies set the two big pieces of a Gilmer tax bill, and residents routinely confuse them. The school board's rate has recently been discussed at 19.6 mills. The Gilmer County Board of Commissioners set its maintenance and operations rate at 5.829 mills for the 2025 digest year and held three hearings at the courthouse at 1 Broad Street.

Levy	Rate
Gilmer County Schools (recently discussed)	19.6 mills
County M&O (2025 digest year)	5.829 mills

A mill is one dollar per $1,000 of assessed value, and Georgia assesses property at 40 percent of fair market value. On a home appraised at $300,000, that is $120,000 in assessed value before any exemptions. Run 19.6 mills against it and the school share alone is roughly $2,350. Homestead and senior exemptions change that figure for many households, which is why two neighbors with identical houses can open very different envelopes.

How to speak up

Georgia's truth-in-taxation law requires at least three public hearings when a levying or recommending authority goes above rollback, and at least one of them has to start between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. so working people can get there. The dates, times and location for the school board's hearings are in the notice itself, posted on the district's website. Anyone who wants to be heard should check it now rather than after the fact. Once the board takes its final vote, the rate goes to the tax commissioner and onto the bills.

Nothing is locked in until that vote. Boards can and sometimes do trim a tentative rate after hearings, particularly when the room fills up.

What comes next

The county's own millage decision for this digest year is still ahead, with commissioners meeting in August at the Gilmer County Community Center on Industrial Boulevard. And in November, county voters face a referendum on trading property tax for a penny of sales tax, a question that would reshape how much of the local burden falls on homeowners versus everyone who shops here, including the tourists who fill the apple houses every fall. The school millage is not part of that swap.

Open house at Ellijay Elementary ran Thursday afternoon. Buses roll Monday morning.

For more coverage of Gilmer County's budgets, boards and ballots, visit Ellijay Georgia Community Website and read more government and politics stories or catch up on local education news. Have a take on the school millage, or a question about your own bill? Join the conversation in our Community Forum.

Header photo: Thomson200 / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)