On Friday, Fulton County got permission to send tax bills to its property owners. By Monday, they were ready to go.
The bills will be due Sept. 30 for Atlanta property owners, and Oct. 15 in the rest of Fulton County. Property owners in Johns Creek, where the tax rate has yet to be set, will receive an addendum to their county tax bills once the local government has set the rate. The city portion of the bill will be due 45 days after those bills are sent.
The bills are online now, and will arrive in the mail in the coming days.
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Arthur Ferdinand, the Fulton County tax commissioner, cited reports that the Atlanta Public Schools were borrowing money to explain why the bills were going out before all the cities were ready.
“We can’t afford to hold up all the taxpayers of Fulton County,” he said.
Ferdinand paid his own $1,144.77 tax bill Monday. He said he expects to collect $2.5 billion in taxes across the county, slightly higher than last year.
The due dates for property taxes are earlier than they have been for the past three years, and in line with where they should be. The county — which still needs to have its tax digests approved for previous years — received a temporary collection order Friday from a judge, allowing the collection of taxes before this year's tax digest is approved.
