By Rebecca Gaunt

The City of Kennesaw announced its intention to increase taxes earlier this week in a press release.

Property taxes will go up by 12.68% for M&O and up 13.81% for bond over the rollback millage rate.

The proposed city budget for fiscal year 2024 includes a millage rate decrease to 7.75 mills, a change from the 8 mill rate that has been in place since 2008. However, the quarter mill change isn’t enough to account for the increase in property values.

State law requires the city compute a rollback millage rate that would produce the same total revenue on the current tax digest as the previous millage rate would have had no reassessments taken place.

From the city’s press release:

Each year, the board of tax assessors is required to review the assessed value for property tax  purposes of taxable property in the county. When the trend of prices on properties that have recently sold in the county indicate there has been an increase in the fair market value of any specific property, the board of tax assessors is required by law to re-determine the value of such  property and adjust the assessment. This is called a reassessment. 

The proposed $29.4 million city budget requires a higher millage rate than the rollback rate, according to city officials. 

At the July 10 council meeting, city manager Jeff Drobney thanked staff for the hard work that allowed “us to get to this point to recommend a millage rollback and get us to a point where we’re solid and we’re looking forward to what comes next.”

Mayor Derek Easterling canceled the budget work session originally scheduled for July 24 as no council members had expressed concerns or questions in the time since the budget’s introduction.

Citizens can attend three public hearings on the tax increase in Council Chambers at City Hall at 2529 J.O. Stephenson Ave: July 31 at 6 p.m., Aug. 7 10:30 a.m., and Aug. 7 6:30 p.m.