08/27/2026
Did you just get a lovely letter in the mail? Same! I will keep this simple.
When it comes to property taxes, the most important thing to remember is the difference between valuation and taxation.
The Dougherty County Board of Tax Assessors evaluates your property. It is your local jurisdiction that controls your actual tax bill.
The Georgia legislature has enacted bills to protect property owners from absorbing financial shocks due to surging property values.
To prevent local governments from receiving unearned revenue simply because the market surged, the state requires the county to calculate a rollback millage rate.
The rollback rate is a mathematical formula designed to offset inflation. It guarantees that the county collects the exact same amount of money on existing properties as it did the previous year.
Our local government must look at this rollback rate and make a decision: Adopt the rollback rate to keep revenue flat, keep the millage rate exactly the same as last year, or raise the rate even higher.
Under Georgia law, adopting any rate higher than the rollback rate is legally defined as a property tax increase. Even if the millage rate is exactly the same as the previous year it is still a tax increase because those inflated property values will generate more total revenue than the year before.
Contact the assessors office for appeals and exercise your right to question.
