Ball Ground Council Passes Revenue Neutral Property Tax Rate

Ball Ground leaders have set the city’s millage rate for this year at 3.726 mills, avoiding an increase in city property taxes for its residents.

The Ball Ground City Council unanimously voted July 11 to approve the “rollback” millage rate for fiscal year 2025, or the one that will result in the same amount of property tax revenue as the previous year.

Ball Ground’s rate last year was 3.932 mills.

The city had advertised a rollback rate for this year at 3.732 mills, however, the city’s rollback rate was adjusted after receiving final digest numbers.

“Last week we got our final digest numbers from the assessors office once they completed all of the appeals,” Ball Ground City Manager Eric Wilmarth said July 11. “Rerunning those numbers, the new millage rate for no tax increase is a rollback to 3.726 — that’s the only rate we are allowed to adopt and remain revenue neutral.”

Wilmarth added that “you will see your tax bills go up, but they are not from city of Ball Ground taxes.”

“We are finding our property values are increasing here, so even though we are rolling the millage rate back, most property taxes will actually go up but not because of our rates,” Ball Ground Mayor Rick Roberts said.

The city is expected to receive $1 million in property taxes in the next fiscal year, Wilmarth said.

Ball Ground’s millage rate includes the city’s contract for fire services with Cherokee County.

The Ball Ground City Council voted July 11 to accept the county’s fire tax digest.

On July 16, Cherokee County commissioners set the county’s maintenance and operations millage rate at 5.153 mills, its fire district property tax rate at 2.888 mills and its parks bond rate at 0.27 mills.