Haralson County 2026 property assessments are already out. What if you had help paying these taxes? The Georgia State Legislature has made a way for that to happen.
Our state legislature has designed a plan allowing the use of certain sales taxes to provide a discount to your property tax bills both at city and county levels. It is called FLOST. This Floating Local Option Sales Tax would be a new one-cent sales tax. This sales tax, by law, can ONLY be used for reduction of property taxes. Here is how it would work.
Using 2025 numbers, the City of Tallapoosa’s millage rate was 5.196. This FLOST 1% sales tax would have resulted in the reduction of the millage rate to 3.518. To show the impact of that, let’s suppose that the assessment of your property was $200,000.00, so your city property tax bill for 2025 was $415.68. With the advantage of the FLOST revenues, you would have instead paid $134.24. That is a decrease of $281.44. The county would also receive comparable sales tax revenues to use to discount your county property tax payment.
While no one can guarantee the exact amount of FLOST revenue that will be received each year, this proposal represents one of the most significant opportunities that we have had in years to provide a meaningful property tax relief to Tallapoosa residents without reducing essential city services.
There will be a question on your November ballot asking if you would vote to approve a FLOST sales tax. We have a couple of months to answer questions, ask questions and understand how this applies in various circumstances. Our goal is to help all voters understand the question, understand the value to property owners, and push for a huge voter turnout.
This is a good time to remind you to be sure that you have applied for your homestead exemption if your property has been owned and occupied as your family’s primary residence and homestead as of January 1, 2026. The passage of House Bill 581 makes this exemption much more valuable than it has been in years past. You must go to the assessor’s office in Buchanan to apply.