DeKalb Announces Proposed Property Tax Increase

Benchmark millage rates remain flat

The DeKalb County Governing Authority approved a tentative 2025 millage rate of 12.427 mills and will hold three public hearings to allow the public an opportunity to express their opinions on the proposed millage rate.

The public hearings will be held at 178 Sams Street, Decatur, Georgia 30030 (Multipurpose Room A1201) at the following dates and times:

• Tuesday, June 24 at 10 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.
• Tuesday, July 8 at 10 a.m.

When the current total digest of taxable property is prepared, Official Code of Georgia Annotated § 48-5-32.1 requires a rollback millage rate must be computed that will produce the same total revenue on the current year’s digest that last year’s millage rate would have produced had no reassessments occurred.

For 2025, DeKalb County’s rollback millage rate is calculated at 9.737 mills. The tentative millage rate of 12.427 mills is 2.690 mills above the rollback millage rate, an increase of 27.63 percent. Therefore, state law requires the Governing Authority to announce a property tax increase. Required notices for the millage rate adoption will be published in the Champion Newspaper, the County’s legal organ, on Thursday, June 12. Final approval of the 2025 millage rate is scheduled following the public hearing on July 8.

DeKalb County has a total of six basic tax levies. The required calculation of the rollback rate only includes taxes levied countywide for the General and Hospital Funds and does not reflect the other four levies. The combined millage rate of all six tax levies has remained flat at 20.81 mills since 2015. The Governing Authority intends to keep the combined 2025 millage rate for all six levies stable at 20.81 mills.

Taxpayers in DeKalb with homestead exemptions on their property also qualify for property tax relief from the Equalized Homestead Option Sales Tax (EHOST), which has provided a 100 percent credit on the General and Hospital Funds since 2021. For 2025, taxpayers with homestead exemptions will continue to receive 100 percent EHOST tax relief on the General and Hospital Funds tax levies.

Additionally, qualified homestead property owners are eligible for a base assessment exemption that offsets any increase in county property taxes due to increases in the property’s assessed value.