Grady County Tax Commissioner’s Office

10/26/2026

Update on 2026 property tax bills. We are waiting on Grady County Board of Commissioners, City of Cairo and Whigham city councils to set their millage rates and advertise. Grady County School System has set their tentative millage rate and will adopt it this Thursday. I have asked taxing entities to expedite this process to insure Grady County gets the Homeowners Tax Relief Grant the Governor approved. Tax Commissioners statewide were told if the Grant money runs out prior to tax digest being approved there would be no additional Grant money provided. The City of Cairo is supposed to adopt their millage rate at their next meeting and Whigham will at their November 10, 2026 meeting. If they all move quickly and go with the rollback rate bills could be mailed in late November. Worst-case scenario they are mailed in December. It's a waiting game for my office at this time.

10/15/2026

FLOST (one cent sales tax) is on our voting ballot this year. I've been asked about it and how it works. It is a one cents sales tax that if approved will last for 5 years. The purpose of it is to reduce our property tax bills. If approved in November it will start on January 1,2027. The first 5 months of 2027 collections will be used to lower our 2027 tax bills. How it works is what ever that amount of collection is, each taxing entities (except the School) will be given a percentage of those funds to basically apply towards their budgets which will allow them to lower their millage rates to cover the balance of their budgets. After 2027 bills the next 4 years will have 12 months of sales tax collections given to those taxing entities which should create even bigger savings on our tax bills. Even if you are a renter approving this sales tax can benefit you because it gives your landlord a break on the property tax that they pay on rental properties. If you know property owners in Decatur or Thomas County I encourage you to ask them how this sales tax reduced there 2026 tax bills. Another property tax reduction that most homestead property owners will receive on 2026 tax bill is the HTRG (Homeowner tax relief grant) that the Governor approved for 2026 tax bills. Qualified homestead property owners will receive approximately a $500 rebate/credit on their 2026 homesteaded property tax bill. Every county in Georgia will get this rebate/credit this year only. The Governor did the same thing in 2023.
I have given the taxing entities their 5-year history and rollback millage rates so they can set their millage rates and do their required advertisements in the paper. If no unforseen problems occur our tax bills should be in the mail sometime in November and be due in January 2027. Please call or come by my office if you have questions. My office door is always open to anyone.
Don't forget to renew your tags.

08/31/2026

08/28/2026

House Bill 581 (homestead property tax relief bill) signed into law last year limits the amount of increase in the 40% taxable assessment value to 3% or the CPI-U inflation index rate, whichever is less. The inflation index for 2026 taxable value is 2.71%. If millage rates, which are set by the County Commissioners, School Board, Cairo City Council and Whigham City Council are set at the rollback rate or less what we pay for 2026 should be 2.71% higher than 2025 taxes. Yes, millage rates are the unknown variable at this time. We the taxpayers should encourage these taxing authorities to strive to use the rollback rate or less. Values set by the Tax Assessors office and millage rates set by the taxing authorities determines how much our property tax bills will be. My office door is always open to anyone who has questions and if you call I'll answer your call or return your call.
Don't forget to renew your tags if you have a birthday this month.

08/26/2026

Good morning everyone, we are getting our 2026 assessment notices from the Tax Assessor in the mail now. I've been asked questions about why values keep going up. I'll try to explain a part of the equation most everyone doesn't know about or know much about. That is the Georgia DOR Department of Audits sales ratio audits for every county in Georgia. The sales ratio looks at sales from each class of property and arrays them in a list from lowest ratio to highest and picks the one in the middle to get the median ratio. It is more accurate than the average. The average is affected by the extreme highs and extreme lows. The median just picks the one in the middle with no regard to the amount of the extremes. The State Department of Audits says each county must maintain a sales ratio of 36% to 44% or the county will be fined $5.00 for every parcel in the county. In 2023 Grady County's sales ratio was 27.7%, today it's approximately 38.11%. How does sales ratios affect our property values? Anyone who buys property in Grady County and pays way more than it was valued at is contributing to our increased property values. Audit Department sees the sales prices for each class of property that was sold or built in 2025 and uses the median figure and basically says that is what the fair market value is for the different classes of property for 2026. I know the Tax Assessors office and my office are the people you see and talk to, but I can assure you the Tax Assessor and Board of Tax Assessors are only following law and don't solely set property values. The law says stay in the sales ratio of 36% to 44% or face fines. With House Bill 581, if you have homesteaded property exemption although our fair market value increased the most our tax amount can increase is either 3% or the amount of the CPI-U inflation index which ever is less. The CPI-U index for this years bill is 2.7%. In theory if millage rates stay the same for 2026 we will pay slightly more than last year for homesteaded property. If millage rates are lowered the slight increase would be less. As always I have an open door to everyone and will be glad to assist you anyway that I can.

08/24/2026

Exciting News! The Mule Show is back! Please share, share, share!

08/24/2026

What a beauty!! Love how it looks at night!!

08/24/2026

Good morning!! The Tax Assessors office completed the 2026 property tax assessment notices last week. 2026 assessment notices are in the mail. Anyone wishing to file an appeal must do so with the Tax Assessors office. The 45 day deadline to file an appeal is October 5, 2026. If you have an upcoming birthday don't forget to renew your vehicle tags.

08/17/2026

The roles of the Tax Commissioner and Tax Assessor. As Tax Commissioner our taxpayers come to me regularly want to talk, vent and sometimes argue about the values placed on their properties. As your Tax Commissioner I am responsible for taking the property values assessed by the Tax Assessor and Board of Tax Assessors and combining them with the millage rates set by the County, School board, city of Cairo and city of Whigham and creating your bill, collecting the money and then disperse the collections back to the County, School, Cairo and Whigham. I have absolutely no say so in how much is placed on property. Any exemption that you may qualify for has to be applied for in the Tax Assessors office and approved by them and the Board of Assessors. As I've always said my office door is always open to anyone and I will always do what I can to assist you.

07/28/2026

It appears the phones are not working in all County offices. We apologize for the inconvenience. Hopefully service will be restored soon.